Wednesday, December 31st we were in Dresden, Berlin and Potsdam. In the morning we walked around Dresden. Most of the buildings in Dresden were destroyed by a huge fire after a bombing raid in World War Two. However, there are still some incredible, lavish stone buildings there that make a person wonder how grand the city must have been before the war.
Even though some stone buildings survived, everywhere we looked there was obvious evidence of the fire and repairs. Most of the old stone buildings had new tan sandstone bricks next to old black bricks colored that way by the fire. At the palace we saw evidence that even today they are still rebuilding and restoring some of the damage. In fact it was only just in 2005 that the city rebuilt their most grandiose church, the Frauenkirche. The Frauenkirche was nearly completely destroyed in World War Two, the site was left a pile of rubble to remind the East Germans of Western aggression. Only a few bricks, and a small section of the wall from the old church were reused.
We left after lunch for our hotel in Potsdam. We had to make a transfer at Berlin’s main train station, which is very large and confusing, but found our way eventually. We spent New Years at the Brandenburg gate in Berlin with a million other people, but that is a big enough story so I’ll put it in the next post.
