Dresden!

The previous weekend we took a quick excursion to Dresden. A former East German town, Dresden was bombed heavily by the Allies at the conclusion of the Second World War, but decades of restoration (particularly after Reunification) have led to this place having lots of really nice architecture. Here's a shot of the approach to the Altstadt along the Elbe river.

This is the Dresdner Staatoper, the State Opera House of Dresden. In addition to it being a really nice example of Baroque architecture, it is said to be one of the best opera houses in the world. I was a little disappointed, they had productions of Wagner's Ring Cycle on during the time while we were there, but it was a production of Siegfried on Friday night and Götterdämmerung on Sunday night -- in terms of evenings, the only evening that was free for me was Saturday night, when they were doing Falstaff, which I am slightly less interested in hearing. Nevertheless it's a sweet building!

Next we headed out of the city center a little bit to the Großes Garten (Big Garden), which is a massive piece of green space, as well as the location of VW's Phaeton factory, pictured below. The Phaeton is VW's luxury car (approximately on par with the Audi A8 or the BMW 7-series). They had a little museum there, where you could see the production line (it was Saturday so it wasn't running, it was nevertheless cool), and also a simulator where you could 'drive' it, as well as a floor model to hop in and have a look. Everything in there is really nicely done; the UI on the driver computer was okay but I thought that the feedback wheel was kinda primitive and not so intuitive. Nevertheless -- really nice car, and cool factory to boot!

Walking back to the city, we pass by the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), illuminated by the setting sun. Dresden is a beautiful city (also the home of the best Döner I have ever had, but that's another story I suppose.)

P.S. I finally buckled and joined this here facebook...so now my blog posts will be RSS-synced to the news feed on there. If you're on it, feel free to add me...