Dresden!

Part 2 of the 9-day trip. We arrived in Dresden at night time on Saturday, so we didn't get to see much of anything.  We stayed in the Mezcalero Hostel, a little piece of Mexico in the heart of Dresden.  I roomed with my friends Bailey, Michelle, Allison, and Mindy in a little hacienda Azteca.  Since we had had such a long day of traveling we decided to stay in and get a good night's sleep for our only day in Dresden.

We awoke to a glorious breakfast of crepes, meats, cheeses, cereal, etc.  It was DELICIOUS! We boarded our wonderful Fuchs bus for a guided bus tour of Dresden.  Our tour guide, Girald, was AMAZING.  He has lived in Dresden his entire life and was so proud of his little city and all its history, which there is A LOT of! Dresden, in case you didn't know, was the city that suffered the most damage from WWII in Germany. The bus tour took us all over Dresden, and we saw some truly incredible sights that are off the beaten path from the typical tourist destinations of Dresden.  Here are some of the many photos I took on the bus tour!

Before I get to the really pretty photos, I needed to show this.  The inventor of mouthwash
(I think... something to do with oral hygiene) lived in Dresden,
and he created this hygiene museum to teach people about the importance of hygiene.

This is one of the only sites in Dresden that has been left in the same condition it was in right after WWII.

The entire roof of this Church was totally destroyed during WWII.

Girald

Being a statue in one of Dresden's many parks

In front of part of the Schloss Pillnitz - the palace was built with a Chinese architectural influence

Fürstenzug, or Procession of the Princes, is an enormous mural painted on over 25,000 pieces of tile. 

The mural depicts 35 kings and dukes of Saxony.

Frauenkirche, "Church of Our Lady" auf Deutsch, was built in the mid-18th century and destroyed by WWII.  It was rebuilt and completed in 2005.

The dark part of the Church is the only part that stood after WWII.  When they rebuilt the Church, they used as many tiles from the old building as they could.  Also, the Church should be entirely dark (due to oxidation) in about 50 years, so hurry and go see it!!

The inside of the Frauenkirche

The altar.

The Zwinger, a former palace and current museum of art.
Girald also gave us a tour of the museum, where we saw gorgeous paintings, including the Sistine Madonna (google it - you'll know what I'm talking about).

Semperoper (the Dresden Opera)

Our golden chariot, the Fuchs Bus.

Later on Sunday we watched the Superbowl! I only stayed until halftime because it was sooo late, but I had a lot of fun cheering for the Packers and the Steelers.  The next morning we loaded up the Fuchs Bus and headed to Leipzig for about 5 hours... I will write about this leg of the journey as soon as I can.

Until then, Auf Wiedersehen!