Dresden

Thursday morning we all piled into the car for a day trip to Dresden.  The city of Dresden was totally destroyed by allied fire-bombing in February 1945 in the later stages of World War II.  Some 25,000 Dresden residents were killed together with an unknown number of refugees from eastern Europe who were living there are the time.  Following the end of the War many of the historic buildings were reconstructed using materials salvaged from the rubble.  The city now has many wide open spaces.  It straddles the River Elbe which is plied by barges and paddle-boats.  The city is easy to walk around.  Many streets are closed to cars and the cobblestoned roads and paths are flat.  We walked to the main square and entered the reconstructed cathedral which has many painted panels and a beautiful carved and painted sanctuary.  There’s a statue of Martin Luther in the square outside the cathedral.  Many of the statues have been painted gold and shine brightly in the sunlight.

In the afternoon we board the Hop on/Hop off bus for a 1½ hour tour of the city and suburbs.  We have an English commentary which is informative (although the commentator gets his right and left mixed up a bit).  Our round trip takes us past many of the historic buildings, palaces, theatres, the town hall with its golden statue with outreached arm.  Past the glass walled Volkswagon factory where the top-of-the-line Phaeton model is assembled by hand.  We drive alongside the Grosser Garten, a huge park dating back to King August I with is central avenue more than 2km long.  Then is through the high class, leafy suburb of Blasewitz where building codes determined that the house must be no more than half the width of the block of land.  Then  over the River Elbe via the Blaues Wunder (Blue Bridge) so called because it’s painted blue.  A thunderstorm hit us as we were driving through the elevated Weisser Hirsch area with its funicular to the top of the hill from the lowlands around the river.  As we drove back to the city we had some great views of the river flats with their grasslands which until recently was a World Heritage site.

Our ticket would allow us to do a couple of extra tours but by the time we get back to the city it’s time to get in the car and head for home.  Even the trip home was not without incident as we were stopped for speeding (doing 40kph in a 30kph zone).  Luckily Phill wasn’t driving as he discovered that he had left his driving licence and passport at the hotel.  Inga was let off with a warning, but of course won’t be allowed to forget her indiscretion for a while….