Sitzdieb = “seat thief”
When I arrived at the bus for our trip to Dresden, the middle door was not open to passengers. Entering from the front of the bus, a chorus of people cautiously alerted me: “David, you lost your seat!” A quick glance down the aisle confirmed that Gary was seated where I have been sitting on every bus ride prior to this one. “Oh well,” I calmly said to myself…then I found another seat.
But he has become the evil “Sitzdieb” in my book!
Today was a late morning because there was nothing on the early agenda except breakfast.
After our first meal, Rob and I left the ship to climb up to the hilltop Meißen schloss. We headed around the north side to see if the elevator was working. (It was not.) But, adjacent to it was a slanted, railed path leading up castle hill. We started the climb and eventually (and a little painfully) made it to the castle grounds. Much picture-taking ensued.
There were many interesting details on the castle’s buildings. Gargoyles were plentiful.
Returning to the boat, we sat in on a fascinating discussion of Life in Two Germanys as hosted by Susi and Kati.
Both of our group leaders were school girls living on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain when the Berlin Wall fell. Each family celebrated the opening of the GDR to the West in their own way for their own reasons…but both with a great sense of joy. For the one guide — I believe it was Kati — who lived in a rural area of East Germany near the border, she had a passing familiarity with life on the other side as seen through illegal television and radio broadcasts. Now, her family crossed over to experience “the West” first hand.
After the discussion , we had lunch—will we ever stop eating?—before leaving for Dresden…and the Sitzdieb episode.
Dresden — aka Florence on the Elbe — is most remembered for the controversial Allied bombings and ensuing firestorms that destroyed what had been the most architecturally-beautiful city in the Reich if not the world. A non-industrial city of little importance to the German war effort, the several nights and days of bombing killed an incalculable number of civilians, many of whom had fled to Dresden for safety ahead of the Soviet army.
Arriving in Dresden, we took an escorted walking tour starting in the Zwinger castle.
After exploring this grand enclosed courtyard and its embracing architectural gems, we proceeded through an arched walkway into the Theaterplatz and the original town center. Everywhere, major Renaissance buildings such as the opera house have been painstakingly restored to their pre-war appearance.
Exiting the Theaterplatz, we found ourselves marching with history along the Fürstenzug (English: Procession of Princes) mural. Located on an exterior wall of the Dresden Castle stables, this massive work is comprised of Meißen porcelain tiles and depicts the mounted procession of thirty-five margraves, electors, dukes and kings of the House of Wettin in chronological order.
Continuing beyond the wall mural, we entered a large cobblestone plaza where the dominant centerpiece was the Dresden Frauenkirche — Church of Our Lady. The Dresden church, which sat for fifty years as mostly a pile of rubble, was eventually rebuilt from a combination of original and replacement stones and was reconsecrated in 2005. The use of the original blackened stones and new, sand-colored replacement ones have created a mottled pattern on the church’s walls that easily identifies the surviving building structures.
Since we had some time to kill, Rob & I had a beer in a nearby biergarten before joining the rest of our group. Our next stop? We have timed entry tickets to the Green Vault treasures.
The Green Vault is a repository of interesting and often beautiful stuff. But stuff it is…and there was a lot of it! Everywhere! I can’t help but imagine this is what hoarding by royalty would look like…sans the desiccated rodent or cat carcasses in forgotten corners. The headset narrative, spoken by a British woman, was terribly dramatic and overly complimentary of every piece.
After the tour, we had some time to kill before we had a group meal in the Dresden 1900 restaurant.
Dinner is sauerbraten. I find I don’t really care for sauerbraten.
Finally, we are bussed to a neighborhood church where we were treated to a special just-for-us concert by the Dresden Boys Choir. They performed standing before what appeared to be the original stone altarpiece now stained and broken by the war. They sounded lovely…until they pandered to us by performing “America the Beautiful.”
Then we were hauled back to the boat.
A Taste of the Soviet Bloc 