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| The military museum had a big tumor attached to it by the architect |
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| The restored interior of the Our Lady church that was a pile of war rubble for 40 years |
On Saturday evening we spent a lovely evening - we had supper on the town square in Krakow. We took a late evening ride in a horse and carriage. Krakow is a beautiful and romantic city. I went to bed with the thrill that today I would be visiting a very extensive German Military Museum.
It took about 6 hours to drive from Krakow to Dresden. Autostrada A4 is a wide open highway. Simply - speed in the right lane is about 75 MPH - and the left lane averages around 90 to 100. Trucks are limited to about 55 mph. This leaves drivers like me bouncing back and forth between the two lanes the right lane is too slow and you get stuck behind trucks. The left lane is too fast - and if you hang out there too long - you get harassed by the folks in unlimited mind thought. We have been in Europe almost 30 days now - and we had our first day with some steady rain.
We crossed the Poland/German line about an hour before we reached Dresden. Again - there was no stopping at the border - no checking passports - no checking covid vaccine records. Lulu has booked us two nights in The Moxy Hotel - A Marriot chain. It is modern and avant garde. It has a wonderful bathroom - good wifi - but no breakfast this time.
My main goal in this town was the military museum.
In 1945 - Dresden was fire bombed by the United Kingdom and the USA. Instead of just picking out military target - they carpet bombed civilian areas. The incendiary bombs - exploded the buildings and then caused everything to burn. It created its own weather - like the forest fires in the western USA. 25,000 people were killed - mostly civilians.
Dresden is the capital of the State of Saxony in Germany. In 1870 - Germany defeated France in a war - and demanded a lot of money from them. Kaiser Wilhelm was the German leader. With that money - he build a giant military complex just north of Dresden - along the Elbe River. In this complex - he build an armory that eventually housed a large military museum. In WWII it escaped the damage. After WWII - East Germany put a museum there. Finally after the rejoining of East and West Germany - Germany build a museum there - that was supposed not glorifying war.
We spent 3 hours in the museum. I was disappointed with the whole premise. It was done poorly - it was dark inside - the signage was terrible - the cabinets were not lit - you could hardly read the English labels. We have been to other German museums - an example is the Hesse State Museum in Darmstadt. It may have been the best museum I have been in. This Dresden Museum was not good by any standard. It is a shame because they started with a beautiful old arsenal. It was 5 euros.
Lulu was very tolerant. The best feature was - there were very very few other visitors there. We were alone with our thoughts.
After that - we went downtown. Dresden is a pretty city. The main city along the river was leveled in WWII. After the war - Russian was in charge here - there were buildings including the main church on the square that were left in a pile of rubble. After 40 years of looking at the rubble pile church - when Germany united again - they rebuilt the city - making the buildings look exactly the same - but better. We marveled at this city and that lovely church. They also have a wonderful downtown shopping area - including several big department stores. It is major league shopping - and Lulu made up for the 3 hours in the museum with 3 hours of shopping.
We are back at the hotel. Lulu is now planning the last 2 nights of this trip. She is getting a fancy hotel in Karlovy - a town in Czechia famous for its hot spas. After that we will catch our plane back to Paris on July 29. She just sent me the hotel name - see it here - https://olympic-palace.cz/en.
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| Our horse and buggy's through Krakow on Saturday night |
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| The very first shopping mall from the 1500s. |
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| Lulu at the first mall ever - Krakow. |
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| A new favorite - 4 feet of snack |
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| A new Ford camper |
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| I think it was a rental |
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| The Eagle with a broken Swastika |
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| Museum name |
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| Protective armor |
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| Bomb shelters |
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| weapons |
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| This bullet was 800 mm round |
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| This was an old Audi |
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| A lot of things had no English labels |
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| East German medals |
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| East Germany was communist |
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| A section of the Iron Curtain |
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| Concrete and steel |
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| Guess the brand of this ambulance - Commie |
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| Up on roof - view of city |
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| Elbe River flows thru city |
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| Library of German books |
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| Model of The Bismarck |
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| This reminds me of a joke I used to tell - "the new French (insert any country) army uniforms - kilts and sneakers - so they can crap and run at the same time |
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| Nazi piano - made in Dresden |
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| Model of Stuka plane for kids |
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| The Red Baron - a Fokker tri-wing |
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| Kids riding toys |
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| Search lights and radar |
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| The most amazing Nazi weapon. A V-2 rocket. In 1942 - they sent one into space - the very first human thing in space - way before Sputnik in 1957. It held 2000 pounds of TNT. Werner von Braun was the designer. |
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| PT Boat |
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| Building cut in two by architect. Maybe East and West Germany. |
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| Buildings restored in Dresden |
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| Downtown Dresden |
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| More downtown Dresden |
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| Parade of Saxony royalty |
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| Konrad Gross |
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| Our Lady laid in rubble for 40 years that is Martin Luther - the founder of the Protestant Church. |
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| Audi V10 - made in Dresden |
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| Lulu with Julius Otto - the librarian |
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