A gorgeous sunny day greets us as we wander our way into the old Town of Dresden.  Once again – the streets are almost deserted!  Obviously, nobody gets up early here – or in Berlin! Honestly. It is a little before 10am today, and the place is empty.  We are early enough we stop for coffee and a Cinnamon Roll at Cinnamood – how could we resist that window?  Or the Shit Happens, Coffee Helps saying on the wall?

Snack done, we wander through the Altmarkt big empty square, over to Neue Markt past the gorgeous Frauenkirche.  The architecture is fantastic – even if it is a complete restoration and rebuild from the original.  Dresden was carpet bombed at the end WWII leaving virtually nothing standing.

Backtracking through the market, we head over to the Furstenzug, the world’s largest porcelain mural stretching out on the street side wall of the old Royal Stables. Originally painted in 1876 to depict the mounted procession of 35 princes, counts and kings from the House of Wettin, the rulers of Saxony, the entire mural was transferred to 23,000 Meissen porcelain tiles between 1904 and 1907 to ensure it stayed vibrant.  The whole thing is 335 feet long and 34 feet high – so big only a panorama photo or video can encompass it all.  Amazing.  And even more amazing, there isn’t hardly anyone here.  It’s lovely and perfect for us to take pictures as we wandering along the length of this spectacular piece of art.

At the end of the Furstenzug, we round the corner toward the river to take in the fabulous architecture surrounding the Schlossplatz.  Just gorgeous – the Residenzschloss on one side, the Kathedrale Sanctissimae Trinitatis on another.  Seriously, you’d never know these are all rebuilt buildings.

From here, we walk along Bruhl’s Terrace, the so called “Balcony of Europe” which runs along the Elbe River.  A nice walk under the arbor like trees planted along the terrace.  Circling back, we once again pass the Frauenkirche, this time finding the piece of the original dome placed here in 2005 as a memorial to the original church which was destroyed in the carpet bombing of 1945.

Then it was on to the Verkehrsmuseum -or Transport History Museum where Ed was in his glory with all the old cars and the airplanes.  A huge bonus for being there early too, we lucked into the running of the model railway with more than 200 locomotives, railway carriages and good wagons from all ages running around tracks that span over 3500 square feet. The detail was just incredible. It was so fun. 

Also amazing were the Matchstick Models crafted by Karl Achenbach. The bases were made from burnt matchsticks, the models themselves from unused matchstick.  Each model took about six months to build and approximately 10,000 matchsticks!  He made over 50 models – 14 of which are here in the museum.  Incredible craftsmanship – and patience!

On into the “Cast Off” or water room – with more models, even a model of the original R Seven cruise ship, now sailing as our own Azamara Quest!  Oh and the model of the Bremmer ship – with its own postal plane!

Aviation is next – with planes hanging from the ceiling, of course, wonderful historical explanations of how Lufthansa began (both in East and West Germany, 2 separate companies until a lawsuit over the name was filed and won in by the West in 1963), and other interesting tidbits on various airborne test type vehicles.

There is a weird special exhibit on “The Islands” which talks all about vacation and where people dream about going – with a great chart that shows how much vacation time is given in different countries.  Which was a little inaccurate when it came to the US, but still….you can see just how many more days so many other countries for their employees.  Nuts.

Then its onto automotive, with this great car with a “roof rack and tent” (patented btw) created in 1979.  The first “camper!”  Also explanations on how the Trabant became the car of East Germany – and how the scarcity of automobiles made the price of used Trabants as costly as purchasing a new one.   Then finally onto the Train displays, with original steam engines and all sorts of different locomotives to see and explore.

A great visit. And again, not crowded. Until we left – and then the hordes appeared. Their loss. Back outside, we wander through the courtyard area, that is actual part of the old Royal stables. Great location for a transportation history museum! 

Then it is time for lunch –  and after wandering a bit (there wasn’t much around the Transport museum) we end up at Watzke Wurstkuche – a restaurant on the way back to the apartment we had thought we might try for dinner.  But we are here now….and a great choice.  Nice outdoor seating, great drinks and great Wurst!  Ed had Currwurst and I had a wonderful Kase-Spinat-Bratwurst (cheese and spinach).  Perfect lunch to fortify us for our walk over to the VW Transparent factory – for our afternoon touring pleasure.