Dresden with Seema Prakash
Guten Abund to Monday Night Travel. Tonight we have the pleasure of traveling to a gem of a city in East Germany, Dresden with its stunning Baroque and top tier museums. My name is Ben Green and I will moderate this presentation together with our guest local guide. So now I would like to welcome our guest for the evening. Joining us is a Dresden resident, a talented local guide and a wealth of knowledge, Sema Prakash. Hi Sema, come on down and welcome to Monday Night Travel. Hi Ben, thank you for having me. Hello to everyone who’s here. Thank you for traveling to Dresden with us. Although it’s not travel for you, is it? Because where are you at this moment? I’m here in Dresden and it’s 3:00 in the morning. You don’t look like it’s 3:00 in the morning. I can say that. Excited to meet everyone. That’s why. Now, you are a local guide. Is that right? What What does that involve? And what kind of guiding do you do in Dresden? Well, actually, it should involve blue eyes and blonde hair, which I don’t have, of course. Or three generations in Dresdston in the graveyard to be called a true Dresden. But yes, I am here. I’m a local guide and I’ve learned the history of Dresden and Saxony and I show visitors who come here my beautiful city that I completely love and adore. It is beautiful and for those of us who haven’t been there, we’ll see why and how it is so beautiful in just a moment. That’s incredible. How bold of you to make that move? And it’s been more than 15 years. So, it’s it’s gone well, I take it. Yes. And I still love the city. It still makes my heart flutter when I see it. So all good. So you have two loves in Dresden, I guess, in that case. Yeah, absolutely. And I understand you brought a little treat to share something specific to Dresden. Would you be willing to tell us more? It’s the little letters, right? Yes. So it is called I’m going to show you the packet first. It’s called the Russian bread. I know it’s a it’s a a mirror image for many of you, but it is basically letters. And I’m going to show you something which doesn’t need a mirror image. You can have a tea. You can have a O. And if somebody’s Tom, I can spell that out. A Toby maybe. So these are Russian. This this was this is called Russian bread. And this was introduced to Dresdston in the 19th century by a baker who studied in Russia. And there apparently he noticed that children who were taught the alphabet were also given these letters to learn the alphabet. So they could learn the letter, they could eat it. So in a way they kind of ingested the letter and so it stayed with them. So it’s a nice way to learn to teach them. So he came back here and of course the Russian the letters there would have been cerillic but he converted them into the into the into the letters that were common for English and for German and therefore we have we also have numbers sometimes. So that’s also been um in fact um there is now a font there is a type face which is also called Russian bread. So you should everybody should look it up later on. That is very unique and what a great idea. I mean I would be more likely to learn the alphabet if I got to then eat letters as well. H absolutely a little treat for learning. Well I don’t have something quite as unique but at least at least is equally delicious. I have a brat vers in a nice bun with some sauerkraut because I can’t probably find Russian lettuce here. So this is as close as I can get. So maybe I’ll end up munching on this a little bit later. But uh you know nice to have a German treat. Okay. Well, Sema, shall we head off to Dresden then? Yes. Welcome. Such a beautiful city as we said before. And to get us started to orient us, Simma, where is Dresden located in Germany? So, you can see it’s on the east on the eastern most part of Germany and uh just between Berlin. And if you look to the north, you see Berlin there uh with its huge airport and at this and it joins borders with the Czech Republic and Poland to the east and the river El flows in from the Czech Republic uh cutting through Dresdston and flows all the way up to Hamburg. So so it’s it’s midway between Prague and Berlin. So this is what you’ll see when if you come to Dresden, you’ll see these beautiful Barack uh buildings all reconstructed of course because I’ll talk about that later. But all of this the city’s been lovingly rebuilt. Uh it was in ruins after the war. So this is the theater square. You’ll also see that this it’s a vibrant city and we have lots and lots of fairs. There’s a spring and there’s autumn and there’s summer and there’s of course winter. So anytime you’ll find these wonderful little little fairs happening um and uh lots of local food to eat, lots of music. Um yes. And look just look at this. this I mean imagine walking down streets that look this gorgeous. It really is a gem of a city. It has wonderful museums. So this is the you see a glimpse of the royal armory and uh there is the entire royal palace is given over to many many museums and each one of them is so interesting and it’s when you walk through the royal palaces you don’t feel like you’re walking you’re getting bored in a museum. It’s every room is different and vibrant. Yes, talking about vibrance, here’s the music and every corner you al also have opra singers practicing. Uh they have to practice anyway. There’s a music conservatory in Dresden. So very often they stand in a market square and they’ll play their music and collect some funds while they’re at it. Yeah, that’s the no marked uh which is the latest as the rebuilding of dressing comes together. That’s the very famous church of the lady, church of our lady, which is the symbol of Dresden and Sema. There are great local guides in Dresden and you were one of them and you had the pleasure of I hope it was the pleasure of working with Rick on the Germany book. Could you tell us a bit about what that experience was like? Yes, absolutely. It was wonderful because Rick is so he remembers so much. I mean, he always he’s all he’s in so well informed. and he goes to so many cities. It amazes me that he still remembers so much and he has and he’s so interested and he really is very particular about what he’s putting in because he’s always thinking about his readers and what they uh what they will need in terms of information. So he’s very very uh specific and has lots of questions and is very interesting to be with. is fun to be with. And of course, as you walk, you walk through a city, you have people reading his book and then they look at they look at him and they look at the book and they’ll say, “Excuse me, are you really Rick Steves?” And then of course they’ll be laughing and say, “Yes, he is.” And here’s my guide. So, it was fun. It was incredible. Well, I as a guide book researcher myself, I can say that having a local guide help when you’re updating a book is of monumental importance. I’m going to have the opportunity to meet with a local guide in Stockholm soon when I update that chapter. So, Sema, thank you very much for your contribution to the new Germany book. Thank you. And in terms of the city center of Dresden, can you orient us with where we will be going today? Yes. So, if you look at this the the lower part of the screen, you see it says Oldtown. And so that’s where we are. We’re we’re going to spend we’re going to be in the beginning. We’re going to be at the old town. Uh look at all of those uh those marked spots there. You’ll see slides very soon with those. And then we’re going to cross the river and uh go across to the new town and see a little bit of just the not the not deep into the new town but the part that’s near the river. And before you you leave the slide, I want to just tell you look at how the river curves uh and uh comes towards the old town. There is a saying saying the river elb it it bends towards dress to kiss kiss its beloved on the cheek before it flows on. So you can see there that clearly that that beautiful uh bending towards dressed in and kissing it. I love it. And Sema we have on Monday Night Travel a regularly used system called at a glance slide where we discuss a few basics about traveling to a city or region or a country. So, I’d like to ask you a few questions, basic questions about travel to Dresden. When would you suggest someone visit your city? I would say anytime. Um, except November because November is very rainy and windy and it’s just unpleasant. But till October, September, October, wonderful months. December is high season with the Christmas markets and uh of course January, February are cold, but still um still very very much okay to come. So just just don’t plan a November trip. That’s all I can say. That’s pretty good. 11 out of 12 months, not bad. Yeah. And in terms of arrival, how would you say most people could or should get to Dresden? Well, a lot of people fly are in Berlin already and then they could from there they could take a train. There’s a direct train from Berlin or there are even these flicks buses if you drive it’s just 2 and 1/2 hours from Berlin. You can then drive on to Prague. So it’s it’s a very nice route to do Berlin, Destin and Prague altogether. Um so but it’s very well connected with uh with the Autoban with the airport bus and train. Yeah, many options. I can say that I arrived in Dresden by train and that was seamless. That was I think 2016 I visited really. Okay, Deutschean now does have a little bit of a reputation for being late. So do take that into account. Uh but hopefully they’ll get that sorted out soon. And the allimportant question of advanced reservations. Does anything in Dresden need advanced reservations, Sema? Yes, I I’ve noticed that you put the historic green vault in there, which is a very good idea because it can tends to get booked out. It’s a timed entry and uh only um I think 30 people allowed at at one time. So, it’s a good idea to book that ahead of time. Um and uh I mean ahead of time is like even if you book a month or 3 weeks in advance should be okay once you know when you’re coming. and the El Cruise um is like you’ve have there. Other than that, everything else is perfectly okay to just walk into. That’s great. You can maintain a lot of spontaneity when you visit Dresdston. I like that a lot. Yep. And in terms of how you pay for things now, you know, so often central, Western, Northern Europe is becoming closer to being cashless. What is the case in Dresden? Cash is okay. This cash is still very very widely accepted. Uh so is Mastercard. I think there’s some problem with the MX. Um but otherwise the Mastercard is perfectly okay. But cash is absolutely okay as well. Just don’t come with a 500 euro note. That mean that bill that would nobody will have changed for that otherwise it’s all good. Yeah. Very good point. Yeah. In my experience Visa and Mastercard are the most accepted credit card types. Yeah. And in terms of where you would suggest people stay, do you have any suggestions on that? The old town has a lot of s um options very close to the to all the uh to all the sight scene that we’re going to be see looking at today. There are many many hotels and there’s a range of hotels there. Um they their luxury budget mid u as well and across the river in the new town uh there are host. So if anybody wants to do any kind of budget traveling then AC in the new town there are the places to stay in there otherwise stay in the old town between the river and the main station there is um hordes of hotels. Excellent suggestions. Thank you Sema. And how is the transportation in central Dresden the public transit? Excellent. You never have to wait more than 10 minutes uh for a connection except on Sundays when it’s be slightly more infrequent otherwise it’s very well connected and the same ticket is um you can use the same ticket for the trams and the buses um and also the the the the train that runs within the city the airspan you can also use it in that so it’s you just need one ticket for the day or if you’re going to be there for a couple of days you can also take a um take several of those uh daily tickets and use them and it’s very well um it’s very well explained the the the website of the DeFa Bay or the the the off the public transport is also in English. So it also explains the kind of tickets that you can use. Ah couldn’t be easier. And you mentioned the tram. I have a personal affinity for trams and I remember when I visited in 2016 that that was one of the best ways to get around and very inexpensive and the day ticket is something like what 9 or€10. Yeah. Yeah. And so unlimited use of the transit for €9. That’s not bad. Mhm. And if you’re a group then you can buy a group ticket or family ticket which is then or or a group ticket which is then cheaper. Even better. Now Sema, thank you for that. I’m we’re going to essentially zero in now on more sites and activities and places in Dresden and Simma, I’m going to hand it off to you a little bit more. I may interject occasionally, but um yes, please take us away in in central Dresden. So, this is a wonderful view of the Oprah House from the outside. It’s uh nicknamed the sea opra named after the architect who made it and it is a beautiful house and it from the with from also from inside uh you there is there is a slide after this that you will see but from the outside also you know it’s this the drama of this the entire rising to a crescendo has been used for the building as well and I think there’s a couple dancing in this on the slide there’s a couple dancing outside every February they have this huge open air uh kind of uh a a ball where everybody comes together and dances inside and outside the opera house. But you should see if you’re interested in you should also see an opera there. There it is. See how beautiful it is. And I want to tell you something every single seat in this opera house has the same quality of music. it that was designed the architect who made it Seer was he looked at every little curve in the house and has has made it so that it it sends the sound back into the house without absorbing it and so it is an excellent acoustic experience as well and pretty reconstructed 1985. So here’s the swinger and you will you will hear it you will hear it referred to as a swinger palace but it’s not a palace never was. It was the old fortification area which has been converted into a series of museums. And if you look closely, you’ll see there are trees. So there were orange trees at one point that filled the entire swinger. And so it was an orangangerie, but now it is a series of museums. You see on the left you see the pav. That’s right. And this is the you see the crown gate here and the people where they’re walking onto it that that used to be an old wooden drawbridge that would have been made in the 1590s and it is now of course not a wooden draw bridge. It is a more regular one but that it’s it’s a bridge over the old moat. So these were the fortifications and the moat and the drawbridge and they’ve tried to keep that uh that idea. Yeah. And this these are the what are inside the pavilions that you saw the long galleries there are museums. This is the royal cabinet of scientific and physical instruments. Very interesting. By the way 1580 they were making all of these wonderful objects. And here are the German masters. You’re seeing the sea gallery which is the gallery where the painting collection is the old master’s painting collection. And this is the floor devoted completely to the German um art um the German painters, the Kronach family. But of course there are also we have these huge collection of uh every single old master that you can want to see. They’re all in this museum. And now at this time Sema, we can turn it over to Rick for a moment because he would like to tell us a bit more about the porcelain collection and the green vault. So, let’s hear from Rick for a moment. Royal families aspired to have their own porcelain works, and the Vetin family had one of the best at nearby Mason. In those days, a king portrayed in porcelain was a happy king. Augustus the Strong was obsessed with the stuff. He liked to say he had porcelain sickness. Here you can enjoy some of his symptoms under chandeliers in elegant galleries. You’ll see fine table settings. He had a veritable porcelain zoo of exotic animals and beautiful birds. According to legend, for 151 of these Chinese vases, Augustus traded 600 soldiers complete with horses to Prussia. And here at this vinger, it just makes sense that the glocken spiel comes with 40 bells made of m porcelain. The delightful chimes are far sweeter than your typical bell. In the nearby royal palace, the official residence of Saxon rulers since 1485, is Dresden’s historic green vault. This glittering Baroque treasure collection is the sightseeing highlight of the city. The collection was begun by Augustus the Strong, featured here, surrounded by ancient Roman emperors on the base of an obelisk. It grew into the royal family’s exquisite trove of ivory, silver, and gold treasures. Displayed in rooms as opulent as the collection itself. Its purpose, a synthesis of the arts as an expression of wealth and absolute power. The amber cabinet shows off what you can do with fossilized tree sap. For example, this exquisite bowl from 1659. The ivory room does the same for elephant tusks with some strikingly delicate carving. In this amazing ivory frigot, tiny sailors climb the gold wire rigging, all supported by Neptune and his horses. In the aptly named hall of precious objects amid mother of pearl, ostrich egg, and snail shell goblets is the ultimate coffee service. This golden coffee service from 1700 is pure gold, iced with enamel, crusted with thousands of precious stones and crowned by a coffee pot filled with symbolism. Coffee was exotic and trendy back then. And this extravagant centerpiece, while never actually used to serve coffee, certainly made an impression. This captivating ensemble depicts a grand mogul on his birthday. He ruled India when Augustus ruled Saxony. And among Earth’s rulers, he was the embodiment of absolute power and endless wealth. Like royal Legos on a silver stage, the figures made of gold and glazed with enamel were movable for the king’s pleasure. And the finale in a place all its own is this dazzling green diamond. One of the largest ever discovered. Oh, well, thank you very much, Rick, for that. We’ll go back here uh so that you can see us again in the old master gallery. Sema, can you tell us a little bit about the difference between the historic and the new green vault because I’m a bit confused actually and I have some trouble even differentiating between them? Yes, I’m glad you’re asking me that because a lot of people do get confused and everybody wants to see whoever wants to see the green diamond ends up going to the historic green wall because they assume it’s going to be there. So, here’s the difference. When the original museums existed, they were that was 1723 onwards. They were all in that vaulted room, an old walled room which was which was partly green in color. And that’s the one that is called the green vault. when the the the palace was destroyed in the bombing and they began to rebuild it, they decided to separate the treasures and leave some of them in the historic rooms and take some of them up into a new display. So, if you remember while watching the slides, some of the objects were displayed in rooms with mirrored uh mirrors on the wall while some of them were displayed in glass cabinets. So the glass cabinets are the new Greenwald and the historic Greenwald has recreated the historic rooms, the historic Waltered rooms. And the idea of the historic Waltered rooms was that every object, it’s just not the object is not the art, but the entire the presentation of the object, the the object itself, the table it’s on, the table in the room that it’s in. And all of that together was the artwork, the entire impression. So, it’s worth going to both the walls, the green walls as well as the new green vault. The new the historic Green Walt has to be booked ahead of time. We’ve talked about that, but the new green vault you can walk in any time. And the ticket for the new green vault is also to be used for the rest of the royal palace. So you can you can see everything with one ticket, but the historic green vault needs a different ticket or you combine it. You buy a combined ticket for both. Aha. Thank you, Sema. And you actually answered my next question about the differences in booking between the historic and the new green vault. So thank you very much for that. I’ll let you carry on here. So this is the Royal Armory and each one of these is uh is has a history. So this is this was commissioned uh for example you know you know who it was commissioned for how much it weighs what year it was commissioned in who bought it. So every single piece of armor here has a history you see and it has been worn each one of these has been worn by the person who commissioned it unless he was unfortunate enough to die before it was u was delivered to him. So, from the royal palace, we are going to walk the the walk uh Rick’s walk takes us from the royal palace towards the church of our lady, which is what you’re seeing now. And it’ll take you along a wall. Um I think that might be the one that uh that we will see next is going to be a wall that is on the it’s it’s a it’s an entire wall of that’s there. There it is. It’s called the pro procession of princes or the parade of princes as it is in the book. And this is the royal family in royal procession. So there these are 35 horsemen each one of them the ruler of Saxony. So it’s basically it’s like a it’s like an advertisement of how powerful the family was and that they ruled for 829 years. That’s that’s the procession of princes. Wonderful details. Up close you can see these are small tiles. 24,000 tiles of porcelain, each one painted with a little bit of the painting and then put onto the wall. It looks like a like a tapestry. Yes. And that wall will take you to this square uh which is basically the new market square where there is there is the church of our lady in the background which is the like I said the symbol of Dresdston and also now the symbol of the rebuilding of Dresdston, the reconstruction of it. If you look closely at it, you see that there are some black spots on the church. And those spots are from the original building that have been reused in the in the rebuilding of the church. Whatever whatever stones could be used were put back again in the church. You see them better now. And of course, you see Martin Luther in front of it because it is a Lutheran church. It’s a nice angle there. Yeah, you can climb up to the top and there’s a wonderful view, you know, the 360 view of Dresdston or looking out over the Elb and what you see the boats that you see there on the on the river, that is Dresden’s white fleet. This is the oldest and largest steamboat fleet in the world. This is one of my favorite churches in Europe, Sema. And as you can probably imagine, I’ve seen a lot of churches. It really is special and it has a dramatic history. It’s just beautiful. And this view is excellent as well. I did climb to the top when I visited. Yeah. Yeah, it is worth it. And look, that’s the inside of the church. And so you can see I I see why you like it so much. Yes, it is. It is actually it’s surprising because uh it’s not a Catholic church, but yet it looks it’s so ornate that it looks like one. And if you look closely at the statue at you know the kneeling figure of of Christ kneeling on the mountain of olives just behind that is a gray uh kind of a gray uh figures and they are from the original altar. They were put together they were cobbled together from more than 2,000 pieces and they they put it together. They put the old altar together and they left it unpainted. So everything else is painted white and gold but the old parts are still left um of the original plaster color. Yes. And this is the cross that would have been on the top. The pinnacle cross that then fell all the way from the top of the dome and then they’ve put it up inside the church replaced and they replaced it with a new cross on the top. Yeah, that’s what it looked like. This is the this is how the church ruins were from 1945 to do you want to take a guess as to how long they stood like that 1990 till the reunification of Dresden of Germany they that that is what the church looked like and you can see all the rubble there that’s where they picked up the stones and then put them back in the church again in other words Sema and I I didn’t know this through the whole communist period the church stood in rubble it wasn’t until 199 90. That is remarkable. I I did not know this. They they would have removed it. They they removed a lot of churches. But uh the people of dressed in kept this going by uh by lighting candles and growing rose bushes on the church and using it as a as a church even though it was a rubble. And that’s how they kept it from being cleared away and being removed. And as soon as the Germany reunited um and the communist regime was gone, they started to rebuild it. And it was rebuilt in in essentially the same design as it was before. Right. Absolutely. I as as much as they can. Identical. Remarkable. And if this was this exactly and this is what Dresdston looked like. So if you look at the left um this is the city of Dston. This is an iconic war picture taken after the war after the bombing of Dresston in 1945 which shows you how the entire city center was completely uh gone. I mean it still stood like skeleton and when they removed it when they cleared it up the the part on the right is the same view and that’s been cleared up and that took them about 10 to 15 years to clear it all up and then they rebuilt it and they decided they thought about it they didn’t want a barack city again but they wanted a socialist city so this was rebuilt in the socialist fashion and it is now called the Pragrasa this is what it looks like now so you can see that beautiful Barack uh architecture gave way to the socialist uh buildings and this monument here is all the socialist nations coming together. It’s the international friendship monument. It’s um so this is this entirely and people come to dress they get off at the station and that’s what they see and then they wonder why have we come here to this barack doesn’t look barack at all but you’d also this murals are a large part of the architecture because in the socialist times a certain percentage of the building the budget of the building was spent on uh decorating it from the outside and the decoration on the outside had to uh show you the heart of socialism. So here we have the red the path of the red flag. It has you can see the fiveointed star of uh communism in the middle. what you if you look to the left of the screen just behind the leaves there’s uh KL Marx there with the the communist manifesto in his hand and to the extreme right is the socialist uh society coming together with all the children scientists workers uh everybody joining hands and looking into the future didn’t last very long that future but there it was. So, we’re back again to the theater square from a different angle. No, sorry. This is the cathedral from another angle. And we This is right next to the river. So, if you’re here, you’re going to be either crossing over crossing the bridge or you’re going to be going up into what’s called the Brules Terrace. So, this is this is also the square where many of our tours begin. Yeah, this is another angle of that same square. In the in the back you can see the royal palace, the tower of the royal palace and uh the cathedrals on the right. Yes. And so you’ve climbed up on the old fortifications and on the left the building you see on the left is the art academy. So this is a nice place to walk. It also has cafes. You can sit down, watch the sunset, have a glass of wine. Uh Saxony is known as 850 years of wine history. So if you like your rezling or you should try some here on this terrace or anywhere in any of the cafes. Well that’s news to me Sema because when I think of wine in Germany I think of the rine but good to know that you can go to Saxony and find very good wine as well. In fact it is the only place you can find the gold rezling. It’s the only place in the world where it’s still grown today. So a glass of gold reesling is what you should do. Yes. Yes. So, we’re crossing the bridge here. Um, you can see the at the back is the cathedral. And so, this is a a view from the new city towards the old city. And, uh, this is, uh, yeah, it’s and this is, of course, the famous Elb meadows. This has been left. So, the it will never be built. It’ll never be built up to the river. There’s always this little strip of green runs along the river all the way and in fact there’s a cycle path here and you can actually cycle all the way from Prague to Hamburg in 2 and 1/2 weeks if you are active enough and it’s one of the most beautiful cycle paths but this is left this is just where the the dressers will come every evening uh sit down watch a movie with their family play and is that sema the Augustus bridge on on the left and that we were crossing just a moment ago. Yes, it’s August and in Rick’s book, this is a a bridge you will cross to get to Noat across the river. Also nice in the daytime, not just at night. Yes. And you see the bikes in the in the distance there at the back. Speaking of Augustus, there he is. He’s called the Strong. He’s nicknamed the strong because he was he stood head and shoulders above everybody else. He was 5′ 8 in which was very tall for that time. By the end of his life he weighed about 240 pounds. He was a large man but he could ride. Look at him. He’s riding away towards Poland to be the king there. Right. Because he was the ruler of Saxony and the ruler of Poland. And this is mid 18th century if I remember correctly. Is that true Sema? That’s right. Actually 1697 is when he became the ruler of he became the king of Poland and he ruled all the way till 1733. And this is an important region or period rather excuse me for Saxony for Dresden. Would you say when I think of Saxony and Dresden I think of maybe four important periods in history. This time period with Augustus second world war of course communist period and then reconstruction. And I feel like what we’re seeing here on this tour essentially covers and goes over those four crucial moments in Dresden history. Would you agree with that initial assessment? I completely agree. Yes, that’s right. And then further into the new town. And Sema, before I let you carry on, I’m curious. Do you have a sense of how many visitors to Dresden actually go to the new town? because I felt that most people were not bothering to cross the bridge even though they should probably. Yeah, I agree. They should cross the bridge. And if you’re staying in Restston and hopefully you’re not just there for a couple of hours, you’re actually staying in Restston. And so the the best thing to do is to go to the old town in the day, go to the museums and then cross over to the new town in the evening and go even deeper. This is still close to the river. And if you go deeper, I mean when I say deeper, if you walk for about 20 minutes, you come to the real the the kind of the real the place where the locals live and that’s a completely different face of Dresdston. It’s like Eve Black and Eve White, you know, this is that that part is the grungy bohemian very laidback kind of thing. So you and in one square mile there are more than 200 pubs and restaurants. So one should definitely see both the faces of Dresden. Ah, amazing. Yeah. and wonderful advice about going to the new town in the evening as well. Yes, this is still the new town. Yeah. And you mentioned many pubs in the lot. Yeah, many pubs. This one is still close to the river. So, this is not not a large walk. You can just have to cross the river and you come to this. I think this is the Vatka. Very German, very typical German food. Lots of beer. They have their own brewery. So of course you can have your fill of German beer here in this particular place and worst. Um you know your bratw worst. There it is talking about beer. So do try some. There’s even beer tasting of course. Um did you adjust to the German beer culture okay when you moved? Um, oh, I’m more of a wine person, but I have an occasional beer. That’s right. Well, I like the beer tasting, though. I’m glad they have wine there for you as well. Local wine. Yeah. And is this a beer garden? Is that what this is? Or just an outdoor? No, this is still one of the uh one of the festivals in the market square. This is the same market square where the Christmas market will take place uh a couple of months later. This is I think this must be spring or autumn. So this is the new town. This is part of the new town and this is supposedly the most beautiful milk shop in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records also. Now they’ve also given them a certificate which is proudly displayed in the shop. But this is really this was this has survived the bombing and what you see are tiles. The entire shop is covered in beautiful tiles by Veroy and Bach and they had um they had an they manufactured the tiles in Dresdston and they worked with local artists to create tiles which were to do with dairy because it is a milkshop and as you walk through this they didn’t allow photo photograph photography till a few years ago but now if you go there you can take photographs as well and enjoy a glass of buttermilk or buy cheese. But this is the dressed in aya. This is the typical uh cake of the region. It’s made with kind of a cream cheese. What you see there in the white in the middle is a very light uh cheese which is zero fat apparently. High protein, zero fat. So they you don’t have to have a bad conscience. What you have had to bad conscience is the stolen the dressed in Stalin in Christmas. That is heavy. And there you have it. It’s it’s absolutely it’s delicious. And uh it’s called the stolen. It’s it’s it’s spelled with a s t o l l e n stolen. But it’s called the stolen. And it is you can try the the bakers in the Christmas market will lay out small pieces for you to taste. So you can walk through the market tasting everybody’s stolen and then go back and buy the one that you like. Occasionally you can find stolen in the US as well. I’ve seen it for sale. Maybe of course it’s not Dresden made, but uh if you’re looking to to try stolen and not not able to go all the way to Dresden, you may be able to find it close to home at Christmas time as well. That one slice there is equivalent to a full calories of one meal. So you have to be care. So we we’ve presented two options then. You can go with the local Dresden cake which with the high protein cheese or you can go with the the There’s something for everybody, isn’t there? Yeah, the Christmas market. Yeah, they are wonderful and a lot of people This is the high season for us. A lot of people come here for the Christmas markets and it’s really there are so many interest in Rest in it. All in every nook and corner there’s a different Christmas market with a different flavor. Oh, that’s beautiful. That’s the treasle marked. That’s the oldest Christmas market in Germany, by the way. In Rston, that is impressive. And the nutcracker. The nutcracker. Yes, that’s right. I also have something else to show you. May I? Yes. I’ll even I’ll stop the screen so you can become larger again. There. Do you have Of course, I have the nutcracker. You know, you can see this one here. But also, I wanted to show you this little fella. This is the smoking man. You can see the little, you know, this. Now, this comes apart. You can take this apart. And here is where you put a little incense cone and you light it and then you can shut it. And the smoke of the incense will then rise and come out of this. And you can they have them in all figures, all sorts of uh different kind of looks. And this one is a is a sand man. He’s got his he’s got the little bags of sand. He’s a flood helper because in 2002 there was a huge flood in the river Elb and of course everybody had to help. So there they are with a sand and a little broom. So they you can buy one of these for your table and have it smoking. Very unique. Has there been any flooding lately? Hopefully not. 2013 there was a flooding, but after that not okay. Well, that’s now we could do some more rains. Well, thank you for that wonderful souvenir. I love it. Local local things like that. Yeah. And you know, we’ve talked about central Dresden quite a bit, but there’s a gem of a place outside of the city, Sema. This is Saxon, Switzerland. And I don’t know why is it called that? Do do you happen to to know the answer? Yeah, sure. There was um so this is um these are sandstone cliffs. This is a wonderful bizarre landscape that was made over millions of years of of geological development. And in the art academy of Dresden, there were two artists, painters from Switzerland. And they as they traveled east, they came across this landscape. And one of them sent a postcard back home saying, “This reminds me so much of my home in Switzerland. So this is my home, my Switzerland and Saxony. So I’m sending you greetings from my Sax in Switzerland.” And the name just stuck. You know, of course, that’s not the name. It’s just something that we refer to, but I think everyone’s given up trying to remind everyone that it’s the uh it’s not Sax in Switzerland. It’s just called that way. And how can you get here from Dresden? You can you can take the river, of course. You can you can take a li nice leisurely cruise up the river El, but that will take you about 5 hours. You can also drive down there or you can also have it you can get to it by by train by train and then a train and a bus connection. But there is a website that you can refer to uh which is which will tell you exactly what the connections are and how to take them and I think we can share the link uh if you’d like can do that. Yes, Emily has has added it, I believe, to the chat and it will be in the follow-up email, as will several other links, including a link, Sema, to your website where people can find out more about your services, your guiding services in Dresden. So, that’s an important one. Hey, look forward to that. This is about 40 minutes away, by the way. So, not too far from Dresden. Yeah. Beautiful. I would love to go next time. I’ve heard a few people in the office here talk about it as well. It’s being a wonderful day trip. Yeah, it is. I would say I mean three nights in Destin is a good amount because then you can get to see Dresston. You can get to see Saxon Switzerland. Maybe go up to M which is another small town just about 25 minutes away. Beautiful medieval town with the M porcelain factory. So that’s also another day trip that can be done along the river but to the west. This is to the east. A very good point about how many nights. So three nights, two full days plus maybe a little extra time. will do the trick for Dresston. Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful. Saxon, Switzerland. Something to add to the list. And when you go to Saxon, Switzerland, there are two places that you can visit. You can go to the national the the the the what you just saw, the sandstone cliffs, which is called the Bastai. But you can also go up to an old fortress, which was never defeated. And that is called the Kernikstein or the king’s stone. And that’s a plateau. That’s a fortress upon a plateau and that is never um never conquered. Well, thank you Sema for suggesting Sax and Switzland. It was your idea. I I didn’t intend on including it in the presentation, but you recommended it. So, thank you for that. My pleasure. And back to Dresden essentially. Uh we’ve seen the city center and some of the new town. Sema, you live in such a magnificent city. Thank you very much for giving us a tour of it. You’re welcome. My pleasure. And I will just give a brief word from the sponsor for tonight. And I’ve mentioned it already, but I’ll I’ll mention it again. We just came out with a new Germany guide book a few weeks ago, freshly updated where several of our guidebook researchers crisscrossed the country to provide the latest information and many local guides like you, Sema, also provided monumental help. So, thank you again, Sema, for that. And um yes, I will get to help with uh guidebook research soon myself. I’m looking forward to that. So, the Germany guide book, brand new, lots of information about Dresden. Okay, Zma, are you ready for a Q&A? Yes, absolutely. Perfect. Emily has been sending me some questions. Grant would like to know, is Dresden still being rebuilt from the Second World War? Parts of it, yes. And some parts will never be rebuilt. They’ve already decided that uh some parts will not be. But uh there is especially the area around the church of our lady that is really kind of the last point of the rebuilding within the city center and the last of those buildings has been rebuilt now after which that part of the city center will be fully done. And the new town largely escaped the bombings. Is that true? That was my impression. Uh yes the parts near the river they were completely gone but towards the towards the towards the so the south further north actually uh some parts did um escape bombing and they fell victim to dilapidation to neglect in the East German times and they was they were very very in a very bad shape almost to be pulled down by 1989 but then after the regime fell they’ve survived so what you if you go to the no chart you see the old buildings which have been now refurbished and but it still looks the way it did then. Uh related question, Suzanne and others are curious if you know how some of the treasures of the old town were protected or survived the Second World War. Did were they removed and brought to a safer place perhaps? Yes, absolutely. So um already in 1942 there was already a decision taken to start um removing the treasures, boxing up the treasures and so by by 44 they were more or less just a few were left because the museums were still on but many of the treasures were then taken away and they were hidden in abandoned uh palaces, abandoned mines, train tunnels which were not being used and that’s how they survived. In fact, Kernikstein the place that I mentioned u the king stone which are on a plateau a lot of the treasures were taken there as well and survived there. So and then but then they were all lost immediately as the war ended the Russian troops marched into Dresen and took away every single stick of pressure. Everything was gone and it did not come back till 1955. So it was a long negotiation. It’s all the more remarkable that uh what we see when we visit the old town is there and has survived. That is remarkable. Okay, I will ask you a question more about the present day Sema. Uh Saxony is a center of a conservative party in Germany called the AFD. So, uh, how is what is the situation regarding the the conservative, we would say potentially even far right in your state of Germany today? Well, it is this far right stronghold now. It is the birthplace of the of the farright party. Um, so well, it is there, but but I must say that it’s it doesn’t affect tourists. It has it is it is a political leaning you know it is it is a it is a demand from the government but it doesn’t kind of um doesn’t play itself out uh towards visitors in any way. Yeah, thank you for that. That’s important, I think, for people to know. Uh, sort of in the same vein, what has your experience in Dresden been like as an immigrant since you came in 2009? Well, I in the beginning I I met a lot of ignorance because India was uh seen is always seen as a third world country and you know uh the images of uh of poverty or being uneducated. So I was always confused with uh uh you know confused with that and I was asked questions like oh are there doctors in India or you know some of that but we’ve come a long way and in Saxony is the is the hub of semiconductor industry that’s the largest employer of the region and the semiconductor industry and the there is Maxplank institute so all of these employs a lot of Indians come to Dresdston to uh study do do their PhDs or work in the uh in the semiconductor industry. So the the now it’s changed now we kind of we’re more respected let’s say. Well that’s very good to hear at least and as a local guide being u foreign born have you had any unique experiences because of that or have you been treated any differently? I had to fight my way in. It took me a long time to uh to kind of make a little place in the pie and uh a lot of people were very reluctant as a let an outsider come and take their uh take their work. But I think the fact that a not too many guides speak English here and uh the English tourism was picking up. They reluctantly admitted that I could I could be of use to them because then I could do the English tours. But we’ve had to fight and I’m not just alone. I I work with a team of close friends uh and all of us do the tours together. So, we’ve all had to fight for our um for our place here. Well, I’m glad you found that place. I’ve certainly seen why you are so valuable for Dresden as a local guide. So, well done. Thanks. I think I can ask a couple more questions. Let’s see. Now, Anthony would like to know what part of India you’re from, if you’re up for sharing that. Yes. From the north, from Delhi. Do you go home often? Yes, every year. Okay. Fantastic. It’s quite a change going from Germany to to India. Although I guess it’s closer than if you were to come from say se go from Seattle to Yes, certainly. Yeah. Is this a 14-hour trip all in all? Kathy is asking about navigating Dresden. Do you find that it’s fairly easy to navigate the city center as a tourist? I would say the signage is not that great but uh with GPS now or with you know with maps on our phone it’s very easy because it’s laid out in a very northsoutheast west axis. It’s actually um so it’s very very easy uh to find your way there because the main roads are basically in a cross and then um and then the Google maps will do the rest. It’s easy. Yeah, that’s very good. Thank you Sema. Okay, one final question then. What aspect of Dresden do you most love? Like what is your favorite part of your city? Ah, it’s really the river because you walk down to the river and it’s, you know, it’s just it’s so approachable because it’s really there. You can walk into it. You can, you know, dip your feet in it. You can sit there, read a book. There’s a beer garden behind you. You can fetch yourself a glass of wine or a beer and carry on reading your book. It’s just wonderful because it invites in. Everybody comes out, you know, everybody comes out into the river along it and you’ll find pockets of people barbecuing or chatting, friends chatting, a lone person reading. It’s it’s lovely. I love it. And when I come when I come to work, I live on the noise starts tight and when I come to work uh to do a tour, I have to cross the bridge. And when I cross the bridge, I see this beautiful skyline with all the domes and the steeples and the buildings. And every single time I come there and I see this is my office. This is where I work. Can you imagine the pleasure of that? So that the river and the skyline is my favorite. I can understand why you love them so much. And the public space along the river as you said is magnificent. Yeah. Truly. Thank you so much, Sema. You were a delight. very knowledgeable and informative and uh you just offered so much about Dresden. You make me want to go back. As I said, it’s been 10 years, but I’m ready to go and I’ll definitely go to your website, send you a message when I next visit. I look forward to that and to visiting all of you coming to Dresdston and visiting us. Thanks so much, Sema. Have a good night. I hope you’re able to get a little shutye before the morning comes. Thanks. And I’ll mention briefly that next week we go to the Alps for hutto hut hiking. So don’t forget to join us for that as well.
Dresden’s bewitching Baroque architecture and phoenix-from-the-ashes history captured the heart of Seema Prakash when she first visited the city in 2009. She decided then and there to move from her native India to “Florence on the Elbe.” Now a local guide, Seema joins us for a tour of Dresden starting in the beautifully reconstructed Old Town. After admiring the fairytale treasures of Zwinger Palace, we cross the river into edgy, proudly counter-cultural Neustadt. To round out our adventure, we daytrip to nearby Saxon Switzerland National Park to hike beneath towering sandstone cliffs.
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