Monday October 17-Day 4

We woke up this morning still in Prague and I was ready to go straight to Dresden but we had a few more free hours so I went with a group back to the cathedral we went by last night. On our way there we saw a marching band followed by official looking men (soldiers). I marched along side them for a bit and it was very fun. Apparently something official was going on in the Palace that surrounds the cathedral.

The Cathedral in the Daytime

After viewing the beautiful cathedral in the daylight, we went to see a mummified hand in a different cathedral. According to the legend, a thief tried to steal some jewelry off of a statue of Mary and the statue grabbed his wrist to stop him. He was trapped there until the next day when the proper authorities could release him the only way they knew how: chopping off his hand. So, apparently, this creepy withered thing hangs from the wall in the cathedral to remind people that stealing is bad.

Hand handing from the wall

Dementor Statue 

For lunch I got an interesting Czech Panini that I was worried about trying at first, but turned out to be chicken and BBQ sauce! I’m not sure whether or not this is a Czech original, but it was yummy so I didn’t complain.

Once we all made it back the bus we were finally on our way to Germany! First destination: Dresden! It took a while but I was so excited when we got there. Brother Minert took us to a certain street and told us about some church members who lived there and were kept safe during an air raid because they followed their dad because he had the Priesthood, even though what he was doing didn’t seem to made sense.

While Dresden was on bombed and burning, most people were trying to get to the river where they would be more safe. By the house of these certain members there was a wide street and a narrow street. Of course most people would take the wide street because, naturally, there would be less smoke because there was more space between the burning buildings. The mother and the kids were on their way toward the wide street while their father went toward the narrow one. They decided to follow their father because he was a priesthood holder and made it to the river safely. A while later they encountered their neighbor who had gone with her husband down the wide street that seemed like the obvious way to go. Apparently the street had been covered in liquid phosphorous (I like that’s what it was) that exploded with the slightest amount of friction. So this woman’s husband had been blown up as he tried to walk down this street and she was forced to turn around and find another way. If the LDS family had gone this way most, if not all of them, probably would have been killed. This was just one of the wonderful ways Heavenly Father kept members of the church safe during the war.

After that we went to see the Frauenkirche, which had collapsed after the air raid on Dresden and has since been reconstructed. Once the Soviets no longer had control of Dresden, they were able to sort through the mess that had been left and collected all the sandstones that could still be used in the reconstruction. It was cool to see the black spots on the church where those torched stones were used.

Notice the black blocks

Inside the Frauenkirche

For a few Euros we also got to go through the church to the top and had a lovely view of the entire city. It was beautiful but it was still sad to see the parts of the city that have not yet been restored after the attack. It will be such an exciting day when the whole city is returned to its glory.