The Zwinger

The Fürstenzug (English: Procession of Princes

 

I had an early train from Prague, I spotted the hotel as the train pulled in so that made it easy for me to find it, although a bit further from the train station than I thought. It was a decent hotel and my room was large.  I could see the spires in town it was a bit drizzly so I went out with my umbrellas but it stopped shortly, so decided to walk which was not a great idea as it was a lot further than it looked at least 45 minutes. I was kicking myself for not taking advantage of the tram/bus free pass that I got when I booked the hotel, then I did not realize it was such a long way off. 

I walked around the historic center of Dresden a lot of the buildings and statues were dark and it took awhile to dawn on me that this was a result of bombing back during WWII. I recently looked more into Dresden history (The bombing raid on Dresden destroyed almost all of the ancient center of the city in three waves of attacks) and 90% of Dresden city center was destroyed by bombing in 1945. I walked along the  Brühl's Terrace which known as the "Balcony of Europe", a name which was first thought up and used at the beginning of the 19th century and which since then has been used in all kinds of literature. One of the many interesting things I saw was The Fürstenzug  Procession of Princes it is known as the largest porcelain artwork in the world it was amazing to view.


I then headed towards the Zwinger Palace the main reason I decided to visit Dresden and I was not disappointed even on a dark gloomy day it looked awesome. The Palace was built between 1710 and 1728 the construction was stopped and only the outer area existed work was started again in 1847,  The Palace was almost totally destroyed in WWII but the Reconstruction, supported by the Soviet military administration and reconstruction was started and completed by 1963.

Rampart Pavilion

Crown Gate

  The name 'zwinger' means 'interspace' and originates from its location between former city fortifications.

Kronentor or Crown Gate

I walked around the gardens and admiring the beautiful statues I was trying to decide if I should visit the Old Masters Gallery and went inside but decided to wait till tomorrow.  I came out and the skies were finally beginning to clear and it was even more beautiful, I studied the statues and there were quite a lot to admire. 

By now I was hungry and I was trying to find someplace to eat and I was not in an area that offered much, luckily their Mall was open and I walked in being Good Friday I might add most places were closed. I found a Japanese/Sushi place and had chicken rice. I walked around a little bit longer although by now was pretty tired but the sun was out and had to be out in it. I finally got a tram back to my hotel and on the way I spotted some more places to have a meal.

Such a crazy face

Nymph with the seashell