Invitation To Germany, Vignettes-9

Chapter 31 Former East Germany

Meissen … famous European porcelain manufacturers. One object, that we could at best identify as a fancy, grotesque ashtray, was priced at about $500.

Bautzen … We did not see a McDonald’s or Burger King in Bautzen, but since there is a Pizzeria called “Pinocchio,” perhaps the Italians got here first.

Görlitz appeared to be a city that escaped extensive damage in WW II. We drove on several streets, including near the city center, that were lined with buildings that appeared to be built long before WW II.

Dresden … The Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), a huge single dome building of baroque design, had lain as a mound of rubble with portions of a wall and an arch soaring into the sky, since the horrendous bombing of February 1945, awaiting the money and man-power to rebuild, precisely.

Clerks, customers, and carpenters wandered among racks of clothes and piles of lumber, the sound of jack hammers competed with the sound of cash registers.

We are quite sure that Dresden will again become one of the more beautiful cities in Europe, and with much work, Dresden will again be the Florence of the North