Visiting the Land of My Fathers, Part 3

The next day Pastor and I drove to Dresden; he was scheduled to preach there, since Pastor Rehr was preaching in Klitten; I can't remember the particular details, but there was some reason for the switch. This church was very beautiful and very large. In fact, this congregation has the largest church building in the SELK; for the longest time they had been meeting in the smallest church building, a house, and when they started looking into building a church of their own, the state church offered this building for their use at no cost, provided they keep the name of the building. So now it's the "Trinity Congregation in the St. Peter Church." Kinda funny, but it works.

The inside was very beautiful; I didn't take many pictures, because people were already coming for church, and I didn't get much of a chance to take them afterwards. I feel awkward taking pictures of a church while people are coming to worship.

Pastor Walesch introduced me and asked me to talk with the congregation. If you can remember from St. Mary's in Zehlendorf, speaking German in public really isn't my think, but luckily he had told me that he was going to do that, so I had a few sentences ready, grammatically correct, which I could say without worrying too much. The congregation was very gracious in welcoming me afterward. Pastor returned to Klitten, and I stayed to eat at the parsonage, with Pastor Rehr and his family.

While we waited for Pastor Rehr to get back from Klitten, the two little girls, the boy, and I watched a short film- in English it's "The Princess and the Pea." I found that I could understand much of it, because children's literature has easier vocabulary. I'd read the story before and therefore was familiar with it, so I enjoyed watching the film adaption.

Pastor soon arrived, and the table was set and ready for dinner. The Rehr's had other guests eating with them; interestingly, one was a Iranian who had come to Germany for political asylum. He didn't know much German and was impressed at how much I could speak, having studied German for such a small amount of time, but Pastor explained to him that English was much more similar to German than Farsi, and that it was easier to switch between languages. The meal was very delicious and a very traditional German meal- wurst, sauerkraut, and potatoes with orange juice to drink. (Orange juice and apple juice here in Germany are seen as normal drinks for any meal, not just for breakfast as in America.)

After the meal, we loaded up my extremely heavy suitcase and backpack into the van, and Pastor and his wife took me on a short tour of Dresden; from there we were going to go to the Bahnhof for my trip to Frankfurt. We didn't have much time, but it was nonetheless very interesting walk around Dresden. I'll certainly have to come back and explore the museums and churches, etc. in the downtown area (especially the Frauenkirche), but at least I got some good pictures of a sunny late summer day. The next time I come back, it will probably be with my parents when they come in the dead of winter (February).

For any of you who study history, the bombing of Dresden is perhaps the worst chapter of the American invasion of Germany in World War II. Obviously there were worse things overall during the war, like the German death camps, but the bombing of Dresden by the Americans and British was absolutely unnecessary and driven purely by spite. Dresden had no manufacturing to speak of and was not important to the German war effort, but Churchhill wanted to get back at Germany for bombing London, so British and American bombers firebombed Dresden, reducing 16 square kilometers to absolute rubble, killing thousands of people. Much was lost and not restored for many years under the DDR, but when the DDR fell, the city breathed a new breath of life and rebuilt. Perhaps the most famous rebuilding is of the Frauenkirche; engineers sought to incorporate as many of the old stones as was structurally possible; the patchwork of new with old testifies to this. Much of Dresden has this patchwork throughout; the dark stones serve as remembrance scars in an otherwise magnificent city.

And here's a picture of me in front of the Frauenkirche, with my buddy Martin Luther!

I was quite disappointed that I was not able to actually go inside the Frauenkirche; a concert was about to begin, and tourists were prohibited from entry unless they bought a concert ticket. Since we didn't have time for that, I'm chalking that down as something to do when I return. When I do, I'll make sure it's open for visitors.

Here's a picture of the largest chunk of rock that was found in the rubble.

There were many other old and interesting facets of Dresden. I visited one area that had some fountains and a courtyard, surrounded by elaborate stonework and sculptures. One of these buildings were some bells; I can't exactly remember now why they were important.

The Altstadt of Dresden is on one side of the river, and the Neustadt on the other. Here are some beautiful pictures of the river and the opposite bank.

Finally, the Rehr's took me to the Bahnhof...only for me to find it full of soccer hooligans.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Never, ever, ever book a trip on the day of a major soccer game. Or even a minor one. There were so many people, chanting and yelling and causing a ruckus. The police were there in full force, guiding the fans to their train...which just happened to be on Track 2. My train was scheduled to leave from Track 1, on the same platform. I waited in the lobby until they were all loaded on, then lugged my luggage up the stairs to platform, with the police watching, and waited the 20 mins or so for my train. The travel itself went well; I switched trains only once, and I arrived safely into Frankfurt, switching again to the S-Bahn and arriving in Oberursel, where Alex Schwetschenko and another student were waiting for me with a car. It was about midnight by this time, and having arrived on campus, I promptly plopped my stuff down in my room, made my bed, and fell asleep.

Posted with Blogsy