Dresden

On Friday April 3rd we all left for our big Spring break trip.  It started out in Dresden which is about 6 hours away from Kaiserslautern on the East side of Germany.  We started out early I thought, but ended up in so many staus that it took A LOT longer!  We didn't make it there till 6 pm at night and then we had trouble getting into the apartment.  It was on the fifth floor so we had a lot of stairs to haul up all of our stuff.  But we made it and I started dinner so we could eat before 8 pm.

While I was cooking dinner, Grandma played a new game with the boys.  They LOVED it!!!

Dinner is served!!  We did easy dinner, tacos!

This was our view out of the apartment window!  This might have been worth all of the stairs, maybe (David might not think so).  After that we played a few more games it was bed time!

The next day we decided instead of driving that we would walk down.  There is a beautiful river walk along the Elbe River.  It was just over two miles into town.  At the start of the walk the boys were running, by the end of the day they dragging.  LOL

Of course, what did they find on our walk but sticks.  Boys have to have their sticks!!!

Down by the river in some cool trees!!! It was actually surrounded by them.

Mom and David on the upper path!!  It was such  a beautiful day!!!

This was an old railroad track that they used to use loading boats on the river.

This was the view we had heading into the city - all but the crane was wonderful!!!

Posing with an iron statue down by the water, still not exactly sue why it was there.

Mom with her awesome running pose!!!!

So Mom said to turn around so she could take a picture, so David and I turned all the way around.

Here we are laughing about our joke - it is the little things!! :-)

There was a park along the path, so of course we had to stop and play!!!!  The boys called it the small pirate ship park.

David and I at the park.

Michael making an obstacle course out of the park!

And of course the big boy had to have a stick as well!!!

You can see on this steam boat that the stack was just coming back up.  Because the bridges are low all of the smoke stacks on the boats fold down so they can fit under them.  

We finally made it down town after our long walk!!!  It was a beautiful day for the walk and we didn't mind at all.  Dresden was founded on the site of a Slavic fishing village as a merchants' settlement and sovereign princes' castle.  Dresden was the residence of the Saxon princes, electors and then kings starting in the 15th century.  It was one of the cities that was completely destroyed during WWII and took many years to rebuild.

We decided to get on the hop on hop off bus and see what there was to see in Dresden.

This is a statue of King John.  I think it is funny because the books say he is an unimportant mid-19th century ruler.

This is one of the largest tobacco factories in Germany.  I thought it was pretty ornate to be a tobacco factory.  It is Oriental and a huge exporter of tobacco products

The opera house was first built in 1841 by Gottfried Semper.  The nickname is Semperoper after the architect.  During WWII it was all but destroyed.  It took them almost 40 years to rebuild it.  It is the most famous opera house in Germany; it houses the Saxon State Orchestra, one of the world's oldest and best-known orchestras.

This was the statue on top of the Opera house.  The statue is a Panther quadriga (a chariot usually drawn by horses) with a statue of Dionysos (the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine theater).

This is the top of the new town hall.  The copper dome is topped by a statue known as the 'Golden Man'.  It is a five meter high statue of Hercules created by Richard Guhr.  They say his right hand is over the city and the left is holding a horn pouring out rain over the city.  The locals call it the Drizzle Man.

As we continued on the hop on hop off bus, the driver went right by the stop we wanted so we saw continued to sight see.  There were three castles along the way.  This castle is now used as a hotel.

I liked this house, it is actually a private residence.  It was built as a private residence - nothing else.

AJ is such a good big brother!  Michael was tired from all of the walking and playing in the morning and laid down on AJ's lap.

Since the bus finally decided to stop, we got off to look for something to eat.  We crossed the bridge and this was the view.  You can see how beautiful it is!!!!

This was one of several trees on the way across the bridge - we thought they were very interesting.  I am not sure what they are.

The boys and I on the Blue Wonder - a cantilevered truss bridge that connects the Dresden Suburbs of Loschwiz and Blasewitz.  When the bridge was completed in 1893, those two towns were the most expensive pieces of real estate in Europe.  The bridge is indeed a wonder in that it survived WWII completely untouched.

The boys and I having lunch, Michael with his McDonald's and AJ with his Subway.

After lunch we headed back up to the bus stop - the family!

This is the Artisan well and has been in Dresden since 1836 giving water to the people.  The natural pressure keeps water coming up into the pond.

I love the look on Michael's face!!!!

The four of us in front of the Zwinger.  This palace complex is a Baroque master piece- once the pride and joy of the Wettin dynasty.  The Wettins ruled Saxony for more than 800 years right up until the end of the first World War.  "Zwinger" means the no-man's -land running along the city wall.

Grandma and her boys in front of Zwinger!!  This is the Crown Gate.  The gate's golden crown is topped by four golden eagles supporting a smaller crown - symbolizing Polish royalty (since Augustus was also king of Poland.)

So we had a spontaneous family hug in the middle of Zwinger!  I love my family!!

Grandma and the boys in the middle of Zwinger - they are so cute!!!

This is a statue of Friedrich Augustus I and he made Dresden one of Europe's most important cities of culture.  Legends paint Augustus as a macho, womanizing, powerful, ambitious, properly Baroque man.  A hundred years after his death historians dubbed Augustus "the Strong." Today people like to impart silly legends about Augustus who supposedly fathered 365 children and could break a horseshoe in half with his bare hands.

This is called Parade of Nobles.  This mural is painted on 24,000 tiles of Meissen porcelain.  Longer than a football field it illustrates 700 years of Saxon royalty.  It was built to commemorate Saxon history and heritage after Saxony became a part of Germany in 1871.  The porcelain tiles, originals from 1900 survived the bombing.  When created they were fired three times at 2,400 degrees Farenheit.

This guy was one of the street actors - the boys and I thought it was pretty funny.

What is our vacationing without a little ice cream?!?!

The family outside the ice cream shop.  It was so yummy we visited it twice!!

This is a statue of Martin Luther.  He holds not just any Bible, but the Word of God he translated into German so that regular people could get their minds around it without Church control - basically what the Reformation was all about.  Toppled in 1945 he was cleaned up and put back on his feet.

These were two statues we saw on the way home - one symbolizes still water ad one high water.

We finally decided to head home and on the walk home we found one of David's cars!!  Michael said we had to take a picture of him and the car!

When we arrived home the boys were very tired after walking all that way.  I told them they could play on their tables.  We had a great crock pot dinner and some time togethr and a bit of rest!  It was a great first day of Spring Break!!!