Day 12: Guten Tag!

We were in the lobby of our hotel at 5:15am to catch our ride to the airport. By 10am, we had arrived safely in Dresden after a quick transfer in Munich. Goodbye, Poland. Hello, Germany.

We actually had absolutely nothing planned in terms of sightseeing when we arrived in Dresden. I had booked the hotel purely on the proximity to the car rental office that we will be picking up our rental car tomorrow morning. Not only did the hotel take us by surprise, but so did the city of Dresden. First off, the hotel is quite eclectic. All of the featured artwork was produced by a single artist, A.R. Penck. The other hotels in this unique hotel chain feature works by other artists. The funkiest feature in our room is the window between the bedroom and the bathroom. With a flip of a switch, it will change from opaque to transparent. Silly, but totally neat.

The Old City is quite picturesque. The entire city was rebuilt after it was destroyed by Allied bombings during WWII.  Some of the historical buildings that we looked at today included the Zwinger, Semper Opera House, and the Dresden Fortress Museum. We noticed a sign regarding UNESCO but we had no idea what it meant because it was in entirely in German. It turns out that Dresden had lost the World Heritage Site status in 2009 due to the construction of a highway bridge. Wow.  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1156

Over the next two days, we will be attending the MotoGP at Sachsenring. The return of Valentino Rossi to the track after a 6 week absence! Oh, the drama! 

Update on Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 2:48AM by Matt

Zwinger:

Zwinger minotaur:

Semper Opera House:

Dresden fortifications: