Freiburg- Dresden Tues, June 24th

Our first full day in the Freiburg-Dresden area was a busy one. We spent the day in the city of Dresden. This city was 80% destroyed by Allied bombing during WWII, but many of the buildings have been rebuilt. We first meet with Mr. Buttolo, the minister of Interior Affairs for the Free State of Saxony (the state where the cities of Freiburg and Dresden are located). Next, we had a lunch meeting with Mr. Heinz Lehmann a member of the Free State of Saxony's parliament. The afternoon was filled with a tour of the "Residenzschloss-Neues Grunes Gewolbe" which was a museum dedicated to the history of Augustus the Strong well known ruler of this part of Germany. Last, we did a walking tour of the "Zwinger" and the city of Dresden. We ate at the "Kartoffelhaus" (potato) restaurant for dinner.

(1st picture and 2nd picture) We ate at restaurant "Chiaveri" with Mr. Lehmann which is a rooftop restaurant along the banks of the Elbe river in Dresden. Our lunch conversation revolved around a recent local politics, politics in the US, the changing German society and education system, etc. Mr. Lehmann is to the left in the 1st picture with two from my team, Scott and Nolan, sitting next to him.
(3rd and 4th pictures) Myself standing on the baloncy of the "Zwinger". The Zwinger was an entertainment complex of sorts used by Augustus the strong to entertain heads of state, weddings, etc. At one point in more recent times it was flooded and had to be extensively repaired. After we walked around the Zwinger we walked over toward the center of town. The 3rd picture is of me standing in front of the person who started the Protestant Refromation, and my distant relative, Martin Luther, which is located in the center of town. In the background is the Frauenkirche. The Frauenkirche is built in baroque style like much of the city of Dresden. It was built in the 18th century, and survived the bombing of city during WWII only to catch fire and burn to the ground the next day as a result of that bombing.