Day trip to Dresden

Dresden, Germany
After Prague, I took a short trip to Dresden on my way to Berlin. I met 3 South Koreans on the train ride. They were heading to Berlin but thought they had to get off in Dresden and switch trains. Before we stopped I told them that the train went all the way to Berlin and they should stay on it and they realized they were wrong. It probably saved them about 3 hours. They thanked me and then wanted to take some pictures with me. It wasn't strange, just different but they were really nice and shared their snacks with me.

Dresden was heavily bombed in a raid at the end of WWII and most of the city burned. You can see the black on the cathedrals and other buildings as a result of the fires. The pedestrian mall from the train station to the downtown historic district was lined with new buildings and there was a lot of construction. You can tell that there was not a massive rebuilding effort after WWII by the Soviets. Most of the buildings have been built since the fall of communism.

From across the Elba River.

Augustus
This palace was called Zwinger. It was huge and beautiful. You could see all of the buildings from the top walkways.

Inside Zwinger.

Cathedral with statue of Martin Luther. The Cathedral dome collapsed during the bombing raid and was replaced in the 1990s.