.: august august :.

We spent an extended weekend discovering the storied city of Dresden and surrounding Elbe Valley. We came away with a lot of impressions and more insight into the history and circumstance that formed the region. August the Strong (Augustus der Starke) was the Saxon ruler of the early 18th century who was primarily responsible for commissioning all the Baroque embellishments that earned Dresden the title the “Balcony of Europe.”

First, we visited the Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault) in the Dresdener Residenz and were dazzled by the collection of treasures—a succession of mirrored galleries, faithful reconstructed and stocked with silver, gold and ivory works of art. Afterwards, we strolled through the old town, the Zwinger palace, and along the Brühl Promenade, Europe’s balcony, that runs parallel to the river and commands a view into the streets of town.

In the late evening, we went out to a club, with which we had better luck and more energy for than in our past experiences, that was located in the district of Neustadt, which had a lot of character and once boasted a sort of independent status as the Bunte Republik of Neustadt (DE/EN), an artists’ enclave and a micronation like Freetown Christiania in Oslo, for a short time in the early 1990s.

The next day, we had booked passage on a cruise down the Elbe in a boat that was part of the oldest and largest fleet of paddle-wheel steamships in the world. Before boarding, however, we investigated the vaulted guard chambers that were buried in the fortified walls of the city. There was an interesting history lesson in regards to the patrolling and policing the population and August the Strong kept alchemists in his employment, granting them one clay-lined passageway as a laboratory for potentially dangerous experiments. The mad scientists were charged with discovering the formula, and they were successful, for so-called white gold, porcelain in order to compete with china from China—only the major centers of production were later moved to Meissen.

The steam ship, the Leipzig, as a matter of fact, was antique model but modernized and gleaming, and gave us a relaxed tour of Dresden’s banks, including the new Autobahn bridge that offended UNESCO so much and the Blaues Wunder, a technical marvel still in use and the oldest suspension bridge. There were several palaces along the banks but our destination, some 11 kilometers down the river, was absolutely breathtaking.

The oriental summer palace of August the Strong of Pillnitz was built as a romantic retreat for one of his mistresses and was another baroque masterpiece of architecture and artistry. In the evening, we explored the city some more and took a lot of photographs of the buildings illuminated at night, including the Fürstenzug, an amazing mosaic of Meissen tile that depicts the rulers of Saxony.

The next day, we took another tour around the town that explained more history and allowed us to revisit a few landmarks, and covering more ground in a short time, we had a chance to take a guided tour of the opera house, the Semperoper, which had the most incredible foyer and theatre, including a forerunner to the digital clock, above the stage, so the audience—I guess, did not need to be discrete about checking their watches.

Before our arranged visit to the Frauenkirche, we visited the royal Hofkirche with its strange altar of Meissen porcelain. Rebuilt from collective memory and with resolve and dedication, the towering landmark was as impressive to see from the inside as from the outside. We were a bit overwhelmed with all the adventures and we spent a quiet evening, reflecting on what all we had done and seen.

Unfortunately we had to return home the next day, but the trip was rejuvenating and seemed longer than just a few days. On the way home, we visited another one of August the Strong’s idylls, just a little hunting lodge perched on a mountain deep in the Saxon woods, between Dresden and Chemnitz. For all we saw, there is certainly a lot more to discover and a return trip is definitely in order.