Dresden!

This past week has been wonderful! Bella stayed with me until Friday, and Beth and I really enjoyed her company. During the day, Beth and I worked in the studio while Bella attended school, and then in the evenings we all ate together. Wednesday night was especially fun. We all went the die Burg to hear a lecture Antje (one of the professors) was giving , but we didn’t know the topic. When we got there, it turned out to be about her trip to NCECA! It was quite funny to see pictures of everything we had just lived through, and even some pictures of Athens. After the lecture we were invited to Susie’s house with Bella, Paula, and several other new friends. There everyone spoke English and we had wonderful conversations about our cultural differences.
Friday Beth and I woke up early to go work in the studio, but arrived to find that someone was doing a luster firing (which realizes bad toxic fumes) so no one was allowed to work. Although we were a bit frustrated that no one had told us, we decided we should take advantage of the forced day off and try to travel. We walked home, consulted with Bella, and with in an hour had booked a hostel in Dresden, packed, and were on the train. It was amazing how perfectly everything worked out, and by early afternoon we were there!
Dresden is really an amazing city. While most of it is very new and modern due to the terrible bombings, there is still a cluster of beautiful old buildings downtown by the river. This really gives the city a neat feel. On one hand there is a strong contrast between old and new. It defiantly feels like parts of town were re-built as quickly as possible, which means many buildings are much more modern and plane looking. The rebuilding process also left the city a little less congested. There are many nice little green areas and backyards between residential buildings which really let things feel nice and airy. Even though things are sometimes a little hodgepodge, the city really has a wonderful charm to it.
Friday evening we spent walking around town learning our way and looking for things to do during our stay. We checked into our hostel and got lots of good advice about attractions and night life, and then relaxed for the rest of the night at a jazz club a few blocks away. It was really great to hear some live music, and we met a few new friends who gave us even more recommendations. Even before we went to bed we knew one more day wouldn’t be long enough to see everything we wanted, but since our hostel was booked for Saturday we weren’t sure if we could stay another night or not. Apparently there was a large Dixieland festival in town which had drawn many travelers, but luckily one of the hostel employees was nice enough to call around and find a student apartment building that rented out dorm rooms while the students were home for the weekend. We went to bed excited for the next two days to come.
Saturday morning Beth and I got up, grabbed some bread at a bakery for breakfast, and high-tailed it out to Pillnitz castle, which a classmate had recommended we see. The castle, which turned out to be more of a palace, was amazing. It was built with an “oriental theme” and had museums inside about the history of the building. There was also a gorgeous flower garden and “pleasure garden.” The long bus ride out to the palace and back was also a treat because it took us through many small villages on the outskirts of the city that looked straight out of a story book. There were many small houses, gardens, orchards, wineries, and chateaus up on the hills.
That afternoon we went back to the center of the city to the Zwinger museum complex. There we saw an entire exhibit of the large porcelain collection of Frederick Agustus I (King of Poland). It was quite a treat! Although most of the pieces were functional oriental vessels, there were some very interesting sculptural works as well. My favorite part was a room filled with big porcelain animals by Kaendler that were made special for the King. The large scale really made their creation a technical challenge, and we learned that pieces were only fired once and then painted since they would have fallen apart in a second glaze firing.
That evening we went to a pub to relax for a bit and later hit one of the big discothèques. The highlight of the evening was meeting 20 eighteen year old boys wearing lederhosen who were walking through the streets singing in unison. They stopped to talk to us, and we learned that they were from Munich and there to celebrate being done with their school exams.
Sunday we slept in a bit, packed up our things and found our way out to the Volks Wagon factory. All I have to say is wow. Everything about this place was amazing. The building was designed just as well as the cars are, and everything worked together to really create a strong image. I especially liked the large sphere that was filled with old commercials to watch and the huge glass cylinder that was filled with new cars on a spiraling ramp.
Afterwards we still had a few hours before our train home, so Beth talked me into going to the German Hygiene Museum. I was skeptical at first, but it really ended up being a pretty cool place. There was an exhibit on Hitler’s attempt at creating a perfect race, which was really quite depressing but also fascinating. There were lots of articles and pictures about the wide-spread killings and sterilizations of Jews and anyone else who was not “ethnically pure.” Pretty scary stuff. The other exhibits in the museum were much lighter, but unfortunately contained very little English translations of descriptions. Since half the time we weren’t positive what we were looking at, it was really funny to try to figure out the themes of some of the rooms. For example, one room had large diagrams of cell structures, a giant (perhaps 6 by 6 foot) fly, a fish tank, and a computer station with an acupuncture computer game on it. It was still fun to see, and gave us some good laughs.
What a weekend! I give Dresden an A++.


Brand new Volks Wagons.


The German countryside.


The roof of the Dresden train station.







Inside of the castle.


A neat winery on a hill.




A picture for Steve.