08.08.2011 – 08.08.2011  21 °C

Spent today wandering around the town of Dresden. Dresden is the city of the Saxon Kings and Queens so the old town is dominated by cathedrals and palaces and is really really beautiful. Its nickname is the Florence of Germany and I can understand why… If Florence is half as good as Dresden then it must be pretty impressive.

Most of the Old Town was damaged during the second world war but has been painstakingly renovated to resemble the town from the 1700s. The key piece to the Old Town is the Zwinger. Today the Zwinger houses two museums and is regularly used for outdoor concerts. Unfortunately today is a Monday so the Zwinger is closed (so I can’t tell you what it was originally used for). Considering the size and shape of the building it had to have been one of the palaces of the Saxon Kings. The Royal Schloss of the Saxon Kings was open to the public today so I spent the day touring the Royal collection. The Schloss was completely destroyed during the war and has only recently been reopened. The Schloss is now a museum and houses the Royal Treasury of the Saxon Kings. The treasury has been on display since the mid 1800s when one of the King’s needed some spare coin so decided to open up a wing of the palace as museum, and dubbed the museum the “green vault” (owing to the original colour of the walls).

The vault has been recreated so that it is a similar as possible to the vault that was originally shown in the mid-1800s. Many of the items from the vault are missing and this is mainly because the items were sold throughout the centuries as the Royal family slowly lost its power and influence. Believe it or not, the items were not in any way damaged, sold or destroyed during the war or the subsequent communist years and are now back on display in their original state. The main centrepiece to the “green vault” is the collection of jewellery that the Saxon Kings used to wear… There is two whole diamond outfits- necklaces, cuff links, buttons, earrings, rings and brooches that are absolutely exquisite… I’ve seen some crown jewels before and have been dazzled at the site of diamonds but these are pretty amazing… The jewellery collection is one I could only dream of owning!

After spending a couple of hours in the Schloss I continued my tour of the Old Town stopping to have lunch and a coffee on the way. Dresden itself is a really beautiful town and is definitely worth a stop if you ever do a Germany trek.

Turned in early tonight as I needed to do some more interneting to work out more of my “Teutonic Tour”. Off tomorrow to Prague in the Czech Republic.