Dresden is a cultural center and has been so for centuries. There are several museums with world-famous paintings, porcelain, statues, etc. There are musical performances constantly: operas, symphonies, choral works, and organ concerts to name just a few. So, you might be wondering, which of these cultural offerings have we sampled, which famous museums have we seen? We've been to the military history museum and to a soccer game. Now that's high culture!
We will eventually make our way into the famous museums and view the interiors of ancient churches, but we didn't want to burn the kids (or ourselves) out too soon. So we're leaving this sort of activity for when the grandparents come visit, or when we go visit other cities. Now watch, it'll be our last week here and we'll be rushing to go to all the famous museums at once! We will all be attending the opera next weekend though to see the Barber of Seville. They have a some pretty great family deals and this will be a special afternoon show particularly geared for families. Vicente & Miguel were a bit concerned that they wouldn't be able to understand the words, but I told them not to worry, there will be German subtitles.
We've gone on a couple of hiking trips into the area of Germany known as "Saxon Switzerland". It's not exactly the Alps, but it's fairly hilly and there are amazing sandstone rock formations poking out of the forest. Amazingly, Vicente & Miguel are underwhelmed by walking uphill 2 1/2 hours just to see a natural sandstone bridge, but it's been one my highlights so far. They also weren't as impressed as I was by walking around the beautiful gardens and grounds of a nearby castle a couple of weekends ago. However, Pablo, Blackjack, and I are thoroughly enjoying these outings. The kids were also quite pleased with being able to walk over the border into the Czech Republic.
We have located scouts in Dresden, both the American variety (a small Cub Scout pack) and the German variety (co-ed Pfadfinders). The boys have both gone to a few Cub Scout meetings to serve as den chiefs and that works out well for everyone - our boys have a good time being looked up to, the Cub Scouts think they're great, and they actually do pay more attention when our boys are around apparently, so the adults are happy. The only drawback is that it takes an hour to get there via public transportation - that was what led us to combine a trip to visit the above mentioned castle gardens on a Cub Scout meeting day. The Pfadfinders seem to be a bit different from our Boy Scouts. They have 2 hour meetings most Saturdays and nary an adult is in sight - there is an older boy that seems to be the leader and kids arrive by themselves via bike or public transport, they play a bunch of games and then head home. We haven't figured out if they do camping trips or merit badges or anything like that, but Vicente & Miguel seem to enjoy the meetings so far.
We have been going to an international English-speaking church that is quite close fortunately. It's quite a change from Central Presbyterian, with its 3 different services each Sunday, and 80-100 kid middle school youth group on Fridays. This church has around 40 people showing up on a Sunday morning and there is only one other boy that is Vicente's & Miguel's age. Fortuitously (or should I say, providentially?) this boy also goes to the same school, so they actually knew someone on the first day of school. Most of the people attending are students of some sort or young families with infants. The church is also very international, with people from Africa, Asia, Australia, and both Americas. We're only missing Antarctic penguins! The people have been very kind and welcoming. The pastor is from Michigan and a Detroit Lions & Tigers fans, so Vicente likes talking to him about that. (Go Orioles!!!) The pastor is also quite good at karate apparently and offers a karate class on Thursday afternoons. Vicente & Miguel have been going and I walk over with the dog so that I have a good reason not to participate. As I explained to Miguel, I once might have wanted to learn karate, but I'm just not so interested anymore. I figure Blackjack is a much better defense than anything I would come up with. The church has had a few other activities as well, one of them being going to a ropes course. We had a lot of fun with that and I had muscles I didn't know existed hurting for days afterwards. If I can persuade Pablo to do two major activities in one weekend, then we'll go with the church to a museum of life in the GDR on the same weekend as the opera. I'm not sure though, both Pablo & I are enjoying a sabbatical from constant activities.
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