Partly Sunny Dresden

The other month I was in Dresden with my wife while she was at a conference. I wandered around and drew while she listened to talks. I'd re-read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five before going there, which I'm not sure influenced me or not, other than making me aware of the burden of history and tremendous rebuilding that is part of the cities story. Burnt dark stonework stacked with light, what's new is old and what's old is new.
I'm sure the time of year had something to do with it, but the place had a vast ghostly atmosphere, windy and dramatic above, hushed and weighted below, empty spaces with scattered crowds. And then, enter a church and there is rococo rapture! Every day was described as 'partly sunny' in the weather forecast, and every day the sun came out for, maybe, five minutes. These Germans are one optimistic people, I thought, to call such dreary weather 'partly cloudy'. Maybe one has to go indoors to see the sun in Dresden.

Dresden Frauenkirche. The sky, weighted, moody, quieting the spotty crowd.

Walk around to the other side and again the windy sky dominates the stone and life below.

Before a old-looking new building is constructed, archaeology must occur. Here, a birds nest of exposed foundations where there was once a Jewish neighborhood.

Every day I rode a tram to the old city and saw people such as these three characters.

Want to see sunshine on a cloudy day in Dresden? Go inside Dresden Frauenkirche and light emanates from the altar.