I must admit, just a minute ago I didn’t even know the word “scaffold” – English is not my mother tongue and I probably would have said “construction cover”. But language is not what this blog is about, so here’s the Dresden guide story:
A perfect meeting place: King Johann’s equestrian statue on Theater Square.
It is not always easy to pick a good meeting point with people who have never been to Dresden before. You might think, in times of GoogleMaps this shouldn’t be a problem, but there still are people who like to live offline during their holidays. This is when the tourist guide has to decide between “place that’s easy to find” and “group that’s easy to find”. If you pick a very prominent Dresden spot – such as the Martin Luther statue on Neumarkt, right in front of the Frauenkirche – the clients will definitely find it, but there might be ten other tourist groups waiting for their guide. If you meet in front of some little, not so well-known place, there is a slight chance for the clients to go wrong – but in this case, they are easily identifiable by the seeking expression on their faces. Either way, guide and guests will find each other 😉
Last Sunday, when we met our international clients for a Dresden walk, we decided to go for the obvious: we decided the different groups would meet at the entrance of the Old Master’s Gallery (easy to find), in the castle court (very easy to find) and near the equestrian statue of King Johann on Theater Square, right in front of Semper Opera (veeeeery easy to find). When I arrived near Theatre Square, I was quite surprised: King Johann and his horse were covered in a scaffold. Even though I read the local newspapers AND the Dresden online newsletter daily, I didn’t know about this. Seems like the Dresden officials approach their renovations like Augustus III : the son of of Augustus the Strong planned to have the Catholic church built “in secret” – as long as this was possible…
A big scaffold covering King Johann on his horse…
I must admit, I was a little concerned whether or not our guests would still identify the statue behind the scaffold as a rider on a horse – and of course, they did. So for the next weeks – until reconstruction is finished – I’ll invite you to the scaffold instead of the equestrian. Welcome to (re)construction city!