Day Trip to Dresden

On Wednesday we gave the kids a break from the car. We stuck around the house, went to the park, used the car to drive to the store and buy lots and lot of heavy things, and then drove around Berlin in the evening. We visited Rob's other Berlin mission area in Neukoelln and Kreuzberg and then went out to dinner at a great Turkish place and had wicked good doener kebaps. Mmm.
So on Thursday we got up and drove down to Dresden. It was about two hours, depending on the vagaries of traffic, construction, and thinking that you left the camera at home only to find that you'd packed it in the backpack after all.
We wandered into town just as bells were playing "Oh God the Eternal Father" across the Elbe river. Rob informs me that Mendelssohn wrote the music, though I don't know what the German title is.
We started off next to the Semper Opera, which was burned, bombed and flooded in that order. Now it is famous throughout Germany because it's in a beer commercial. We meandered through the humungous Baroquelicious Zwinger museum complex and ate lunch up on top.

This is the Frauenkirche. It was bombed in the last days of WWII and 35,000 civilians were killed -- many of them refugees who had come to Dresden from other places. The rubble was left as a war monument throughout the GDR, and then after reunification, there was a grassroots movement to rebuild it. They did extensive archaeology so that they could use original pieces in the original places, as you can see from the picture. The inside is just amazing. I don't even know where to start with it. Kind of like the Tabernacle only round, with at least three balconies and each balcony has three levels. The cupola also has three levels, and the whole thing is very light for a Baroque church.

It has quite a following. I've never seen a church so crowded with sightseers anywhere. It has also started archaeological work in the surrounding plaza, and three more big projects are planned to bring the area back to its former glory. Will decided after watching them work with their shovels and brushes and rulers and conveyor belts to take away dirt that he wants to grow up to be an archaeologist.
This is the Golden Rider, and he stands just on the other side of the river in Neustadt (new city). He's had a new coat of gold for the 800th anniversary of Dresden in 2006. Rob says that Dresden was bleak when he was last here in 1992, but it feels revitalized and is very pleasant now.
This is the Hauptstrasse in the Neustadt. Despite the fact that this street was hit hard with the Communist ugly stick, it is a really pleasant place to be, proving my theory that neighborhoods with big trees age well, and that landscaping can hide architectural flaws like clothes can hide figure flaws. We spent the late afternoon here, getting dinner at the market hall and eating it on benches in the middle. We found a section of handmade art stores with a playground behind, and the kids took a break before we headed back to the car for the ride home.
Three kids dancing under the back end of a horse. On the way home, everyone whined and fought over iPods, and then Sebi started singing "We Are The Champions" again. They do a great rendition of it. Then we got a simultaneous medley of three Queen songs by three kids. It was a great cacophony, but if they're happy, we're not interrupting.