Dresden and Leipzig, the two largest cities in the German state of Saxony (Sachsen), have very different-looking opera houses. The Semper Opera in Dresden (on the left) has three U-shaped balconies and is highly ornate on the inside, with endless paintings and decorations. It looks as though it was built Read More …
Of the 3,290 tips (later called reviews) that I posted over the years on the now-defunct website VirtualTourist, only one was in the category “Packing Lists” (later called “What to Pack”). It read: Get a copy of the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, to read on the train on the Read More …
The German Democratic Republic or GDR (aka East Germany) existed for nearly forty-one years, from October 7, 1949 to October 3, 1990. During this time, Dresden and vicinity had the dubious honor of being known in the rest of the GDR as the Tal der Ahnungslosen or “Valley of the Read More …
The Semper Opera House is named after Gottfried Semper (1803-1879), the architect who designed it once and built it twice. His original opera house was completed in 1841. The composer Richard Wagner was musical director of the Dresden Opera at the time, and three of his operas had their world Read More …
Like every other self-respecting German city, Dresden has a large and active adult education center, called the Volkshochschule (VHS). My lead photo shows their old building at Schilfweg 3, in the Dresden district of Seidnitz. This is where they had their main office and some of their classrooms for many Read More …
Performances at the Semper Opera House in Dresden are often sold out weeks or months in advance. When this happens you will notice because they remove the ticket icon from that performance on their website. Don’t give up too quickly though, because a night at the opera in Dresden is a Read More …