Dresden - Day 2

April 5th was Easter, this is our second Easter that we have been traveling.  But never fear the Easter Bunny still found us!!!

I think the Easter Bunny was extra good to us since we were traveling on Easter.

He even hid eggs for the boys to find!

The boys ready to see what the Easter bunny brought!  Are they so cute!!!

Michael couldn't believe all that the Easter bunny brought him!

Then they noticed the eggs and they were off to find all of them!

After all the eggs were found, they decided to check out all that the Easter Bunny brought them!

After all the excitement of the moment, we decided to head back into town for another day of sight seeing!

Grandma and her boys down by the river, another beautiful day!!!!

This is something that you don't see everyday, the Easter Bunny riding a bicycle.

The boys wanted to stop at the park again and of course we said yes!

They had a great time playing and getting more energy out!

My boys - I love them so much!!!

We walked on farther and found another park and the boys had to play just a little more!

Mom and I enjoying the sunshine and watching the boys play!

The bridge in the distant in the Augustus bridge.  It connects the old town and the new town.  Most of the old town was demolished in WWII.  Reconstruction was going on until 2001.

We wanted to go to the castle and there was only three buses that go, so we had a little bit of time and decided to stop for lunch.  It was a great little spot to eat!

This is the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady).  It is the heart and soul of Dresden.  When completed in 1743, this was Germany's biggest Protestant Church (310 feet high).  On February 13, 1945, the firebombs came and when the smoke cleared the next morning, the Frauenkirche was smoldering but still standing.  It burned for two days before finally collapsing.  After the war, the Frauenkirche was kept in rubble as a peace monument.  They did start rebuilding in 1992 and it opened again in 2005.  They used as much the original material as possible, avoid using concrete or re bar.  The church was fitted together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.  It cost more than 100 million euro, 90 percent of which came from donors around the world.

This shows the parade of nobles again and you can see how large it is and I liked the scenery!

The opera house from a little farther away.  They really did a great job rebuilding it and all of Dresden for that matter.

We hopped on the bus and headed out to the castle.  This was some of the country side that we saw heading out of town.  Such a quaint town.

After about a 45 minute bus ride we arrived at Pillnitz Castle.  It was the summer residence of many electors and kings of Saxony.  As early as the 14th century a modest residential fortress existed.  It was enlarged in the 16th and 17th century.

My mom in front of their big green house - I really liked the trees and how they shaped them!

The Baroque flower garden surrounds the castle.  It is  70 acres big.  To say the least we weren't able to see all of it.  We went into a huge building that holds a camellia tree that is more than 230 years old - one of the oldest in Europe.

Grandma and the boys with the camellia tree.  It is 29 feet tall and from February to April it produces up to 35,000 blooms.

This is a the glass house it is protected in the winter.  You can see the people at the bottom and how big it is.

They made many different pavilions, this one is the English pavilion.  It was built in 1780, it is a copy of one in Rome.  

Here you can see all the plants that are in the building waiting for a little warmer weather to be brought outside again.  With all the plants in there, I would not want to be the one that has to move them twice a year.

We headed into the Chinese pavilion next.  Grandma is giving Michael some information on the plants.

I love these flowers!!!  They are so beautiful!

They had some interesting statues throughout the greenhouse.

They even had some birds living in there.

The boys were having some fun jumping over the hedges.

These guys were a riot - they were chasing each other and having so much fun!!!  There was a third one that came to play as well!  Their ears are great!

This is a replica of the red royal gondola which Frederick Augustus I used for transport between his residence in Dresden, the royal palace, and his county seat in Pillnitz.

The original was built around 1800.  Deterioration of the gondola required restoration in 1954.

The four of us in the main square - a few flowers were starting to bloom, but I bet in the summer it was gorgeous!

The fountain goes up to 10 meters high and surrounded by the main buildings.

This is the oldest square in the city.  It was completely demolished during WWII.  

I loved these - they are great!!!  I am not sure what building it was, but cool.

The boys wanted to play tag, and they were after me!!!!  LOOK OUT!!!!

After a long day walk, we decided to head back to the ice cream shop again.  The boys were all smiles!!!

Mom and I decided to have something hot instead of ice cream and they were both yummy as well!

So when we walked out of the ice cream shop I heard some beautiful music!  I headed straight for it and this is what I found!!  It was beautiful music and I just stood there and enjoyed it for awhile!  Until the boys literally dragged me out of the square.

Statue of Martin Luther in front of Church of Our Lady.  The life of Martin Luther and the story of Dresden are closely intertwined because the great reformer spent most of his life in Saxony.  Luther was still an Augustinian monk when he made history by nailing his 95 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenberg.

The boys were done with the sight seeing and we decided to head back to the apartment.  We had a long day and lots of walking and I think we were all a little tired.  It was two great days in Dresden and we had a wonderful dinner.