Dresden was a huge discovery in our trip. The capital of German federal state of Saxony is beautiful and charming on its own way, and also pleasant to walk around. It was never our plan to make a visit to Dresden, as we thought intend to have a 2 weeks full Germany trip in future trips. However, after a series of horrid experience in Prague, we decided to ditch the capital of Czech Republic and head to elsewhere for a day trip, then naturally Dresden became a perfect choice as it is located about 2 hours north of Prague. Some tourists who travel between Prague and Berlin also make a stop in Dresden.
Transportation in Dresden
If you plan to walk around in Old Town (Altstadt) only, then you can pretty much complete your visit by foot. However public transportation such as buses or trams are highly recommended if you plan to venture slightly far away from Altstadt, such as Kunsthofpassage (places with street arts with a building that plays music when it rains). Otherwise you might need to walk till your shoes get weary to there, like what happened to us.
The bus or tram tickets can be purchased at the ticketing machine near to the stop. A single day ticket cost €6 and can be used for an adult and 2 children till 15 years old. Once the ticket is stamped, it is valid till 4am the next day.
Things to do in Dresden
1) Fürstenzug (Procession of Princes)
The 101-meter-long mural is a depiction of history of the Wettins, the Saxony's ruling family starting from 11th-century till 19th century. A total 93 noblemen are portrayed on the mural, namely princes, dukes, margraves and kings are shown on horseback while other soldiers accompany them by foot. You can see the name of each ruler inscribed below his image.
Well, I had limited knowledge on evolution of German's stories and unable to cue any of the Saxony's noblemen via the pictures on the mural. Nevertheless, the wall mural serves as an impressive venue for us to take some pictures.
2) Frauenkirche Dresden
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| the distinctive bell-shaped dome seen afar |
One of the iconic building in Dresden is Frauenkirche Church of Our Lady. Its distinctive bell-shaped sandstone dome, soaring high at 220 feet is an unique symbol that can be seen afar. Once a catholic church, it turned into a Protestant church during reformation. Then during World War II, the church was completely decimated and has been left as rubble for 50 years as a war memorial. Only in 1994 Dresden citizens formed a comity to rebuild and restore the church to its former glory.
The church is open most days from 10am - 12pm and 1pm to 6pm for visiting, and only limited to main church area. Interested visitors can ascend to the dome for a fee €8.
3) Zwinger Dresden
Zwinger Dresden is another iconic building of Dresden, second to Frauenkirche Church of Our Lady. It is one of the renowned Baroque buildings of Germany, and currently serves as a house to a few museums and venue to host stage musics and theater performances.
Currently, Zwinger Dresden houses below collections:
a) Old Masters Picture Gallery - around 750 paintings from 15th to 18th century
b) Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instrument - a museum of historic clocks and scientific instruments
c) Porcelain Collection - collection of up to 20,000 porcelain artifacts, especially collection of traditional Chinese (Ming & Qing Dynasties) and Japanese porcelain acquired by Augustus the
Inner courtyard, outdoor galleries and gardens of the Dresden Zwinger are open to visitors free of charge. Combined tickets can be purchased to enter all the permanent exhibition here.
Another major site in Zwinger Dresden is the Crown Gate that can be seen afar.
4) Festung Dresden
Festung Dresden is a well concealed museum under the Bruhl Terrace in Dresden old town (center building sandwiched between 2 buildings in above picture). The museum is a dark vault, featuring the city's old fortress with moats, cannon courts and bastions. Entire tour should take about an hour and cost €10.
If you have plan to visit multiple museums in Dresden, consider to book online for the schlösserlandKARTE card instead while it still available.
5) Brühl Terrace
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| Entrance to Bruhl's Terrace |
Known as The Balcony of Europe, Brühl Terrace was built in the 16th century as part of Dresden fortification. Stretching over 500m along the Elbe river, the terrace overlooks Augustus Bridge and the new town of Dresden.
Apart of just strolling at the promenade, Brühl Terrace also offers a few good spots to take photos as well. Overall, Brühl Terrace is an architectural and hoticulture ensemble.
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| Some spot toward the end of Brühl Terrace |
6) Dresden Schloßplatz (Castle Square) and Roman Catholic Diocese of Dresden-Meissen
Dresden's city square, along with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dresden-Meissen is one of the beautiful spot in the city old town. Upon reaching here, both of us were impressed with the magnificent look here. Unfortunately there were some construction works happening during our visit that affected the majestic looking here.
The view get even better at night when the tungsten light shone upon the Roman Catcholic Diocese of Dresden-Meissen.
7) Semperoper Dresden (State Opera)
Semperoper is actually the Opera House of Dresden city. Fantastic opera, ballet dances, concert will be held over here, and the opera also housed the Saxon State Orchestra, which happen to be one of the most traditional orchestra in the world for over 470 years. Book in advance though if you would like to secure a ticket.
Outside of the opera house is the statue of King John, King of Saxony and a member of the House of Wettin.
8) Golden Horse Statue
It is unlikely you will miss this Golden Horse Statue if you take Augustus Bridge to cross Elbe River and heading to the Dresden-Neustadt. The monument is depicting Augustus the Strong covered with golden leaves and dressed as a Roman Emperor.
Augustus The Strong was the architect for some of the city's famous baroque buildings, and he also brought Dresden to an important cultural center during his reign, thus earned Dresden the name "Florence at the Elbe". The statue was erected by his son Augustus III in honour of his father.
So practically you are looking at the inspired leader of Dresden.
9) Neustadt-Dresden
Once you have got yourself immersed sufficiently with the medieval buildings in Altstadt Dresden, you may consider exploring the new town side, or known as Neudstadt.
The new town is brimming with restaurants, clubs, bars, market halls and many more. Have fun explore here. Personally, we felt it is easier to maneuver around in Neudstadt compared to Altstadt due to lack of tourists relatively. On top of that, luxury and touristy restaurants have been replaced with small bars, ice cream shops or even pearl milk tea shop, which at one instance we were hesitating want to buy a cup of pearl milk tea or not. The curiosity that came to our mind is - how is the pearl milk tea tastes in Europe?
Eventually, we settled with an ice cream cone to cool the body. Apparently, summer heat has started to taken the street of Dresden. People walking around are wearing lighter clothes and without the jackets that we seen upon arrival in Budapest.
Time also allows us to explore Markthalle in the new town side. There is a grocery store, and some street food stalls for us to grab some goodies. We were tempted to try the Jacob Classic 3 in 1 coffee, and bought cup coffee to get our daily caffeine fix here.
10) Kunsthofpassage
We actually walked all the way to Kunsthofpassage, a courtyard full of street arts, cafe, vintage stores, and a building installed with pipes that will have music played when rain pass water through the pipes. It is a painful experience to walk that far, and we have to go back to where we come from to get up to Flix Bus on time.
The vibes in Kunsthofpassage is enjoyable which we cannot described in words. We feel like it is a place brimming with arts and at the same time also make a perfect spot for pictures taking. If you have time, consider to sit down in the bar here and grab a glass of beers. The experience will be unique.
Fortunately and unfortunately, it did not rain during our visit. Otherwise, we would have to walk in the rain for close to 3km to go back to the train station!
Food - Sophienkeller Restaurant
Since we have only a day in Dresden and lunch is probably our sole meal here, we choose one of the unique restaurant to try out - Sophienkeller. The restaurant is located opposite of Zwinger and Semperoper, and indeed it is unique in the sense the dining places are located underground, though you choose to dine at the outdoor settings. Different vaults are available in the restaurants, and one of the forte here is definitely the breads, as we can see the lady in Bremen clothing kneading the dough to prepare the very own bread house bread.
As usual in European restaurant settings, breads are served complimentary. But indeed the breads in Sophienkeller is unique. It tasted great, especially the one with some sesame seeds toppings.
So we had Sächsische Kartoffelsuppe (€5.20), which is Saxon Potato Soup with fine slices of sausage as something to warm the stomach. The cream soup is well balanced and soothing in taste.
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| Putenschnitzel in einer kase-krauter (€17.50) |
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| Sächsischer Sauerbraten (€17.50) |
The main dishes are impressive. Sächsischer Sauerbraten, which is Saxon Sauerbraten (traditional German roast of heavily marinated meat, one of the national dish of Germany) is served along with red cabbage and big size potato dumplings covered with bread crumbs. The sauce implicates an unique taste which is skewed slightly toward the acid side, but it goes along well with the 3 pieces of tender meat. Red cabbages are great, but we could not finish the big size potato dumpling.
Meanwhile, Putenschnitzel is cutlet of turnkey hen in a cheese herb crust, served with honey carrots and au gratin potatoes. The turkey meat is delicious, tender in texture and lightly coated with crust. Drizzle of lemon on top of it made it perfect. Carrots are great, and potatoes are one of the best we have ever tasted. The crispy skin of the potatoes are delicious, making a stark contrast to the soft and smooth potato flesh.
I think our affection toward beers here have grown immensely. This Radeberger Pilsner 0.5l (€4.70) offers such a sleek taste and how I wish we could get another pint!
We leveraged the opportunity when going to toilet and snapped some pictures of the impressive vaults in the restaurant. It could be a really nice experience dining in here!
Sophienkeller
+49 351 497260
Operation hours: 11am - 1am Daily
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Check out Shirleen & Ee Pin's Instagram for more beautiful photos we have taken.
Check out Shirleen & Ee Pin's Instagram for more beautiful photos we have taken.
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