2012 March Girls Trip–Dresden, Germany
Sunday morning we got ready for church, packed up, checked out and drove the hour and a half west across the border again to Dresden, Germany. We found the church and parked our two vans in the 8 car parking lot. It was a big German ward and the chapel was full. An interpreter handed us headphones and translated the talks for us which was very nice. The theme was ‘Relief Society’ which was nice since we were all there together.
The ten of us: me, Melissa, Geneva, Brittany, Mindy, Emma, Megan, Autumn, Heidi and Yvonne.
Outside the church building was a statue of Karl Maeser… The Maeser building on the BYU Campus is named after him. {He was born in 1828 in Meissen, Germany and then was a teacher here in Dresden, Germany. He joined the Church in Dresden. At that time, the church was banned in Germany, so he had to be baptized at night. Maeser and his family began the journey towards Utah, but in England he was called to serve as a missionary, serving both there and in Scotland, and delaying their journey towards Utah. He served in Virginia and Philadelphia and arrived in Utah in 1860. In 1867 he was called to serve a mission to Switzerland and was appointed mission president. In 1876 Maeser became the second principal of Brigham Young Academy in Provo, Utah. Some of his students were George Albert Smith and James E. Talmage.}
We drove further into the city and parked. My second trip to Dresden only last time it was FREEZING!! so this time I really was able to enjoy it more. Beautiful city.
The Zwinger… a beautiful Baroque palace complex.
Megan, Mindy and Brittany…
The parade of Nobles… “This mural is painted on 24,000 tiles of Meissen porcelain. Longer than a football field, it illustrates 700 years of Saxon royalty. It was built to commemorate Saxon history and heritage after Saxony became a part of Germany in 1871. It’s history of fashion and weaponry is painstakingly accurate.”
When Germany was divvied up at the end of WWII, Dresden wound up in the Soviet sector. Forty years of communist rule left the city in an economic hole, from which it is just emerging. In the two decades since the Berlin wall fell, Dresden has made real progress getting back on it’s feet.
The Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady)
“This landmark church was destroyed by the Allied firebombing in the Word War II and sat in ruins for decades, Finally, in 1992, the reconstruction of the church began. The restorers used these guidelines: rebuild true to the original design, use as much of the original material as possible, maximize modern technology in the procedure and make it a lively venue for worship. The reconstruction cost more than 100 million Euro, 90 percent of which came from donors around the world.”
I used this picture I found on-line since we rushed inside and I forgot to get one. We sat inside and marveled for awhile and then half of us decided to climb to the top of the bell tower. We actually rode an elevator half way (with a mysterious Italian) and then up a ramp all the way around the inside of the dome. It was pretty cool. The view was of course beautiful.
Emma, Brittany and I…
Geneva and I…
Below right – a piece of the original Frauenkirche not used in the rebuilding…
We stopped for lunch at a restaurant and sat outside… I had Caesar salad.
The street where we ate (below) with a view of the Frauenkirche dome…
We stopped at the water front for awhile and ended up taking some funny pictures while we waited for Brittany and Heidi. Germans don’t take funny pictures. Yvonne, who is German (and married an American in the army the first time he was stationed in Germany) is our source for all cultural differences. I think she was pretty embarrassed to be with us. We kept apologizing to her… ‘sorry we’re so embarrassing, Yvonne!’ Germans who passed us definitely gave us a look. Some stopped to take pictures of us as well. In the end we got Yvonne to do a jumping picture with us.
Mindy and Megan win the award for ‘best jumpers’…
Megan, one of two ‘drivers extraordinaire’…