There is a 75% chance of great sights.

First: The altar at The Church of Our Lady
Second: Cihan The Magnificent amazes throughout the night (He didn't ever refer to himself as Cihan The Magnificent, that was creative licensing by us)
Third: A view inside the fortress.
Fourth: A view of the Dresden "skyline" from the beer garden across the river.

As we bid adieu to Berlin, we quickly set our sights on the historic city of Dresden. During the WWII bombings, the allies managed to take down nearly 75% of the entire city. Rather than start anew, it was decided that the city would be rebuilt to mimic what it once was, as many of the buildings that were destroyed maintained elements from the 17th century. We stayed in the Neustadt, which is essentially the younger and more hip side. Upon crossing the bridge to the Aldstadt it really is easy to be fooled into believing you are looking at 400 year old buildings, rather than 60 year old re-creations. It is also kind of funny to see what amounts to a South Coast Plaza styled shopping experience throughout the various squares. The most famous building, The Church of Our Lady, was rebuilt with an astounding altar that spanned the height of the church. We were also able to tour the well-preserved remains of the 13th century fortress and castle that was once the center of rule for all of Lower Saxony.

On the social side of things, we ran into the typical cast of characters, a few Canadians, a few Americans, but this time the group included an unassuming Turkish expat named Cihan. This guy has essentially lived all over the world and in varying degrees was able to communicate in 10 different languages, but the most important of his languages in our eyes was the language of MAGIC!!! When he first told us he was going to do a magic trick for us, it conjured images of an 11-year-old boy with a magic handkerchief, we didn't expect much. But after 2 hours of begging him to do more tricks, we were sold on his sleight of hand abilities. The best part about it was that he wasn't trying to fool anyone, he didn't try to tell us he had magic ability, it was solely about a lot of practice and mastery of sleight of hand, he even showed us how to do some of the tricks.

Dresden was a very neat city, and quaint enough to be a nice stop between the bigger cities of Berlin and Prague.

Mark and Kaylin