5th September: Leipzig to Dresden

** Packed once again last night. Off to Dresden this morning on the 9am train. Fortunately the walk to the station is under 10 minutes. To be honest, I have not felt comfortable here in Leipzig since I came across that statue with the Nazi salute. Such a difference between east and west Germany.

** Today is the halfway point of my trip. I left Perth seven weeks ago today. I need to calculate how far I have travelled in total. I'm sure it would surprise me. Two of our kids are in Europe at present, Tash in Switzerland plresently with Jeremy where they are kicking, and Jessie arrived in Madrid yesterday for a work conference. Will be catching up with all of them over the next three weeks.

** For almost all reading the following, it will make little sense and be boring but I am about to cross the river Elba. A river embedded in Napoleonic history. His pull-back across the Elba happened a short time before the battle of the Nations in 1813 leading to his defeat and being sent to the island of Elba.

** And welcome to Dresden

My first beer, it's lunch time so why not. The platz is wide and very long and totally central to my hotel. Plus in Dresden they apparently are happier to take credit cards.

** A bit of boring stuff to follow.

There is a reason I have come to see Dresden. You may not all be aware that towards the end of the war the British and the Americans made a decision to bomb the city of Dresden over 3 days in February 1945. A minimum of 25000 people died. The resulting firestorm basically flattened the whole city, known as the Florence of the Elba' before the event.

Dresden was so badly damaged that the city was basically leveled. A handful of historic buildings–the Zwinger Palace, the Dresden State Opera House, and several fine churches–were carefully reconstructed out of the rubble, but the rest of the city was rebuilt with plain modern buildings (https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/ruins-dresden-1945/)

End of boring stuff.

The following photos are from my first afternoon walk around, mostly in what is accepted as the old city albeit rebuilt over the past 70 years.

This statue was also at the Berlin hbf station