You are receiving this from a modern day, elderly super hero!! When I arrived in Dresden I bought a Museum Card…pay 21 Eu and visit as many museums as you want…the catch…in 2 days!! Now this girl likes to do a Museum a day, 2 if pushed but that means brain going to mush. However the imperative that trumps (sorry to use that word) all others is getting value for money. I planned 2 museums today and 2 tomorrow but that meant losing a few.
So, I set out this AM, after saying good morning to Lou Boy, I had a strong coffee and off I went. First cab off the rank was the Museums in Zwinger (a palace built by Augustus the Strong _ great name!- nearly as good as Friedrich dei Grosse). The Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister i.e. Old Masters Museum was first. That was pretty impressive which, as the name suggests, was full of the old masters such as Raphael, Rubens, Cranach, Rembrandt, Vermeer etc…spent ages there because I do love following these mighty men around the world. Thinking it was a 2 museum day I took my time and calmly moved on to the other gallery in the Zwinger (there are 3 but I decided to ditch the Mathematisch- Physikalischer (I did think you boys would probably have loved it) and chose instead the Porzellansammlung i.e. the Porcelain Collection from China Japan and of course Meissen. Half way through that Museum I thought it was fairly boring but then it really got interesting and there were some amazing pieces that I loved…I kept thinking how Loris would have loved it!!
By this stage I was exhausted so I stopped for a bowl of soup and a sit down for a while. With this I revived and it was only 2.30. So I decided to go back to yesterdays venue, the main Schloss, the Residenzschloss which is also now a whole lot of museums. This is the site of yesterday’s Historisches Grunes Gewolde which was amazing. So this time I made for the Neues Grunes Gewolde (The new one!). It was equally overwhelming…it truly is amazing they are both just overflowing with the most remarkable jewels, intricately worked objects of all sorts in ivory, shell, ebony, gold, silver and all jewel studded. It’s impossible to describe, it is awe-inspiring, overwhelming and beautiful. I loved it as I loved yesterdays. It also has the biggest and only green diamond in the world (biggest and only of course not being possible but I’ll leave it at that), a cherry pit with 185 faces carved on it. Anyway, enough of that. In the same building is the Turkish Cammer..a bit of a disappointment actually which was a relief because I’d had it. But the huge turkish tent was impressive.
That was it I was done!! It was 5 pm and dark so I headed to a ‘Keller’ recommended in LPG for tea but as I arrived so did 50 or so tourists off a bus so I was outta there. I headed back to the restaurant near home where I went on the first night. It was so early I was able to get a table despite them being fully booked…as long as I left by 6.30…no problem for me! This time I ordered a goulash and again it was HUGE. But I’m wise now so I carefully ate half and asked to take the other half home…2 meals for the price of one…very clever!! And home to get those shoes off.
Did I tell you how mean the provisions are in this BnB…Overall its totally fine, in a brilliant position and has everything I need but they cock it up by not having a few basics like a good knife (or any sort of cutting knife), no chopping board, a really crappy corkscrew that almost defeated me last night but desperation wins in the end. And finally not enough toilet paper to last the 6 days I’m here. But fear not I’ve taken up the challenge and am about as economical as is humanly possible!!