By some act of literary coincidence, Dresden made an appearance in two of the books I read this year: Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut (finally) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer.

That, plus a friend’s rave review of the city, and the fact that it was on my way to Berlin–where I’d fly back to the US from–all made it a perfect storm of reasons to visit.

I’m glad I did. Although I didn’t make it to the old site of the slaughterhouse where Vonnegut himself had been held during WWII, I did explore a bit of the city. Over a couple days, I:

• visited the German Hygiene Museum (totally worth a trip, but the downside is that many of the explanations are only in German)
• ate some pretty cheap, legit Turkish food
• went lindy hopping
• saw art, art & more art (although unfortunately a big chunk of the Zwinger was closed when I was there)
• marveled at the world’s largest porcelain piece of artwork
• had coffee & cake at the smallest cafe in Dresden

Out of all of those things, though, I think my favorite was just exploring the city in the snow.

So, for this desert girl, here are some of my favorite snowy pics from Saxony.

The Golden Horseman is August the Strong, an elector of Saxony, duke of Lithuania and king of Poland in the 18th century.

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