Lady’s Dresden Sightseeing Tour Guide

Today I want to bring you my guide to a Dresden sightseeing tour. This underrated city in Saxony, Germany has a wealth of treasures to discover. It’s worth a visit to see its world-class art museums and stunning churches and palaces.

Dresden Sightseeing Tour

The New York Times is stalking me. It must be. At least the travel section, anyway. Why else would it always publish an article or a “top places to visit this year” list featuring a place to which I just booked a trip?

First it happened with Namibia. Then Sri Lanka. Then Santiago. And finally Dresden. The NYT featured the German city in its top cities to visit list due to a museum, but my interest in a Dresden sightseeing tour went farther back.

When I was a child I was obsessed with a porcelain ballerina my mother bought in Dresden when she was young. Its fragile tutu, delicate fingers, and elegant arabesque fascinated me.

Over the years the ballerina suffered the damage of being bumped, dropped, and nudged by various pets, pests, and visitors.

But in spite of having lost a few fingers and several chunks of tulle from her tutu, she was still just as beautiful to me as I’m sure she had been to my mother when she first saw her in a shop in Dresden.

The romantic image of the ballerina was synonymous with the German city from whence it came, and I was determined to go on a Dresden sightseeing tour someday.

When I grew up, I realized that, far from a romantic dream world, Dresden, like the ballerina, was a real, broken city still in the process of rebuilding from almost total destruction during World War II. Still, I wanted to go and see the place for myself.

Dresden, Germany

I was finally able to do so last week, when I took a two-and-a-half-hour train ride from Prague, where I’d spent the prior few days seeing my cousin perform on a tour with her choir.

I arrived at the main train station and walked down a pedestrian street that led to my hotel.

In the distance I could see the historic towers of the old town, beacons of the city’s history amidst a sea of modern buildings. They got me excited to do a Dresden sightseeing tour.

Dresden Hotel

I crossed a cobbled street and soon found myself in the middle of a large square called Neumarkt.

In front of me was the Frauenkirche, a beautiful baroque church that was rebuilt in 2005 as a powerful symbol of post-war peace. In front of the church sat my accommodation, the Steigenberger Hotel de Saxe.

I checked into my room, which was nicely decorated in neutral tones and overlooked an interior courtyard that provided me with the quiet ambiance I always hope for in hotel rooms.

In addition to the double bed, the room had a chair, a desk, and a separate closet area. The bathroom was spacious and had a shower and bathtub along with a large sink.

Self-Guided Dresden Sightseeing Tour

Perhaps the best feature of the Steigenberger Hotel de Saxe was its location. Right in the heart of the old town, it was the perfect place from which to start a self-guided Dresden sightseeing tour.

I ran into my cousin, her husband, and their friends, who were now on tour in Dresden, just as I arrived at the hotel. The five of us set out to explore the old town together.

Neumarkt

As we walked past the Frauenkirche and around Neumarkt square, I noticed that much of the old town had been restored or rebuilt such that the area looked similar to how it was before the bombings.

Like the ballerina’s fingers, which had been glued and re-glued back to her delicate porcelain hands, Dresden was not content to remain broken.

Despite being small, there was a surprisingly large number of beautiful historic buildings that rendered the old town a very picturesque space for a Dresden sightseeing tour.

Dresden Royal Palace

After a quick lunch at a traditional German restaurant, we continued our Dresden sightseeing tour at the Dresden Royal Palace. There we explored the New Green Vault, home to some of the most sumptuous jewels I’ve ever seen.

Diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and every other kind of precious stone imaginable were abundant in boxes, mirrors, clocks, and other golden pieces.

As if they weren’t impressive enough, at the end we saw the Dresden Green Diamond, a stunning 41-carat beauty.

Around Dresden Royal Palace

Our senses officially on overload, we continued our Dresden sightseeing tour by exploring more of the surrounding area.

The Semperoper opera house stood stately in all its baroque grandeur, and next to it the Zwinger Palace was impressive in its opulence.

In front of us was the Elbe, which was spanned by several pretty bridges, and across the river the banks were studded with beautiful old buildings.

Frauenkirche

Walking back to the hotel, we quickly visited the Frauenkirche. Its small interior was marked by a newness that stood in sharp contrast to its baroque style of decor.

It was interesting that the city chose to replicate the historic decor instead of creating contemporary interior art, but it was a nice nod to the building’s past.

Dinner in Dresden

We spent the early evening resting, then met in the lobby of the hotel to walk to dinner.

We headed to a nearby tapas restaurant, ordered a veritable feast, and had a great evening enjoying sangria with delicious olives, anchovies, cheese, prawns, melon, ham, and potatoes.

Sightseeing in Dresden

The next day my cousin and her choir crew were busy with rehearsals for a performance, so I was left to do my own Dresden sightseeing tour.

I decided that instead of spending the day in museums, I would spend it walking around the city.

Dresden Old Town

I started out in the old town, exploring more of the Zwinger Palace and walking along its roof.

I passed by the building’s numerous museums, including the Old Masters Gallery, the porcelain museum, and the armory, then exited and made my way to the Hofkirche.

While the exterior was pure baroque brilliance, the interior was decorated with a mix of the traditional and the contemporary.

Dresden New Town

From there my Dresden sightseeing tour continued as I walked across a bridge to the new town.

I made my way down a pedestrianized street marked by gorgeous groups of purple and yellow crocuses and had lunch at a cafe near the market hall.

After that I spent some time exploring the side streets, which were all built and painted in the historic style.

I particularly enjoyed window shopping along the secret passages of Konigstrasse. From art galleries to antiques shops, there was no shortage of places to explore.

Elbe

Back along the river, I passed by the Japanese Palace, which housed a history and ethnography museum, then walked by the folk art museum.

Afterwards I re-crossed the river and found myself in a beautiful park overlooking the Elbe.

Dresden Museums

Behind it was the Albertinum, which was home to a sculpture museum. It was next to the Lipsiusbau, which housed a contemporary art museum. Never before had I seen so much world-class art in such a compact geographical area.

I suppose my mother’s porcelain ballerina should have tipped me off to Dresden’s artistic identity, but even that wouldn’t have prepared me for the breadth and depth of the city’s collections.

After walking by the city hall, I ran into my cousin and her friends, who were having lunch near the Frauenkirche. I stopped to talk with them for a while, then continued my Dresden sightseeing tour with visits to the Kreuzkirche church and the Rathaus.

Choir Concert

At that point my feet were in need of a rest. I relaxed at the Steigenberger Hotel de Saxe for a bit, then grabbed a bite to eat before walking down to the Lukaskirche to see my cousin’s choir perform.

The church had been specially rebuilt in the communist era to feature excellent acoustics, and musicians from all over the world came to record there.

As such, the evening’s performance had particularly good sound quality, and I enjoyed listening to the concert again after hearing it in Prague.

Dresden Dinner

After the performance I hopped on the tour bus with my cousin and her husband. Their choir had a reservation at a restaurant near the Frauenkirche for the closing dinner of its tour.

I went along for a glass of wine, and ended up getting much more out of it than just that. Knowing they had the cellar of the restaurant all to themselves, the musicians didn’t hesitate to furnish their own entertainment.

My cousin’s husband brought his guitar, one of the local German singers that had joined them for the evening’s performance brought his ukulele, and one other member of the choir debuted his jazz flute skills.

From “Hotel California” to “You Are My Sunshine”, from “Hey Jude” to “American Pie”, we sang our way through the beer and wine, bread and soup, and only stopped when the heaping plates of pork and sauerkraut arrived.

It was one of the most entertaining meals I’ve ever had, and I think the musicians were onto something with the self-provided entertainment.

Dresden Sightseeing

After a late night at dinner, I woke up the next morning with half a day left in Dresden. The others had gone to the airport early, so I was once again on my own Dresden sightseeing tour.

Old Masters Gallery at the Zwinger Palace

I decided to spend time at one of the museums that had caught my eye the day before: the Old Masters Gallery at the Zwinger Palace.

As I had learned over the course of my two days in Germany, the Saxon kings that ruled Dresden for centuries were quite the art collectors.

Since art is more portable than brick-and-mortar, most of the collections were removed from the city during the World War II bombings, and thus saved from the fate of their exhibition spaces. If only my family had been so wise with the broken ballerina.

When I arrived at the gallery, I found myself on the ground floor in a large multi-layered room full of works by the elder and younger Cranach and other Renaissance-era painters.

Then came the first floor, which featured huge paintings from the Mannerist and baroque periods that lined the walls from floor to ceiling.

The highlight of these was Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, complete with the twin cherubs that have made their way onto everything from greeting cards to posters.

Also present in the gallery were works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Canaletto, and other famous masters.

Not only the size, but also the quality of the collection was impressive, and once again served to enlighten me as to Dresden’s prominence in the art world.

I’d spent almost two hours in the museum when I was getting ready to end my Dresden sightseeing tour and head to the airport. As I walked out, I noticed a small staircase I couldn’t resist following.

At the top I found myself in yet another gallery, this one housing more art. All around me were huge Venetian scenes by Canaletto, portraits by Goya, and paintings by Velazquez.

I spent so long in the Old Masters Gallery that I missed lunch and practically had to run to the main train station to catch the S-bahn train to Dresden airport. It was worth it to see all the paintings, though.

And as if the city knew I needed a bit of extra time, my flight to London was delayed 30 minutes.

Dresden Sightseeing Tour and Beyond

Leaving Dresden was a sad occasion, not least because I had only seen a small portion of the amazing museums the city had to offer.

My experience transformed my childhood idea of Dresden as the birthplace of a small porcelain ballerina to a much broader conception of a city with a wealth of history and art.

And with the museum that was featured in the New York Times article, I might just have an excuse to go back for another Dresden sightseeing tour sooner than later. I hope you’ll be able to visit, too.

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