Another fantastic day in Dresden. There’s so much to do here, so we really pack it in today.

Our first stop is at a cool coffee shop for a latte. I love how hipster Germany is.

We walk into town the way we left the other day, along the beautiful walking street that leads directly into town. It’s easy because there aren’t any cars and the bicyclists are very careful. I’m going to miss such walks in NYC.

As we cross the bridge to the old part of town, we stop to watch some construction. Always a good time. In the square we see some people preparing an art exhibit. We check it out and discover they are blowing up a “boat” that we can walk through later today. Sounds interesting. We’ll check it out later.

The square is surrounded by gorgeous old buildings on three sides (river on the fourth). Our first stop is the opera building, recommended by a fellow traveler we met in Prague, but the English tour is tomorrow. Bummer. The next super large building has tons of people congregated in the atrium. It’s the Zwinger, a museum of old masters’ paintings.

We purchase tickets and learn that the best way to do these museums it to buy a day pass. It includes the museum we saw yesterday, so that’s a bummer, but it still makes sense for us. The woman says we don’t have enough time because museums close at 6pm and it’s almost 2pm. We do it anyway. We want to see as much as we can.  

The kids are super excited about the Old Masters. I think they’re really just excited about the audio guides. It’s a beautiful museum and not too busy, except for the occasional tour group that crowds us out of certain spaces.

There are a couple other museums in this set of buildings, but we opt for just walking around to see the beautiful architecture and then heading to the other set of museums included in our pass. We walk through a cool garden with a an awesome fountain. We climb stairs next to the fountain that lead to a walkway winding along the top of all four sides of this garden.  

The next set of museums is just across the street. The most prominent is The New Green Vault with amazing treasures. The kids say, “Argh, she timbers” like a pirate because it’s a museum of treasures (I guess pirates are the only ones with treasure). 

I’m surprised how much I enjoy this exhibit. These treasures are so unusual! It’s almost like a modern art museum, but with way more diamonds. The kids find it interesting as well. I’m surprised there aren’t more people here. I think a week day in September is outside the summer season and so everything is calmer. We meander our way through the exhibit, looking at all sorts of odd, precious items. This museum is  super big success for us.

Oly falls asleep on Stefan as we enter the last room of the exhibit, so we go downstairs and sit at the cafe outside. Lillian and I have hot chocolate while Stefan enjoys a beer. We let Lillian select a cake. She picks one with strawberry and jelly on top that tastes like strawberry shortcake. We play cards in the sun for almost an hour before Oly wakes.

We won’t have time for a lot more, and there are at least 5 more museums in this set. The kids select the Armory. Perfect choice. But first they have to throw the money from their pockets into the fountain.

The Armory is a huge exhibit that stretches along the entire floor of the palace. We are the only ones in there! Knights in armor and horses and swords…this place is incredible. We have such a blast. Oly is really excited at how each knight’s armor matches his horse’s armor. He runs from one to the next showing us.

Next we see the money exhibit. The collection is from all over the world, but mostly Europe, and spans centuries. Both coin and paper. It’s really interesting. By the time we’re finishing up, it’s 5 minutes till 6. We shut down this museum.

//Stefan Note: the money exhibit was great.  They had coins from every land since long time ago

We really want to go in to the church we missed yesterday, so we run over there on the off-chance we can get in before it closes. We walk through the doors with one minute to spare and watch them lock the doors behind us. It’s smaller and more gaudy than I expect. It’s amazing, though, to realize the entire structure was rebuilt to its former glory in the 1990s.

//Stefan Note: they just started rebuilding the city 10 years ago and I like how they leave the old blocks black with grime, GDR Grime

We take the walkway along the river back to the square with the strange art exhibit.  People are now inside the white bubble “boat”. We must go! We set aside the scooters and squeeze through the small doorway to enter a large hallway. There are recorded accounts of refugees. Nothing too scary. We wander through and then push our way out like being born again into the world.

As we walk back to our neighborhood, Oly recognizes the block with the beer garden from yesterday. He insists we stop for a snack so he can play with the kids’ toys. He’s too cute to resist. I love this place, too. Katy’s Garage is a really cool place, with the lanterns hanging overhead, great beer and a chalkboard and coloring books for kids. I don’t need a lot more than that to have a perfect evening.

Stefan finds a great spot for dinner that’s actually on that cool passageway we discovered. Lila Sosse is the only business still open on this part of the passageway, like a sweet little refuge from the dark. Their thing is serving stuff in glass jars. Seems a little silly until the food totally blows me away. Both warm and cold starters, then two of their specials, the chicken with pumpkin and the beef are amazing. Unfortunately the service is incredibly slow, but we wouldn’t mind at all if we didn’t have the kids falling asleep on us. This place is still a total gem.