14th August. Dresden - Twinned With Coventry.

Continuing the WWII theme Dresden was the next port of call to see what was left after the night of Feb 13th 1945.

I mean it's not my fault that I grew up with war generation parents, for me Dresden was synonymous with flattened and firestorm.

The first thing you notice coming into the station is that the steel structure is pre-war but the thousands of panes of glass are missing, instead there is a modern looking stretched canvas affair.

Having been pointed in the general direction of what remains of the 'Altstadt' by sign language it was fairly obvious that Bomber Command had pretty much cleared the way for a bright new Socialist utopian vision in brutalist concrete.

Post reunification some of the open spaces in this Orwellian vision had been filled in with Starbucks and trendy boutiques in ubiquitous steel and glass.

There still are old buildings, but the thing everyone comes to see now is the 92 metre high Frauenkirche which up until 1990 odd was still a pile of rubble.

I texted 'Young' Alastair about the amazing reconstruction of this centre piece of Dresden.

"Nothing a Lancaster couldn't sort".