On the big blue to Dresden and Prague

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Here it is, big blue!  Our chariot for the rest of the tour.  We boarded it at 9 this morning and headed to Prague with a stop in Dresden.

  Big blue dropped us off right in the middle of the old section of the city.  Dresden settled in the 1200's was 90% destroyed in February 1945 by American and British bombers. The city was left in ruins by the then-ruling USSR. Many square block apartment buildings were built but nothing else.

During the Russian occupation men of the KGB recruited spies (mainly scientists and teachers).  They wanted them to travel to the west to steal government and technology secrets.  One of those KGB officers was Vladimir Putin.  Below is the building where his office was located. 

Right after the Berlin Wall fell Dresden staged its own protest to be freed from Russian rule.  Fearing for their lives the KGB with Putin in charge requested help from Moscow. Moscow responded the same way that our government responded to the Bengazi attack.  No help came and Putin and friends had to head back to Mother Russia.

Now that the Russians had gone, the rest of Germany pitched in to help rebuild Dresden.

As you can see the center of the city is refreshed and ready to accept tourists.

This is the new market and restaurant area.

Cindy and a few from our tour group pass by one of the historical buildings that has been rebuilt.

This is a photo with new buildings on the left and the main church that was rebuilt using the stone rescued from the old city buildings destroyed in the bombing.

You can see the many different colors of rock on the restored church.

This is the sidewalk restaurant we had lunch at today.

The last two photos are of the underground bar at the restaurant.  We think it may have been a bomb shelter during the war and it survived the bombing (that's just a guess).

Oh yes, did I say they even have gelato stands!  :-)

We got back on big blue here at market square and headed for Prague, Czech Republic.