2005 letter about a visit to Dresden, Germany: So it was on to Dresden. A well marked route on the Autobahn led us to the city with no problem. We found a small, clean and user-friendly campground easily, parked and went into the city in the afternoon. Considering the bombing of Dresden in February 1945 and the firestorm thereafter that killed more than 25,000 people, a lot of the Baroque buildings are left in the old part of the city. This had been the seat of the rulers of a small German principality – and in the 16^th and 17^th century they did a lot of building and art collecting in lieu of waging war. The result is a really lovely city with beautiful buildings (most of which are blackened by acid rain). August The Strong was kind enough to let us look at his personal collection of Old Masters paintings, all displayed in a building built for that purpose and in gilt frames that all had his initials at the bottom and a crown on the top.

We found a good internet shop with good telephone service, walked for miles, became experts on the tram system. We ate a special kind of ice cream from a street kiosk – a soft ice cream that was apparently whipped and then served in a clam-shell shaped cone with a small hard waffle as a scoop. Who says that travel isn’t broadening? The campground was great – friendly, helpful and clean. The bus was convenient, the public transit service excellent, the city interesting, what more could one ask?