Day trip to Dresden

This past weekend all of us were with our host families and undertook several fun excursions in and around Leipzig and today the entire GAPP group rode the train to Dresden - Saxony's capital.  We arrived in Dresden around 10:45 a.m. and were given free time to explore the city until our meeting with our tour guide at 1:15 p.m..  Most of us used the time to explore the city on foot and admire all the beautifully restored buildings of the city center while others used the time to get some shopping done on the Prager Strasse - Dresden's main shopping street. 
Dresden's Frauenkirche offers an amazing view from the top of the church, and one that we could not pass up to explore. 

 We then met up with some of the group at Vapiano's (our new favorite Italian restaurant) before heading to the Theaterplatz in front of the Semper Opera House to find our tour guide.

Our tour guide than explained some of the history of the city and it's kings, princes, queens and other royalty as we walked through the Zwinger which is now the location of three amazing museums 

We then walked to the castle and the former stables and learned about the horse riding and knight competitions which took place here, before walking to the Fürstenzug. 

The famous Fürstenzug (Procession of Princes - mural showing the Rulers of Saxony beginning in the 12th century)  was one of the vary few parts of Dresden which were able to withstand the tremendous heat that engulfed the city during the days following the fire bombing of Dresden between February 13-15 1945 because it is made out of 20,000 tiles of the famous Meissen porcelain. 

Our tour concluded at the famous Frauenkirche.  After learning some more facts about the amazing destruction and rebuilding of the Frauenkirche, we enjoyed another 2 hours of free time before we headed back to Leipzig.