Dresden or Bust!

I just returned from a cold, drizzley two mile walk with the dog. It is almost London-like drizzle but doesn't keep people from going about their daily business. Because this is a college-town (about 100,000 students) I decided to avoid the sidewalk shuffle and walk through the park alongside the Odra River. I only had to disengage Oliver from one dog today. It was a somewhat disobient Lab puppy. Brings back memories of Kirby (who I still miss)! Just as I was turning the corner toward home I saw a man who looked like Dick VanDyke playing the chimney sweep in "Mary Poppins". Same hat, bike and everything. He truly was a chimney sweep! I need to remember to bring my camera even on short jaunts to capture highlights of this great town!

Craig and I spent the weekend in Dresden Germany. What a magnificently beautiful city! It is very apparent Germany is a much wealthier country than Poland. It was evident the minute we crossed the border! The countryside was well-kept and houses tidy. One interesting note...the borders within the European Union (EU) are now open to all travellers. No need for passports! The border operations were quiet as we passed through what was once bustling lines of cars! The autobahn was somewhat of a letdown! I didn't get buzzed off the road as much as I thought I would. I maintained a speed of 140 km/hour (at Craig's request - it must be harder to be a passenger when you have no control). I topped out at 160 km/hour! You really can't take your eyes off the road for a minute. It is much more complicated driving on the autobahn in Germany where there are on- and off-ramps. Remember, there is only one highway in Poland so traffic is much different. In Germany you had to be sure you could pull over to the left lane to allow on-coming traffic without getting in the way of BMWs or Audis going 200 km/hour! It definitely was a rush! We also had to pass through a two km. tunnel. The posted speed in there was 80 km/hour. I didn't see anyone really testing that limit! It was pretty cool. By the way...did you know "Ausfahrt" is not a city in Germany? We swore every road led to "Ausfahrt". About one hour into our trek through Germany we figured out "Ausfahrt" means "exit". oops....

Dresden was absolutely beautiful. It sits on Elbe River and is called "the Florence of the Elbe". Craig and I didn't quite pack for the colder temperatures. We were thankful the sun was brilliant otherwise I may have had to whine! As it was I had to buy myself a hat. I definitely wanted to make a fashion statement but the hat I wanted was 50 Euros. With the dollar sitting at 65 cents to the Euro I couldn't justify spending ~$90 on a fashion statement so I bought a $9.95 Euro "fashion" statement instead. I may have to white elephant it at some point!!

Friday evening we did what everyone visiting Germany does for dinner. We ate at a Tex Mex restaurant!! Go figure... It does get better. On Saturday we watched English League soccer (Manchester United vs. Arsenal) at an Irish Pub in Germany! How is that for international??? As you might guess we also ran into fellow Minnesotans. It must be the U of MN jacket and cap Craig was wearing but two different folks stopped us. One was a woman who's husband was from Spring Valley, MN and is stationed with the Army in Germany. The other was a gentleman who's wife is from Bloomington! How small is the world?? It is always nice to hear English spoken without accents!

Saturday started out like any other day. Craig got up for a walk and I slept in - why change up a good thing? When he returned he was telling me about all the police lining up on street corners in Old Town. He noticed a poster about a demonstration and when he "googled" the information it appeared to be some sort of neo-nazi demonstration slated for 2:30 that day. As the day progressed the police presence grew to astonishing numbers. There was even a helicopter. The police were in full riot gear with mace canisters, billy clubs, bullet-proof vests and stern expressions! So what do we do???? We scope out a good place to watch the protest!! I wasn't sure whether to be frightened or not, but with the throngs of on-lookers (many of them much older and in worse shape than us) we felt pretty good standing at our vantage spot. Did I mention they had police on horses??? Believe me, horses standing around for 8 hours tend to make a mess if you get the picture!! Unfortunately, the demonstration got into full gear about 30 minutes after our fingers and toes had turned to icicles. I did pick up a newspaper on Sunday and am hoping my father-in-law can find me a German language translator on the internet so I can provide more of the details but this is what we were able to ascertain. On February 14, 1945 the city of Dresden was destroyed - and 35,000 lives lost - as a result of an allied bombing. This demonstration was in recogntion of this event. Evidently, there is some ill-will because there is never any mention of the tens of millions of Jews executed under German rule during this time. Not sure if this is the true story and will provide details once I decipher the newspaper article!

It was the destruction caused in 1945 that has led to what is now an incredibly beautiful city. It has been rebuilt to the exact replica of the city and it is fabulous! Our hotel was across the street from the Town Hall which, by law, will remain the tallest building in Dresden. We heard organ rehearsals inside the 13th-century Kreuzkirche which is the oldest place of worship in the city. It is said to contain a fragment of the Holy Cross. In the middle of the square stands the Frauenkirche (built from 1726 - 1743) whose beautiful tower caved in during the bombing. We happened to be at the church as a service was about to begin. The church was packed (I have a bulletin from the service) but we opted not to stay for the service. I would have loved to have heard the organ and choir but felt it disrespectul to leave during the service. A statue of Martin Luther stands outside the front door. Unlike Poland, Germany is mostly evangelical Lutherans. The music was very much what I grew up with - and made me feel at home! We spent a fair amount of time touring the Zwinger Palace. The palace was built between 1710 and 1732 and now houses some impressive museums. We had planned to only tour the military museum but the woman misunderstood my ticket request and charged us for unlimited access to all museums. We used this opportunity to warm up. Whenever our fingers and toes got cold we wandered back to the Palace. They wouldn't let Craig into the porcelain museum because of his backpack (hmmmm....) but we did see the Old Master's art musuem which holds 2000 works of art and the impressive weapons museum. My limit of "culture" was satisfied!

After a leisured breakfast at McDonald's (where I had the best sausage and egg McMuffin ever) we made the journey home. Oliver was thrilled to see us and I was ready for a nap!!!

Craig is spending the rest of this week getting ready for his trip to Taiwan and Korea. Tonight??? Grocery shopping!! We are going to try a new store - how exciting, huh???

Stay warm....