I have been sick with a cold for the last couple of days that I got from Andy who got it from a guy on the plane. What has made it worse is the weather has gotten very cold (in the low 50s) with a biting wind.

Dresden is a beautiful city with 500,000 people. It was a UNESCO World Heritage Site until the people voted to build a modern bridge after this happened.

Our main time in Dresden was on a Sunday which meant everything was closed including shops and some restaurants. We had a walking city tour after we had champagne for breakfast.

Lot of beautiful buildings and palaces in Dresden. They are still doing reconstruction and renovations because nothing was done after the war because Dresden was in East Germany under the control of the Soviets. When Germany was reunited in 1990 all the rebuilding started.

We had a free afternoon after our morning tour so we decided to tour the Royal Place that was across the street from our hotel. Room after room of gorgeous priceless treasures. I asked our guide how this collection survived the war. He said that the Nazis knew the value of the collection so it was removed and hidden in caves. When the Communists took over East Germany they had no interest so everything remained in storage until 1990 when the reunification occurred.

The following are some of the palace rooms that have been restored. Most of the rest of the museum was collections of clothing, weaponry, jewelry, etc. Absolutely minded boggling.

We returned to our hotel for a nap after the museum but we were interrupted by a fire alarm. Thank goodness it wasn’t a real fire because the end of our street was barricaded so the fireman had to walk in until the trucks could find the way around the barricade.

Next is on to Prague and more freezing temperatures.