Frauenkirche, Pfunds Molkerei and Senfladen

Well, a bit of backtracking. The first full day of my brother's visit:

Where to take someone for their first impression of Dresden? There is no better place then the Frauenkirche. No where else can one have a better sense of the rebirth of this great city than the reborn masterpiece of George Bähr. The original church building took 21 years to plan and construct. Work was completed in 1743. Two hundred years later, on the morning of February 15, 1945, the Frauenkirche collapsed. It fell two days after the bombing raid on Dresden that left the city a smoldering ruin.

A mammoth pile of stones and some remnants of the alter were all that was left. And that is how it remained for almost 40 years. The Dresden Institute for the Preservation of Monuments and the Saxon State Custodian Prof. Hans Nadler fought to have the ruins secured. On February 15, 1982,7 years before the fall of the wall, 5000 young people lit candles at the church. Since then the church has become a symbol for the peace movement in Eastern Germany. Continuing to the present, people still gather at the church on February 13 to commemorate the dead and call for peace.

Today the mound of rubble has risen like Lazarus from the dead. Clearing started in 1993. Where once was a 22,000 m3 pile now is a Our Lady. The reconstruction was completed in time for the celebration of Dresden's 800th birthday. The consecration was on October 30, 2005. Hard to believe, but 45% of her is built from the ruins. The original pinnacle cross was found in the rubble on the 1st of June 1993. The cross stands in the sanctuary, where I took the picture that is posted in the blog.

So if you visit Dresden, go to Our Lady and sit. Maybe you will be rewarded like we were by a visiting choir. Maybe you will just rest your weary traveler's body. But stay awhile and be peaceful.

For our visit we went to the top for the view of the city. The visual imprint of the city stayed with us for the rest of our explorations and helped orient us.

We then went from the glorious to the mundane. Well, not so mundane. We walked through the gardens to the east of Brühl's Terrace to the Carolabrücke, and took the trams to visit the world's most beautiful creamery, Molkerei Pfunds. No pictures are allowed there. We went to the cafe above the store for beers and a plate of cheeses and breads.

We then went next store to the most amazing mustard shop, Der Senfladen. Every kind of mustard, from the Erotic to the Frauenkirche. I bought 3, to marinate chicken. An apricot mustard, made for a great dinner at home.