Dresden

I always heard about how beautiful Dresden was, but had only been there once as a missionary, and that was only to a zone meeting where I had to leave immediately back to my area. Dresden was one of the cities that was most devastated by World War II. The allies completely decimated the city, destroying approximately 90% of the downtown area (according to Wiki). One of the things we got right after WWII, however, is that we helped them rebuild their cities instead of leaving them to foot the entire bill. So, "Florence on the Elbe" was rebuilt back to it's full splendor.

The opera house

The Catholic Hofkirche on the left

This is a beautiful palace called the Zwinger. It was almost completely destroyed but was rebuilt in its full splendor. They used original pieces where possible (you can tell because they are much darker, like the ones Michi is standing in front of), but most of it was rebuilt with new materials

fountain in the Zwinger

More Zwinger

The courtyard and a happy baby despite the rain

Full courtyard picture

There are just too many good views

The Frauenkirche, also completely rebuilt

You can see the tower on the left, which was the only piece of the Frauenkirche to remain standing after the bombing, everything else was rubble

I believe this is the University

View from across the river Elbe

Inside the Frauenkirche, it's much brighter than most European churches

The rain descending as we were leaving.