Zwinger in Dresden

 

Being a tourist is such hard work! This is especially true in a city that seems to be entirely devoted to the arts with more culture to the yard than anywhere else I can think of including London that is more spread out. In Dresden they are crammed in together Galleries, Museums and Theatres. 

Having taken in a recital in the Frauenkirche last evening we put on our comfy trainers and first took a walk along the river bank to just look across at the opposite side that we have not even stepped on yet. So we ambled along to the Semper Oper for a tour. The Season has finished and the new season not yet started, so we were able to take a look inside without having to pay an arm and a leg to get in to see one of the prettiest and most theatrical opera houses in Europe.

 

  

I had blow dried my hair before we left so it was the straightest it ever gets but it was an overcast slightly damp old day and it was not long before my curls fought their way back. The tours of the Semper Oper were leaving every twenty minutes and we only waited outside for just about half an hour. Waiting outside is not such a bad thing since it gives you a chance to turn in every direction at the amazing architecture surrounding the Theatre Platz; Dresden is simply astonishing. 

After having our jaws drop in quite a resounding chord, once in the auditorium we were able to sit a while to take it all in, including the grand stalls, dress circle and all three upper circles plus boxes and the glory of all the reception areas. It was just mind boggling.  

We needed only to walk a hundred metres or so to the main entrance of the Zwinger, an arts gallery flippin’ extraordinaire. That was a real killer and we did not make it completely around everything there was to see, that is impossible in one hit. We did find the painting that I had looked forward to seeing, that was Die Schokoladen Mädchen by Swiss artist Jean-Etienne Liotard. It’s so hard to pick favourites when there are thousands of old masters, I do love Vermeer though and then there were miles of Canaletto’s another big favourite. 

 

 

By the time we left the paintings behind, we still wanted to walk across the courtyard to the Porcelain Museum because we are in Dresden after all and that means Meissen too. That left us both completely speechless and totally thunderstruck, gobsmacked an all other expressions of that ilk doubled and then trebled and no need to take away the number you first thought of. 

We had to make it to the next café for coffee, cake and a rest.