Europe Trip: Day 3 (Prague, Freiberg, and Dresden)

At about 4 AM on Saturday some loud Germans in our hotel retired to their rooms, and woke us all up in the process. I never managed to fall back asleep. I let the guys sleep for a little while longer, and then we got up to spend a little more time in Prague before returning to Germany.

We wandered around and eventually found an open place to eat breakfast. Maybe because it was Saturday, maybe because it's Bohemia - I don't really know why - but there was not a lot happening in the historic district of Prague at 8 AM. After breakfast we found the Freud statue. Apparently people call the police for him quite regularly.

Then we popped into this little church. I don't want to pic favorites, but I did really love this one. I loved the paintings on the ceilings, and I loved the swirly carvings, and I loved the gold.

Then we drove back to Germany to attend a session at the Freiberg Temple. Eric's parents greeted us at the doors. It is a simple temple, built during the communist era of East Germany, but it is still beautiful inside.

After our session we met some of Eric's parents' friends, we ate lunch, and we all piled in their car to go to Dresden. I was exceptionally tired at this point, having been up since 4 AM and still not completely over the jet lag. I learned that after World War II some German cities opted to rebuild and maintain an old look, while others went more modern. Dresden took the old approach.

Their church in the heart of Dresden (the Dresden Frauenkirche) was destroyed in the war, and the Soviets officials wouldn't allow the Germans to rebuild it. The Soviets left the rubble in the square as a sign to the people of how terrible the Americans and British were. As soon as communism fell, the locals had the church rebuilt, using some of the bricks from the original church. President Uchtdorf spoke of this church in a talk in 2016. We just barely got to peak inside because there was a concert going on. On the left you can see the statue of Martin Luther; those Germans sure love him. (And I do too!)

We wandered over to the museums and the gardens. We got there too late to enter any of the museums, but it was still nice enjoying the architecture. (Except, let's be honest, I may have been a little grumpy from being so tired.)

Then we ate dinner and went back to Freiberg for a good night's rest.

I would really like to visit Dresden again. It is a beautiful city, and we just barely got a glimpse of it. (Which can be said of every place we visited on our trip!)