Dresden, Germany

5 min readJul 30, 2018

I was up early this morning to clean my Airbnb apartment in Berlin and pack before heading for the bus station. I decided to try Flixbus, a new service featuring bright lime buses and incredibly cheap fares compared to rail.

I can report it was a good deal. The bus was clean and modern with plenty of room and free WiFi. We rolled from Berlin south to Dresden in 2.5 hours for just $16. The train would have been more like $50. Flixbus’ fares are set by demand. Order early and you can score great deals.

I had a short walk from where the bus dropped me off near the Hauptbahnhof to my new Airbnb. I immediately realized Dresden has a much different atmosphere than Berlin. The baroque architecture provides a regal air.

Of course, everything you see has been rebuilt. Most of Dresden and especially the old inner city along the Elbe were reduced to rubble during Allied firebombings on February 13–15, 1945. It’s estimated 25,000 civilians died, many from lack of oxygen as the incredible firestorms sucked up the air.

In the middle photo above, you can see the statue of Martin Luther looking up at the sky, virtually untouched. The ruins of the massive Frauenkirche are in the background. The rebuilding of Dresden continues to this day.

Juxtaposed with this massive suffering of German civilians were these Stolperstein (stumble stones) set in the sidewalk to my apartment. They marked the homes of Jews before being rounded up and deported to camps. Read the details. You can see the extended Schneck family, including two young children, were murdered at Auschwitz.

You learn history from multiple, nuanced angles here. After the war, Dresden slowly rebuilt. The state of Saxony was located in East Germany and communist officials decided not to allocate funds to rebuild the iconic Frauenkirche. The rubble was declared a “war memorial”.

After German reunification, the church was rebuilt over 11 years, opening in 2005. A new, golden tower cross was funded by the British people and the House of Windsor. Incredibly, the lead craftsman on the project was the son of one of the British bomber pilots responsible for the destruction of the church.

I climbed to the top of another church spire. While I surveyed the city, I heard the distinctive rumble of an old airplane flying low. I snapped a quick photo of a Junkers Ju 52 built in Dessau in 1936. I read later it was one of only four remaining Junkers of the type. Amazing.

I thought Dad would enjoy the animals depicted in the inner courtyard of the royal residence.

Here was one I thought he’d be most interested in:

The lunch special of the day was Schnitzel with Pommes Frites (fries) at the cafe across from my apartment. It also came with a beer for just 10 Euro. Sold!