Rest Day in Dresden

We took today as a rest day -- a sabbath if you will. We slept in, went down the street to the bakery to get some breakfast, and listened to a sermon on the laptop. We thought about trying to find a church to attend, but I wasn't up to spending an hour plus with no clue as to what was being said. I spent some time catching up on email and the blog (we finally have an Internet connection at this hotel) and Beth took a nap. Around noon we decided to venture out. Our plan was to go into Dresden and see some of the museums and churches that we skipped over on our first visit.

Last night we had something of a Deutsche Bahn misadventure. For some reason our train wasn't at the published platform, so we had to do a last-minute redirect to another one. We didn't have time to do much more than verify that it was the correct departure time before jumping on board. As we rolled out of town we noticed that it wasn't taking the same route as we'd come in on -- it seemed to be heading off for parts unknown. After about three unfamiliar stops we decided that we'd gotten on the wrong train and that we needed to return to the main station so that we could try again. Unfortunately, the station we got off was in the middle of nowhere and spartan to the extreme. It has two street lights, one bench, and an old schedule. We had a 30 minute wait for a train that never came, and the next one after that was another half-hour. After that there were no trains for a couple hours. It was dark, we were getting cold, and the GPS said that it was seven miles as the crow flies to our hotel -- much further than we were ready to walk. Finally, an off-schedule train showed up. It was an interesting emotional transition -- one minute you're cold, alone, and unsure what the future holds and the next a big red brightly lit train slides into the station and opens its doors for you. Saved! We were able to get back to the main station and catch the correct train back to Weinbohla.

We took the train into Dresden again this afternoon, and I noticed that it wasn't taking the same route as yesterday morning. I was confident that it was going to the main Dresden train station, but it was definitely not the same route. After a bit I saw a station coming up that looked familiar, and sure enough, it was our little lost station from last night (although it looked a lot better in the light of day). Apparently we *were* on the right train last night, but didn't have the confidence to stick with it till it brought us back to familiar territory. Live and learn.

We returned to the Palace Square (where we'd heard the violinist the other day) and went through Hofkirche. This is a Catholic cathedral in the middle of a protestant stronghold (e.g., Martin Luther was a local), so it is a little unusual. It, like most of old Dresden, was burned during the war, so it has all been rebuilt in the past 50 years.


We also went through the Old Masters Gallery -- a large building chock full of paintings. I'm enough of an art novice that much of it was lost on me, but a few things stood out. One was the various artists' ability to capture skin tones -- soft smooth skin of the faces of children, ruddy rough skin on men, and thin wrinkled skin on older women. How did they pull this off with just a paintbrush? Also, the detail on some of the landscapes was incredible. One had an entire forest with individual leaves, and itty bitty people with detail in their faces and eyes. The artists must have been either very young or had unusually good eyesight as my 50 year old eyes were challenged to see it all even with a good set of glasses.

While we were in the museum the rain picked up and drove most of the tourists away (or, at least, indoors). We wandered around the old city a bit longer and then headed back to the train station (and our hotel) to grab dinner.



Below is a map showing were we're staying (Weinbohla) and Dresden. When I can, I'll try and provide an overview map so that you have some context on where we're at.


View 2009.09.13.location.map in a larger map