Our last full day in Dresden fell on what used to be known as Columbus Day. It was destined to be a drizzly day, but I wanted to go into the Frauenkirche and walk around the Der Zwinger, a palatial complex that now serves as a museum. Given the weather we had on October 12th, I wish we had gone into the museum, but I think we had kind of reached the end of our desire to be tourists.
We had a nice breakfast at the Moritz restaurant, with mimosas and Eggs Benedict. I remembered loving the egg dish during our first visit. It was pretty damned good the second time, too.
Bill and I had seen both the church and the museum on our visit in 2008. I remember when we went into the Frauenkirche, we also took the paid trip to the observation deck, which offers views of the Elbe River. Below is a picture from 2008.
The Frauenkirche is always worth a look, as it offers an example of the incredible restoration work done after the church was bombed by Allied forces during World War II. The fire caused by the bombing obliterated most of the church’s original structure. The church was reconstructed between 1994 and 2005, and opened to the public in 2005. It really is incredible what was done to resurrect the church to its former glory.
It’s interesting that I would be writing about the Frauenkirche today, as another German historic building was destroyed by fire on Friday night. The Kehlsteinhaus– popularly known as the Eagles’ Nest, and located in Berchtesgaden– was engulfed in flames and ruined. The Eagles’ Nest was built in 1938 and was meant to be a retreat for Nazi officials. It’s said that Adolf Hitler spent little time there, because he suffered from a fear of heights and enclosed spaces. In recent years, it was used as a cafe, which I happened to visit in June 2009. Below is a photo from my 2009 visit.
The Eagles’ Nest will also be rebuilt, according to the news. I have every expectation that the work will be meticulously undertaken, and the cafe will be updated with state of the art equipment. Meanwhile, the person responsible for the fire has been arrested on charges of arson.
Anyway, we happened to visit the Frauenkirche just before a service. We considered staying for the service, but we were there 20 minutes too early, and didn’t feel like waiting. I managed to get some good pictures, though. The inside of this church is absolutely gorgeous!
Below are a couple of photos from 2008…
After we visited the church, and Bill lit a candle for his late father, we walked around to the Zwinger. When we visited in 2008, we had sunny skies. We had no such luck in 2026.
And here are a few photos from 2008… It blows my mind how few photos I took back then!
By the time we were finished walking through the Zwinger complex, it was raining. We decided it might be a good time to look for lunch. We ended up finding the Shamrock Irish Bar & Restaurant, which actually had pretty good food. It just needed some decent music. We passed a cool looking Italian market on the way there. If it hadn’t been raining, I would have definitely paid a visit.
After another leisurely lunch at the Shamrock Bar, we walked back toward the market square. On the way there, we passed the very East German looking Kulturpalast. I took a picture of it in 2008, when Tracy Chapman was due to perform… The locals decided to keep the mural, which dates from the 1960s, as a relic of Dresden’s East German history.
And then again in 2026… it hasn’t changed a bit on the outside, although it was renovated in 2017…
We stopped in a souvenir shop to pick up a few things, including a couple of signs for the house. While we were in there, we admired an East German Trabant car.
The two signs I purchased, I could have bought at any rest stop. But it always seems silly to buy souvenirs at a gas station. I bought a sign that reads “Biergarten”, which I put over the door to our backyard. The other sign reads “Fickt-Euch-Allee”… which I’m sure you can figure out. That one is in my office. 😈
After we bought a few things from the souvenir shop, we headed back to the guys who were selling prints of Dresden. I hadn’t really wanted prints as much as I wanted original art, but that was what was available to us. The vendor was curious about us, and wanted to know where we were from, and what we were doing in Dresden. He also wanted to see my signs, and laughed at the one that contained German profanity… We bought three of his prints, and they are currently being framed.
After we bought our prints, we went back to the hotel room for a short rest. Neither of us were very hungry after our big meal at the Shamrock. Nevertheless, we ventured out one more time, just as a political protest and counter protest got started. It started with the LGBTQ crowd…
They were protesting the far right political swing in Saxony, but their protest was pretty peaceful and mostly included music and signs about Nazis getting out.
Bill and I decided to have a light dinner at the Augustiner Biergarten. We sat outside, which gave us a view and the ability to hear the far right protesters, who marched in to a drum beat. As we had beer, bread, butter pretzels, and potato sausage soup, we listened to the energetic rantings of far right politicians. It was a bit eerie. I was also a bit irritated, because everyone around us was smoking cigarettes.
I’m sure you can guess which side of the debate Bill and I are on, but since we aren’t Germans, it’s not really our call. One thing I noticed during our first visit to Dresden, but not during our second visit, was the sign below. These people were forbidden to enter the premises of the restaurants, because of their behavior. I remember running into a couple of them during our 2008 visit. I have never seen another sign like this one, in all of my years in Germany. But I read that they aren’t actually uncommon.
Once we finished our light dinner, we went back to the hotel and called it a night. The next day, we were to head back to Wiesbaden. But we would run into something that would mess up our time at home since we returned. Read about that in my next post.
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