Stop on the way to Praha (Prague)

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Geo: 51.051, 13.7337

We are saying goodbye to Germany today until 30 September when we travel to Munich for Oktoberfest. Picked up a car in Berlin and drove to Prague with a stop in Dresden. Spent too little time in Dresden, just an hour or so, seeing Zwinger and Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady).

Dresden is the city the British and us (the British are the primary culprits here) firebombed needlessly at the very end of WW II, as there was nothing here but civilians and beautiful buildings.

We would like to add it was a pleasure driving on the autobahn again. No inconsiderate folks staying in the left lane. In fact, stay in the left lane with someone wanting to pass and expect to be the appropriate victim of much abuse from everyone. Additionally, we drove a total of four hours on autobahn, including some in the Czech Republic, and saw two or three small pieces of litter. Compare that with what we find in America.

Zwinger was begun in 1707 and completed in 1728 and is labeled a "baroque showplace", filled with art inside. We are not sophisticated enough to appreciate high art, so we skipped inside. We include a couple of pictures of the large courtyard (the museums are inside the various buildings). We did the same at Frauenkirche, partly as we felt we parked the car illegally, and wanted to make our escape before being apprehended. Made it without difficulty (this time). Furthermore, while this church was completed in 1743, it was a victim of the above mentioned firebombing. The Communists left the destroyed hulk to embarrass the allies (as if they had not done worse), but after Germany was reunified, it was rebuilt largely from the rubble and completed in 2005. Hurray for Germany.

Two hours after Dresden we arrived in Prague. Our "host" says she miscommunicated with her help, thus we had to wait 45 minutes to check in. Actually rather fortunate as we spent the time in a small, and very quaint and pleasant, bar where Fred had a .5 liter pilsner for $1.25, but spend thrift Sheila required a full $1.80 for a glass of wine.

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