November 2003
We had tried to get to Dresden a year ago last summer but the flooding of the Elbe River had closed the city to all visitors. At that time we were content to spend our time in Leipzig and Altenburg where my great-great-grandfather, Ernst August Franke, was born in 1806. On this trip we finally were able to make it to Dresden and other places Ernst Franke wrote about in his travels. Tuesday, November 11, was a holiday so I took off Monday for a four-day weekend. At the last moment we decided we should take off Friday noon to get down the road a way.
So on my birthday, Friday, November 7, we headed east of Brussels through Aachen and Koln (Cologne) to Geissen, Germany. The scenery past Koln was of a pretty autumn countryside with reds, yellows, oranges, and brown colors mixed in with evergreen pines. As it became dark early we were treated to a beautiful full moonrise ahead of us. In Geissen we found the US military base, gassed up the car and found our guest housing on base. The base at Geissen is pretty basic and we were tired so we ordered a pizza and salad delivered to our room and ate dinner in front of the TV.
Saturday morning we woke fairly early and were on the road by 8:00 am. We stopped at one of the ever-present McDonalds and had an Egg McMuffin for breakfast. We headed east along autobahns A5 to A7 to A4 where we zipped past Erfurt (Buchenwald monument in the distance), Weimar, Jena, Gera, Chemnitz and finally to Dresden where we arrived about noon. Driving German autobahns is not as nice as it used to be. Maybe it’s because we were in former East Germany where rebuilding is at a fast pace but it seemed that there is much heavier traffic than before with open borders and construction about every 30 miles so that we had to constantly slow down to two very narrow lanes. And so many trucks!
We checked into our very nice Radisson hotel built in an old historic building. Soon we were walking and looking for a place to eat. We had a nice lunch of goulash soup, bratwurst and Paulaner beer, which we shared in a restaurant called Gansedieb. Thus fortified, we were able to continue with our sightseeing. It was cold with a stiff wind but clear skies and bright sunshine. I should point out here that Dresden has had some bad luck over the years. I don’t know the complete history but in 1760 much of the city was destroyed in the Seven Years War. I think Napoleon also won a major battle in Dresden. In recent times, the Allies bombed it the night of February 13, 1945, just a few months before the end of the war. In that bombing a firestorm destroyed 75% of the city and over 100,000 people were killed – most incinerated. Then Dresden lived under 50 years of communist regulations and last summer suffered its worst flooding in history. So, it’s amazing that the city has been rebuilt so well. It’s known in Europe as “the Florence of the Elbe”.
We walked to the nearby Kreuzkirche (or church of the cross) and took a quick look inside. This church is the oldest in Dresden and is still undergoing reconstruction from damage during World War II. From here it was a short walk across the old market place to the Zwinger Museum. The Zwinger is the best example of German Baroque architecture and was built in the early 1700s under the reign of Augustus II (known as Augustus the Strong). From its concept it was used as an art gallery and Augustus the Strong and his son collected some of the best art of their day. Luckily much of the art was safely hidden in 1945 and not destroyed. The Zwinger is shaped in a square with different galleries along each side. The first part we visited is called the Semper Gallery or Old Masters Gallery. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to take it in slowly but did see tapestries by Raphael, paintings by Italian, Dutch, Spanish and German masters such as Rembrandt, Ruben, Jan van Eyck, Vermeer, Tintoretto, Titian, Botticelli, El Greco, and Raphael’s most famous painting, Sistine Madonna.
In another gallery we saw suits of armor and weapons such as lances, swords, and early muskets. They were the top of the line with encrusted jewels in the sword handles, ornate ironwork and armor plates for horses and a special children’s armor section. A special section on jousting had two life size models of horses with riders in armor, shields and lances about to make contact. It was the best display of armor we have seen anywhere.
From there we moved across the Zwinger to the Porcelain Collection, which was of more interest to Rita than to me. However, I did find the history of Meissen porcelain interesting and the work was of the best craftsmanship. Next we visited the Salon of Mathematics and Physics in the Zwinger, which had an interesting, but small, display of globes, thermometers, barometers, astrolabes, and mainly clocks and watches. The clocks were most intricate and displayed much more than mere time.
We left the Zwinger and made our way to another museum called the Albertinum, a one-time arsenal that was transformed into a museum in 1884. Our main objective in the Albertinum is called the Green Vault Collection (Grunes Gewolbe) and is an exhibit of jewels and treasury collected by the kings of Saxony, especially Augustus the Strong. I also saw a ring and book that belonged to Martin Luther. There was much gold, silver, emeralds, rubies, pearls, and precious stones of all sorts.
From the Albertinum we walked along the riverbank and then viewed the outside of the Semper Opera House, the Dresden cathedral, the Dresden Schloss (castle), and the mosaic of Meissen tiles called the Furstenzug. The Furstenzug was built in 1906 and shows a chronological parade of the rulers of Saxony on horseback. It is longer than a football field and about 50 feet high alongside the Dresden Schloss exterior.
By now it was dark and we were tired and hungry. We found a restaurant in the square between the opera, cathedral, and castle. The square is called Theaterplatz and the restaurant is called Schinkelwache cafe. It was formerly a guardhouse. We each had fish; Rita had salmon and I had sea trout. We had a local Saxon white wine and desserts, which were the restaurant’s best achievements.
While walking back to our hotel we came across a new shopping area with a large, new shopping mall. We were surprised to find most shops open until 9:00 pm, which is not common in Germany for a Saturday. I think it may have been a special promotion night for shopping and not the usual case. Back at our hotel we noticed that we were given a room with a Jacuzzi tub for two so we filled it and relaxed in what they called an ‘air bath’.
Sunday we were out of our room about 9:00 am and just had coffee and croissants in the lobby ‘grab and run breakfast’ which was free. Again it was sunny with a cold easterly breeze but we walked to the riverbank and the Bruhische Terrace for good views of the east bank of Dresden. We crossed the Elbe River on the Carolabrucke Bridge and stopped for photos of the Dresden waterfront.
On this side of the Elbe we were the first to arrive at the Museum of Saxon Arts and Crafts when it opened at 10:00 am. Since my great-great-grandfather was a cobbler I had hoped they would have something on this craft but they didn’t. It was still interesting since they had furniture, clothes, toys and other crafts from all areas of Saxony. Saxon furniture was similar to Bavarian furniture in that it was brightly colored, usually with a date painted on, and sometimes the name of the builder or owner of the furniture. Most of the furniture was dated in the late 1700s and early 1800s so it was representative of the type of furniture my ancestor probably was raised with.
After we finished at the museum we walked a little further along and viewed the gilded statue of Augustus the Strong on horseback before re-crossing the Elbe back into Dresden city center. We walked around the cathedral to the Schloss once more and viewed the inter courtyard called Langer Gang. We had a good lunch at the Paulaner café associated with the very nice Kempinski Hotel. I had my wiener schnitzel and Rita had sauerbraten. For dessert I had apple strudel and Rita had a local dessert, which was a semmelknodel with vanilla sauce.
We walked back to the Zwinger and climbed to the rooftop terrace where we took more photos in the bright sunlight. We walked past the Wall Pavilion and viewed the Nymphenbad which is a fountain called the Bath of the Nymphs. Next we walked to the nearby Semper Opera House and took a tour of the interior. The tour was conducted only in German so we didn’t get much from the narration. After that we walked to the Hilton Hotel and looked at current Meissen porcelain and I was surprised how expensive it was. We had a cup of tea at an outside table in the sunshine and waited for a tour of the Frauenkirche, one of the most beautiful Lutheran churches in Europe, which was destroyed in the 1945 bombing. It is being restored and should be completed in 2006. Our tour took us into the restored basement but we couldn’t see anything of the church interior except photos taken in the late 1930s. We went back to our hotel to rest and later in the evening returned to the Gansedieb restaurant for a light snack and glass of wine.
Monday we had a big breakfast brunch in our hotel, checked out and were away about 9:30 am. We drove south out of Dresden and found beautiful, old neighborhoods along the Elbe River that were big mansions appearing to have been built in the late 1800s. We made our way to Pillnitz where we could see the chateau from the road but we didn’t have time to take a tour. We drove further south into the region known as Sachsische Schweiz or Swiss Saxony. As we climbed up into the hills the sky became more overcast and we were enveloped in a low fog bank. We made it to the national park and overlook called the Bastei. We parked the car and walked out to this lookout, which had terrific views of the Elbe River (see our website). It was cold, damp and windy – we zipped up our coats, put up our hoods and put on our gloves. The rocky cliffs were picturesque but we had to hurry back to the car with no time for a hike. Maybe some other time.
The road took us downhill to Bad Schandau and we crossed the Elbe River once more. We saw the fortress castle called Konigstein by the roadside. We drove nearly back into Dresden and at Heidenau took a scenic road to Altenberg near the Czech border. This is not the same Altenburg where my ancestor was born. We hit fog and frost that was sticking to the trees and to the road in some places. We took scenic, curvy back roads through Rehefeld, Holzhau, Rechenberg-Bienenmuhle, Neuhausen, and finally our destination of Seiffen. Seiffen got us into the Christmas mood since it is a small village where the art of Christmas woodcarving started. There are dozens of shops selling wooden toys, nutcrackers, incense smokers, candle pyramids, and the Erzgebirgean arches known as Schwibbogen. After a little shopping and a bratwurst at a sidewalk trailer we headed back on the road.
We headed west through Olbernhau to Zoblitz where Ernst August Franke said he went for a cure. In his diary he wrote, “On June 30, 1824, I started my voyage to Dresden. After spending one year in this beautiful city I took ill but soon recovered after taking some health baths in Zoblitz and Karlsbad.” Zoblitz is a small village and we couldn’t see any sign of a cure house but this is the region where many thermal springs exist. We pressed on towards the Czech Republic through Marienberg, Annaberg-Buchholz and the border town of Oberwiesenthal.
We crossed into the Czech Republic and down the mountain pass to the town of Bozi Dar and saw our first prostitute trying to flag us down from the roadside. Rita saw many more prostitutes on her first trip here last year – apparently it is a thriving business. We drove to Karlovy Vary in the dark and promptly got lost upon arrival. Every American I know who has driven to Karlovy Vary got lost in town. It took us about an hour, stopping to ask several people with limited English skills, stopping at a gasoline station and buying a better map before we found good directions to the Pupp Hotel where we checked into our room.
We had a very good meal with a Czech red wine in the grand, formal dining room of our hotel. Service was first class with waitresses decked out in little French maids costumes. After our meal we took a little walk in the pedestrian walk area free of traffic. It was also free of people as this is not the main season for tourists. Karlovy Vary has a 600-year history of balneology, as they call it, or health baths for various cures. King Charles IV founded the town in 1350 and, when my ancestor came here, it was a part of Germany known as Karlsbad. Charles, Carl, Karola, and Karl are all interchangeable. The town has 12 curative thermal springs, which cure “disorders of the digestive system, metabolic disorders and disorders of the locomotive organs.” We saw several old cure houses and dozens of thermal fountains, which had signs giving the temperature of each spring.
Tuesday morning we set our alarms and woke early since we had a long drive ahead of us. We had a good breakfast buffet in our hotel formal dining room again and then set out for a walk to see Karlovy Vary in daylight and take photos. There still were very few people out, mostly locals it seemed. But most of us had our little drinking cups and I sampled about a dozen springs, filling my gut with rust no doubt. I feel like a better person for it!
We checked out and were on the road about 9:30 navigating our way out of town much better than into town. We retraced our drive to the border but turned west on scenic, windy roads to Tellerhauser, Ehrenzipfel, Rittersgrun, Pohla and the big town of Schwarzenberg. This road was all that much more scenic since we had a heavy frost overnight and the forest were filled with perfect evergreen Christmas trees that looked as if they were flocked with snow. This area of Germany had much mining of all sorts but the road we were on was called the Silver Road. In Aue we looked for the Esso station that couldn’t be found, hit a roadblock sign, and had to backtrack with a small amount of gasoline. I should explain that in Germany we get Esso gasoline coupons we can use for half the normal price. We headed north to Stollberg where we entered the autobahn towards Chemnitz then turned west on autobahn A4 again where we finally found an Esso station with our low gasoline light flashing. The rest of the trip was a long drive retracing our path to Brussels where we arrived about 8:30 pm. Early to bed and late to rise but back to work the next day.
We enjoyed the trip and found much more we would like to have seen and explored. Dresden’s highlights are compactly located and can be seen in a short time but it may be a few years before restoration of all the major monuments is completed. I would really like to come back in about five years and spend more time in both Saxony and Bohemia – maybe in the late summer.
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