[PRCo] Re: OT - Dresden, Germany

[Fred Schneider]

Vielen Dank, Herr Cefer.   Sie hilfen mich meinen Urlauben in Dresden  
zu erinern.

On my first of several trips to Dresen, before the communists were  
completely out of power, a gentleman stopped me in the parking lot of  
the main train station and attempted to strike up a conversation.    
It was late in the day.  Not being in a mood at the time to struggle  
with German, I responded, "Mein Deutsch ist nichtg sehr gut.   Konnen  
Sie auf English sprechen?"   The man responded in very crisp British  
English, "As a matter of fact, yes I can."   I turned out that he had  
an uncle in Britain and during World War II had gone to live with the  
uncle rather than stay in Germany.   He want on for ten minutes to  
regale Dick Lloyd and me about how wonderful Dresden had been in the  
1930s, before the fire storm destroyed all semblance of the past in  
1945.

I've forgotten whether Dresden was the Deutsche Demokratische  
Republik's second or third largest city.   I do remember it seemed to  
have fallen arches when I first saw it.    Sadly the DDR was the  
industrial powerhouse for all of the eastern bloc nations after World  
War II but it still didn't produce the capital needed to allow the  
nation to look anything like the west.  One got the feeling at the  
end of communism that you could drop 50,000 euros in every house in  
repairs and not even know where you put it.   And yet the DDR was  
modern compared to the other countries.   The Bulgarians were still  
farming with horses.

Again, Boris, and to quote Bob Hope, "Thanks for the Memories."   I  
did see two Trabant automobiles in Budapest a week ago (like the one  
in the film clip) and one was actually moving.   The other had the  
fender held on with duct tape.

Fred Schneider


On Nov 3, 2007, at 3:57 PM, Boris Cefer wrote:

> This link is for those who are interested in foreign streetcars and  
> have speakers.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1yGDOHFWkM
>
> Sounds seem familiar?
>