Doing the rounds of Dresden

Well it was a good night's sleep even though we were right in the heart of the city. After breakfast we joined the 1 1/2 hr hop on/off tour, but didn't hop on or off, but this gave us a great overview of Dresden. Rosslyn had only seen it in the January when it was covered with snow. The city is on the banks ofr the Elbe, (same as Hamburg) and the water was rising following the continued rain in Poland and the Czech area over the last week or so. The weather had warmed and so we were in our short sleeves, but, having had the thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, we had our coats just in case. We passed various points of interest - the home of the guy who made his fortune by inventing rat poison!

Of course there were the castles and cathedrals and the imposing tile "tapestry" in Meissen tiles depicting the history of all the kings and rulers of Saxony. There was also the big VW Glass factory. This took us to lunch and so we just did some further wandering - the cafe where Rosslyn and Natalie had lunch when they were there was just at the back of the Hilton, we walked along the ramparts of the old wall along the riverside which took us around to the Fraenkirche shop which we had wanted to find to see the video of their restoration work. Graeme then took the elevator partly to the top and then climbed the rampo and stairs inside the cupola (see photo of the Church from yesterday's blog) right up to the very top. Of course the views of the river and the city were spectacular.. We then went for a walk across to the Zwinger Palace, a big area whose centre is a most relaxing garden of statues and fountains and precisely laid out geometric lawns. The catsle also containsthe museum collection of porcelain for which Dresden is famous. The evening then saw us dress up (just a little) and go across to the Frauenkirche for an organ recital of music of JS Bach. Evening lingers and so it was still light when we went for a romantic walk on the ramparts at 9-30pm