Things to do in Dresden, Leipzig & Saxony

Dresden's baroque centre pairs the Frauenkirche, where stairs, a spiral ramp around the stone dome and a final ladder stair lead to a viewing platform 67 metres up, with the Zwinger, home to the Old Masters Picture Gallery with Titian's Tribute Money and Rembrandt's Ganymede, the Porcelain Collection and the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon. In the Royal Palace, walk through the restored baroque treasury of the Historic Green Vault and see the exhibits lit behind glass in the New Green Vault, then join a highlight tour of the Semperoper's gilded auditorium and richly decorated foyers. Out of town, the 1851 stone Bastei Bridge spans sandstone pinnacles 194 metres above the Elbe, and in Meissen you can watch porcelain being made in the demonstration workshop of the MEISSEN Porcelain Manufactory. In Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach is buried in St Thomas Church, where the St Thomas Boys Choir often sings the motets, and in the run-up to Christmas the region has two great markets: the Dresden Striezelmarkt on the Altmarkt, Germany's oldest, with the world's largest Erzgebirge step pyramid and lucky Pflaumentoffel prune figures, and the Leipzig Christmas Market, with around 300 stalls around the Old Town Hall and the historic centre.

Good to knowThe Historic Green Vault uses timed tickets with limited capacity, so book online; the Green Vault is closed on Tuesdays and the Zwinger museums on Mondays. Motet tickets at St Thomas Church are sold only at the entrances from 45 minutes before, with no advance sales, and the Frauenkirche dome climb involves 174 steps, a spiral ramp with a 14% gradient and a steep ladder stair. The Bastei Bridge is free and open all year (take bus 237 from Pirna or hike up from Kurort Rathen), but Neurathen rock castle can currently be viewed only from outside because of renovation.