Dresden on our Day of Unity
Last Sunday I hopped on a train down to Dresden, where I stayed with a fellow foreign language assistent until Tuesday afternoon. The long weekend was in honor of the German Day of Unity, celebrated on October 3 (even though this day was technically that of the bureaucratic unity and not the popular dismantling of the wall).
[incidentally, I did not leave until Sunday because weeks ago I had purchased a ticket to Bertholt Brecht's "Caucasian Chalk Circle" at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus -- a production which turned out to be a fascinating example of his unique theories and accompanying style... however, I do wish I had been better able to follow the subtleties in the often complex text]
Kerstin and I spent Sunday afternoon exploring the old part of the city, which is crowded with towering ornate recreations of the original museums, churches, and palace which were destroyed during the war. Nearly all of these massive buildings, clad in darkened stone, are topped by beautiful gilded statues which form a starck contrast to their gritty pedestals.
The so called, palace, was never actually occupied, but was an impressive three-story building that ran the perimeter of a large green space and series of fountains. The whole complex (of which I only have film photographs) was constructed for court functions, but was first used to celebrate "the electoral prince Frederick August’s marriage to the daughter of the Hapsburg emperor Archduchess Maria Josepha" (http://www.skd-dresden.de/en/gebaeude/zwinger_mit_semperbau/geschichte.html).
The next day we took a short train to the Sächsischer Schweiz, a national park with towering rock formations that rise out of the lush rolling landscape near the Czech border. From our train station we had to take a tiny ferry across a small river to Stadt Wehlen, from which we headed up into the hills through the forest. Our hike peaked at an impressive lookout, from which we could see the river we had crossed and the town from which we had started.
On the way down we took shelter (from the rain) and dinner from a small restaurant at the base of the cliffs, before heading back to our train via a path along the river. That night I got a chance to see some of the new part of the city; the more lively, student populated center of nightlife. And Tuesday afternoon we meandered back through the city, past a flea market on my way to the train station.
[incidentally, I did not leave until Sunday because weeks ago I had purchased a ticket to Bertholt Brecht's "Caucasian Chalk Circle" at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus -- a production which turned out to be a fascinating example of his unique theories and accompanying style... however, I do wish I had been better able to follow the subtleties in the often complex text]
Kerstin and I spent Sunday afternoon exploring the old part of the city, which is crowded with towering ornate recreations of the original museums, churches, and palace which were destroyed during the war. Nearly all of these massive buildings, clad in darkened stone, are topped by beautiful gilded statues which form a starck contrast to their gritty pedestals.
The so called, palace, was never actually occupied, but was an impressive three-story building that ran the perimeter of a large green space and series of fountains. The whole complex (of which I only have film photographs) was constructed for court functions, but was first used to celebrate "the electoral prince Frederick August’s marriage to the daughter of the Hapsburg emperor Archduchess Maria Josepha" (http://www.skd-dresden.de/en/gebaeude/zwinger_mit_semperbau/geschichte.html).
The next day we took a short train to the Sächsischer Schweiz, a national park with towering rock formations that rise out of the lush rolling landscape near the Czech border. From our train station we had to take a tiny ferry across a small river to Stadt Wehlen, from which we headed up into the hills through the forest. Our hike peaked at an impressive lookout, from which we could see the river we had crossed and the town from which we had started.
On the way down we took shelter (from the rain) and dinner from a small restaurant at the base of the cliffs, before heading back to our train via a path along the river. That night I got a chance to see some of the new part of the city; the more lively, student populated center of nightlife. And Tuesday afternoon we meandered back through the city, past a flea market on my way to the train station.
posted by Andrewfred at 2:19 AM
2 Comments:
Wow... sounds like you are getting a fabulous mix of theatre, architecture, culture, wilderness and beer... Wonderful!
Oh, and I love your poetic outburst with regard to the gilded statues and their "gritty pedestals"--wonderful!
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