Dresden, Germany

Dresden was always on our 'must see' list and many Germans have subsequently recommended it as a city to visit. The history of being mostly leveled by Allied bombing in February 1945 with loss of life totaling approximately 25,000 civilians, including many refugees, is horrific. With the benefit of hindsight it seems difficult to justify how killing so many civilians, mostly woman and children, so late in the war could be justified.

It was with high expectations that we visited the city. On reflection we are not sure whether or not the city delivered. The historic portion is very dark, the sandstone that most buildings are clad with turning black. It has extremely spacious public areas that appear underused and is separated from the main portion of the city so that it appears to exist purely as a cultural and tourist hub.

Counterbalancing Tony's negativity the architecture is grand and the setting alongside the Elbe river is picturesque. We have not visited a huge number of museums on our trip, but the military museum was extraodinary - both for its architecture and thought provoking content.

Dresden Frauenkirche (Lutheran) was destroyed in the 1945 Allied bombings and the ruins left as a memorial. Following the unification of West and East Germany in 1990 the church was rebuilt, being completed in 1994.

The Furstenzug mozaic, commemorating 35 successive rulers of Saxony between 1127 and 1904.  

Maths problem for St Martins students - the mozaic is 101.9 metre long and 10.5 metres high. Each tile is 20.5cm X 20.5cm. Your challenge is to construct a proof for the total number of tiles. A prize will be delivered at a later date!

A closer look.

We have yet to visit a city with so many impressive statues.

The military museum building combines elements of old and new.

Within the museum was a V2 rocket deployed by Germany in 1944 and 1945. The V2 rocket was the first object launched into space. It reached speeds of up to three times the speed of sound. Such supersonic  It is estimated the V2 rockets were used to kill approximately 8,500 people  (mostly in London and Antwerp) with a further 12,000 dying (mostly slave labour) in the rockets construction - no such thing as health and safety in Nazi Germany. The technology utilised to build the rocket was the forerunner to the space programme.

Tony having an up close look at one of the many fountains in Dresden. Note this photo has been included due to the thousands of requests that we have received to include some photos of Tony.

The Elbe river.