Dresden

The Best Road Trip Ever: Part 1 Dresden

So my study abroad program is 2 months in Berlin and 1 month in Vienna. In between the two cities, my group hopped on a bus and saw some amazing cities. Our first stop was Dresden...

The first thing we did there was visit the old square. Everything in Dresden was destroyed by bombings in WW2, and has been rebuilt. The square is beautiful! The gothic buildings appear even more old and mysterious because the limestone they are made of turns black when exposed to the elements. 

 We visited an old bath with a bunch of statues of nymphs (aka a man’s fantasy of beautiful women who are bathing and laughing as their clothes accidentally fall off). Here we are pretending to by nymphs:

 One of the highlights was going to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister and seeing Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna”. It is a breathtaking painting and one of the most beautiful interpretations of Mary I have ever seen. Almost more famous than the holy mother and child, is the cherubs at the bottom of the painting. Recognize them?

They have become a part of pop culture:

The next day in Dresden we went to the Freiberg Temple which was a great experience!  It was the first LDS temple built in a communist state (the GDR). We had a fireside and we learned about the history of the temple. The East German government actually suggested building an LDS temple within the country in order to limit visa requests (and perhaps to bring some western money into the country). It is a noble building and an experience I will never forget.

 Later in the day we went to the “Sächsische Schweiz” National Park. I can not describe how beautiful it is! This is where the limestone is found that turns black. It looks like it is straight out of a Caspar David Friedrich painting (probably because he used to paint there) Here are some pictures from our hikes:

 Trying to be artsy (a picture of a picture of my eye)

Stay tuned for Part 2: The Czech Republic!