Dresden, German

This has nothing to do with our mission but I decide to use our mission blog to show some pictures I took in Dresden Germany while on business trip. My good friend Steve Barlow took me to this location that is close to Dresden. This is a marker commemorating the dedication of this area for missionary work in 1975 by Thomas S Monson.

In 1975 this location would have been in the communist East Germany.

From this location you can see the Elbe River. This was the only clear day we have experienced.

We went to Moritzburg to see the castle. Close to the castle we saw this horse drawn sleigh (on wheels).



This is what the castle would look like in the summer.



In the winter they ice skate on the ice surrounding the castle.



You could hear the bells on the horses.



The sky was beautiful above this Catholic church.

I went to church in Dresden. Behind the church is a statue of Karl G. Maser.

This is the Luthern  Frauenkirche (women's church) in Dresden. When I first came to Dresden, it was a rubble. The Germans have rebuilt it starting in 1993 and completing it in 2005. The dark stones are original.

The inside is beautiful.

The dome is comparable in size to St Peter Cathedral in Rome.



I purchased some post cards and noticed in this picture you can see that the statue of Luther lies in the foreground.

From the historical site for the church:

On the morning of February 15, 1945 – two days after the devastating bombing raid on Dresden – the burnt out Frauenkirche finally collapsed.

Although it had apparently survived the direct attack and fire storm, unlike the majority of buildings in the city centre, the extreme heat that had been generated finally took its toll. In the early hours of February 14, when the fire reached the church, not only were the wooden galleries and pews consumed by the blaze, more and more sandstone exploded from the piers until they could no longer bear the immense weight of the dome – 12,000 tons. 



This is a haunting picture of Dresden after the bombing.