Living in Germany is difficult to describe, it is a beautiful country with a complicated past, it is materially very comfortable to live in Germany but dealing with Germans can be a pain in the neck and yet I made some great friends there. The contradictions abound from its history to the fact that nowhere else in Western Europe, outside of Spain, will you find so many good Spanish speakers. A friend of mine from Oxford, the best dance partner I've ever had, embodies these contradictions, he is quite smart, a physicist, and you would never guess from his geeky exterior that he is a such a good dancer nor that he has such a passion for it. Coincidentally, he is one of those Spanish speakers.
The best way to begin with Germany is at the beginning of my encounter with the place, with my time in Dresden and the Goethe Institute. We were given accommodation in a student house in the middle of an industrial park, of all places, that was next to a forest in the outskirts of the city. A bike was really needed, I simply refused to walk 20 mins through random land and then 10-15 mins on the tram every single time I wanted to get out from the middle of nowhere. So started my love affair with German bikes. I would speed down the hill every morning to German classes and then hike it back up the hill at lunch time. This daily routine trained me to speed next to much fasters cars with a fearlessness I had not previously known. The best part of cycling in Dresden is the cycle path alongside the river Elbe, with spectacular views of the many beautiful buildings of the city's centre. The city was burnt almost completely to the ground during the final weeks of World War II and lay almost totally unrepaired until unification. Once unified old east Germany received much needed funds from west Germany to rebuild its infrastructure. In some cases the rebuilding was badly done, hideous cement blocks but not with Dresden, there the city recovered the past glories of the city.
Curiously the one building that survived the fire bombing was the catholic cathedral. Many in Dresden claim it was because of protection from the Virgin Mary. The cathedral itself tells of the complicated history of the Kingdom of Saxony, of which Dresden was the capital. In 1712 the future king of Saxony converted to catholicism making the ruling family once again catholic but this time over a largely Lutheran population that was very resistant to other faiths. The king would one day also become king of Poland, something possible because of his conversion to catholicism. While some five years afterwards it became publicly known that the future King was catholic, there was not a huge increase in public manifestations of the Catholic faith. The cathedral is a testament to the kings willingness to not challenge the local populations sensibilities. To avoid confrontations and still continue to practice popular acts of piety such as processions the cathedral was built with a wider than normal side aisle that went all around the body of the church. The processions for all high feast days would take place inside the building, out of sight from the Lutheran population. It counts with an upper chapel, which was used by the royal family and several side chapels for daily devotions. It is a rather magnificent building well worth visiting alongside the better known attractions of Dresden.
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