Dinner at a Dresden Biergarten; the Frauenkirche

We went to Watzke Ball- & Brauhaus ("seit 1898").  We had a beautiful view of the river, with the city in the distance.

The sidewheeler Krippen came past during dinner.  Dinner, by the way, was not only delicious, it was enormous.  We couldn't begin to finish the family-style platters we were served.  I think the serving staff was worried that we didn't like it because we left so much of it.

Two hot-air balloons added their graceful presences.

The sun was getting pretty low as we left.

We took the tram from the restaurant to the Frauenkirche ("Church of Our Lady").  This collapsed after the firestorm, and has been rebuilt to look exactly as it did before.  Some of the stones from the original church have been incorporated into the new building exactly where they were in the original structure.  To do this took lots of time and computer shape-matching, plus detailed plans of the original church.  The old blocks were blackened by the heat of the firestorm, and so they are easy to pick out in the new building.

It was getting dark as we took the tram back to our hotel.  A fine exploration of Dresden.

Tomorrow we take the train over to Leipzig.  Lots of musical connections there: Bach, Mendelssohn, the Gewandhaus.