Dresden is a city in Germany most known for being pummeled near the end of WWII by British and American warplanes, but as I experienced over the past two days, they’ve done a remarkable job rebuilding the city from scratch. Though their tourism industry is growing, Dresden is still somewhat off the beaten path, providing the freshest look at true German culture and everyday life for me so far.
You visit Dresden to soak up the amazing architecture. It glimmers with old style charm while still being newly built, thus making it nicely devoid of any decay typical of old buildings. It is a bit odd to think about building new buildings in an old style. See my post on cultural authenticity for more on this.
There are four bridges which span across a river which runs through the city. Walking over the bridge with the sun beating down on all the buildings has proven to be one of the prettiest moments of the trip.
My Mom did a day trip to Meissen (home of the factory which produces the china by the same name) which she really enjoyed. It’s a 2 hour boat ride with plenty of bike trails to boot. I spent the second day at a conference, exercising, catching up on some work, and thinking about globalization.
A couple days in Dresden is well worth the train jaunt from Berlin.
