Of all the cities in Germany I visited, Stuttgart, Strasborg (French Border), Sindelfingen, Burg, Leipzig, Bonn, Koln, Dusseldorf, Wolfsburg, Hannover, Frankfurt, Damstadt, Waldolf, Nassau, Munster, Wuppertal.....Dresden is one of the most interesting place after Berlin. Given a high contrast of architecture styles...Gothic, Renaissances, Industrial, Communists, modern all rolled into one small city.
Here is an example where you can see the lay out of our hotel in the suburbs of the city. Ultra modern.
Then we cross over the river, not sure if that is the Rhine. We see a completely different picture. However, the streets of Dresden are still having the reminiscence of the harshness of communism for the 4 decades of neglect. Tram lines are still operational but little care was given to the cobble stones and other ammenities like street lighting and junction lights. So, we arrived at the time of the big clean up. Dresden was like Paris at the height of its glory and 40 over years of coal pollution has turned the city into a place of black limestones. As you will be able see as you venture through this article, there are evidence of restoration.
City square centre where building are being cleaned up, by now, in 2008, it should be sparkling clean! City Hall building as a long street behind it where a long painting was done in old wood block printing style in black and white with the borders in yellow. It tells some daily operations in the life of the hall in times past. Interesting! See the two pics below. Click on them to download bigger pics.
City square centre where building are being cleaned up, by now, in 2008, it should be sparkling clean! City Hall building as a long street behind it where a long painting was done in old wood block printing style in black and white with the borders in yellow. It tells some daily operations in the life of the hall in times past. Interesting! See the two pics below. Click on them to download bigger pics.
Across the long multi span archer bridge, I took some pictures resting my EOS on the limestones. Here is how one looked at night!
Town halls are well lit at night, however, some of the coal stains are showing to await cleaning. Pity. 
In this picture below you find the tram lines. I took the two pictures below from the bridge across the river that is about 30m wide and 200m long. Its almost midnight and the city centre is still abuzz with activity.
In this picture below you find the tram lines. I took the two pictures below from the bridge across the river that is about 30m wide and 200m long. Its almost midnight and the city centre is still abuzz with activity.
The view from Second Street behind the main facet facing the river. Street lighting used to the oil lamp but retained and wired for amber high discharge lamps which gives the city a beautiful hue. However, some buildings are given white Argon type HID. Colder look but the natural paintings display their colours. You find such an instance from the picture below.
Same building from the 3rd street from the river bankBuilding adjacent to the Opera Theatre had a long string of offices but interestingly, the statue in front seemed to be the French Hero Joan d' Arc?
There is another metal bridge nearby that crosses the river that leads to a small mountain where the super rich lives. Here we also find some model train shops. They even have a tram system up the mount which looked like a cable car. See the pictures below the bridge and you know what I mean.
The other type of building in Dresden were Communist origin, can note their posture on those murals. Like this Theatre/sports hall.
The other type of building in Dresden were Communist origin, can note their posture on those murals. Like this Theatre/sports hall.
Then there is the Renaissances type of building typifying the best of German artistic expression in construction like this one below.
The usual man powered taxis that sits 2. Never gotten down to asking the fare, not here, not in Berlin though! Must be one that one will maim a Kiam Ku Singaporean.
The streets behind the city hall facet is abuzz with pubs and retail outlets and numerous cafes and eateries too. Mainly Touristy type.
The Most exciting must be this place where Martin Luther and Guttenburg gave the bible back to the commoners printing them in huge quantities in Geneva and giving the word back to the people. His doctrine is all together pure, but what he did turned the tide against institutionalized religion, setting countless people free from the bondage of Rome. My kind of hero. To change the world, all God needs is only one man that will go with Him!
The building was bombed out in WW2 and flood took the rest of it. This is built at the site where the original building stood. You can see me with the Hero below.
Interestingly, horse carriages still ply the streets coming out from this place, never found out what it was.
Here we see the result of decades of coal burning. We can observe that they are staring to clean up, notice the yellow lime stones showing from the top of the building. They use chemical loaded high pressure water jets to dissolve the soot! Must have taken months to clean one building!
View from the City Hall front Veranda. We illegally parked the car below this building and disappeared for 2 hours taking pictures and eating Nutella Crepes!
City Square, the Opera Theatre is behind me, here the cobblestones are relaid to retain the look of the city centre. Bad for tires though!
Then we headed out to the outskirts where I knew the place where the VW Phaeton was first show cased. This is a privately owned and maintained SCHLOSS! It has a river running alongside and a good 1km driveway in a two way carriage way lined with Maple and a garden in the middle to boot! The photo below is arriving at the left wing, it has 3 round abouts for carriages. The building in the middle is the dining hall of this very rich feudal lord of times past.
This is the right wind building below.
View from the left edge of the central roundabout for carriages showing the dining hall and the right wind building. There are a few other buildings behind the front reception area which is also the dining and entertainment arena.
This land mark lamp sculpture marks the 500m mark of the 1km drive way in. Picture taken from the centre garden. Left is the way in for 2 carriages to ride side by side, the right is the way out, symmetrical.
The one way carriage way for two carriages to ride side by side lined with trees of the first portion, the second portion is lines with maple trees.
Me in the middle for sense of scale.
Halfway point garden landmark
Right wing building, now an art gallery for rental for functions.
Then Finally, we went to the famous Volkswagen Glass Factory which had less than 10% workforce on as the people went for their famous month long summer holidays. Then, the home of the Bentley and Phaeton still looked good and prestigious.
Here you find the same glass parking towers of completed cars for delivery. If you order your Bentley or the Phaeton, you can visit the factory by appointment and see your car being build on grease free wooden floors. It was said that the flooring alone was about 200 million Euros!
As with all VW factories, it must have close proximity eating places to cater for management, crew and customers who visit the factory. After all, its Germany's national car company, a public icon.
