Dresden is one of the three “mental health days” I built
into this trip (the other two are our free day in Vienna and our day trip to
Kazimierz Dolny). From the beginning, I
felt that it be important that the heavy and often depressing nature of the
subject of the class not emotionally and psychologically overwhelm them. I’ve met too many students who go on a
two-week intense Holocaust class and come back shell shocked. For some students, this is their visit to any
of the countries on our tour; for others, this is their first trip to
Europe. I’d hate for them to come here
and miss some of the beautiful aspects here.
That’s why I took them to the Pergamon Museum or the Reichstag or
Dresden. I also think that in a way it
enhances the class, because these places were just as beautiful then, yet
people did horrible things. And even
among these beautiful places today, people are still doing horrible things.
I would have gotten a great night’s sleep last night, after
the university finally paid my hotel in Prague, but for the fact I had to be up
early today to leave for Dresden. As it
happens, I needn’t have gotten up early at all, as our train was delayed an
hour. As a result, I received a 25%
refund when I turned in the necessary form this evening (I got there just in
the nick of time too, just 5 minutes before they closed at 9 pm).
Once we finally got on, the train was very crowded. Luckily, I had reserved seats, but it was a
mess getting everyone in them as we had most, but not all of the seats in our
section of the wagon.
Making these
uncomfortable were a Spanish couple with two giant suitcases, taking up all leg
room. He ultimately moved one to the
overhead rack, but it became like a suitcase of Damocles, threating to fall on
the head of the person below if the train went too roughly over the points.
Once we were underway, the journey went smoothly and we
checked into our hotel in Dresden with no difficulties. Only one of our rooms was done, but that meant
we could store our luggage there without having to pay a storage fee. I also submitted a form indicating this was
an official school group, so it looks as if we will be exempted the 41 Euro
city tax. Woo hoo!
From there, we strolled down past a wild, communist-era
mural at the culture center to the Residenzeschloß, reconstructed since
1992. I ran off to buy the tickets for
our cruise and was pleasantly surprised to receive not only a student discount,
but my ticket as professor was free. It turns
out that my ticket at the Residenzeschloß would also have been free if I had
made prior arrangements, but now I know better for next time.
We started with the Grünes Gewölbe [the Green Vault], which
is basically the tschoschke collection of the kings of Saxony. There are two green vaults; we visited the
new one, which basically selects out the best bits. The students loved all the silver, gold, and
precious gems, and were amazed by many of the items on display. One student noticed the depiction of Africans
and Turks and started photographing material to use in a later research
project.
Among the most stunning of the items on display are the
Birthday of the Moghul Emperor and a chinoiserie coffee set. These items cost a literal fortune in the 18th
century.
The green diamond is probably the most valuable in the
entire collection. One of the only, if
not the only green diamond in the world, it is believed to be this color due to
exposure to natural radiation. I took a
still shot of it, but it lost all its fire and color, so then I took a short
video so one can see how spectacular it looks.
Afterwards, we walked through the Zwinger Museum courtyard
and from there down to the docks to board our boat.
From the top deck we had wonderful views of
the various mansions and villas built along the Elbe over a century ago.
Several of us also ordered some spectacular
ice cream sundaes.
After a very relaxing 90 minutes floating on the water, we
docked back in Dresden and made a quick visit to the rebuilt Frauenkirche and
then back to the hotel. We’ve all
checked into our rooms and I’ve told the students to expect a much nicer
breakfast buffet in the morning. We
leave on the 9:08 train to Prague and hopefully, everything will go smoothly.
Dresden has changed somewhat from the last times I’ve been
here. Berlin has always been very
multicultural, but Dresden has typically been the opposite. Resolutely, almost aggressively, German. You could see it in the clothing, the people’s
faces, and their behavior. This year, I’ve
been struck by how many immigrant or migrant faces I could see as I walked the
streets. I asked our guide yesterday
about the differences for migrants between Berlin and Dresden. He said that in Berlin, he’s only experienced
warm welcomes, while his friend in Dresden says only about 90% of the people
treat him that way. Maybe once a week he
experiences some hostility.
I’m curious whether I see any changes among the hotel guests
tomorrow at breakfast.
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