Snow Road Trip to Czech & Saxony, Germany - Day 8: Dresden

In the early morning of Day 8, we found that the closest bridge to the hotel was re-open, the sky was clear and getting bright slowly, the moon was still shiny, and the Old Town was yet sleeping. First of all, it was freezing cold!

The street of the Fürstenzug was re-open, too. We walked through it and was able to look at the long mural from one end to the other finally.

We arrived at Neumarkt. The Christmas market there was closed and quiet...except the sound of a little bell. There were two cute sleep! I hadn't seen them on the day before when we visited the Christmas market. I hope they were comfortable there. 

We left the old town and walked east for a while, to our breakfast place, Café Milchmädchen. Nobody was there but all tables had a "reserved" sign. We didn't have a reservation, but luckily we were seated. The waiter told us we would have to open the table by 9am, which still gave us more than a hour. No problem!

J had a kind of smoothie. I think he got "the Green," which was made of celery, rocket, mango, pear and ginger. The color looked healthy.

I tried "Aprikose" from their sweet breakfast menu. It was a sourdough bread slice, topped oven baked apricot, ricotta, apple chutney and hazelnut. Green leafy salad with vinaigrette dressing and a couple of mini tomatoes were also on the bread. I would categorize the dish as a savory dish. It wasn't really sweet at all. Anyway, it was tasty and I enjoyed it after all.

It got bright outside when we left the cafe while the temperature didn't change. We walked around the Old Town, trying to find streets that we haven't walked on the day before.

We reached the Zwinger. Built in the 18th century, the late Baroque building was originally an orangery and courtly festival playground and now houses various exhibitions, such as the Mathematical-Physical Salon and the Old Masters Picture Gallery. The courtyard was supposed to be a beautiful Baroque architecture with lawns and fountains, but what we saw was nothing but a major construction site. The entire courtyard was completely upside down. 

At least we were able to take a passage around the messy courtyard and look close at the exterior of the buildings.

Our next stop was the Yenidze. Located on the west outside the Old Town, the mosque-style building was originally built in 1909 as an oriental tobacco and cigarette factory. Building factory buildings that looked like such was forbidden in the city center of Dresden, so the company's owner built a factory that looked like a mosque, which met the city's requirements and also became a strong advertisement for the oriental tobacco and cigarette brands. Today the building houses offices as well as a restaurant and a theater. We walked into the lobby on the ground floor. There was a small showcase that displayed some memorial objects and photos from the old time.

We came back to the Old Town to visit Dresden Castle. It was a residential palace of the Saxon electors and kings for centuries since the Middle Ages. Before it was destroyed in WWII, the palace had approximately 500 halls and rooms. The reconstruction of the palace began in 1985 and completed in 2013 to become a museum complex for the Dresden State Art Collections.

One of the museums in the Royal Palace was the New Green Vault. It's one of the richest treasure chambers in Europe that includes around 1,000 individual precious objects made of gold, silver, enamel, gemstones, ivory, coconuts, ostrich eggs and so on.

One of many highlights was the 18th century miniature of the "Court of the Great Mogul Aurangzeb",  which incorporates more than 5,000 diamonds, 160 rubies, 164 emeralds, one sapphire, 16 pearls and two cameos, in addition to gold, silver and enamels. The model depicts the emperor’s birthday celebrations in a theatrical setting. It could take days to admire the ultra-fine details. 

The last but not least, actually the best to see in the New Green Vault tour was the "Dresden Green," The largest green diamond ever found. King August III of Poland had obtained the 41-carat green diamond and extra diamond at the Leipzig Fair in the mid-18th century. How magnificent!

Our museum self-tour continued to Royal Parade Rooms of August the Strong.

Also, to the Armory Chamber, including the Turkish Chamber.

 

And, to the Small Ballroom.

Then, to the Rifle Gallery in the Long Aisle. 

The museums in the Royal Palace were very entertaining. We could stay longer there but we were getting tired and hungry. It was time to go back to the Christmas markets. 

First we walked around the Christmas market at Altmarkt. We also checked another Christmas market in the south of the city center, which we didn't find anything new or special. Then we came back to Neumarkt and had a freshly baked bread roll like the day before. This time we got one filled with curry chicken from a different vendor. It was nice but the curry flavor of the filling was subtle. 

For drinks, I had alcohol-free punch and J had white wine punch. They were helpful to make our tummies warm and defrost our chilled hands.

Next we walked up to the north of the New Town to find a craft beer shop. The shop was located at  Kunsthofpassage, a passage through the five connected courtyards between buildings with art-covered walls. It looked neat. 

We paid a visit to the Christmas market at the New Town one more time. In my opinion, Dresden gave me the best Christmas market experience so far. I guess J would agree with me.

To be continued...