Dresden and Charite

Why hello! I can definitely see why Dresden is called the Venice of Germany- I snapped pictures every two minutes like a good tourist should. Just walking around the town takes your breath away, it's all baroque and renaissance style buildings, so pastel colors and intricate crowning and stonework were everywhere. We saw the view from the Elbe, the Frauenkirche [one of the oldest Lutheran churches], and the Royal Palace to name a few sights. I loved the church, it was neat to learn about the history of the religion I grew up with. It did surprise me that such a low percentage of the people in Dresden are religious today, I didn't realize Soviet socialism (not to mention the war)put such a strain on beliefs, but it's perfectly logical. We then visited the Hygiene Museum, which was an interactive experience on everything from birth and death to the nervous system. After a YouTube session with the groupies, it was time for some sleep! Yesterday we spent a day at the Charite hospital, which had an awesome Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum with anatomical parts from Virchow's dissections. We literally saw a ton of diseases face to face in kidneys, brains, feet (ew), and hearts, to name a few, which was infinitely better than photos in books. The fact that the concept of medicine from the fourteenth century was based on four humors, which determined what personality, disease, and treatments you should have, is absolutely ludicrous and comical, and I'm extremely thankful we don't amputate legs with saws and gunpowder any more... After a stop at the Pergamom museum, we sat down for an epic meal of schnitzel, currywurst, meatballs, and sausage. SO MUCH FOOD. Thank goodness I have a fellow traveler with an endless stomach. Until next time!