In Radebeul and Dresden

L. and I arrived in Radebeul yesterday morning, which was mid-afternoon Michigan time. I need not tell anyone who has flown to Europe how that throws off your body. I am sure most people are aware of it, but me being someone who took this damned long to travel to Europe, it was tough. 

Older son and his girlfriend N.'s father picked us up at the Dresden airport. We drove to their house, which is in a fairly quiet residential area of Radebeul. It was once farmland during the GDR era, went fallow after reunification, and then was developed into housing in the 1990s and 2000s. It is, I suppose, the German approximation of an American subdivision, but with winding streets and houses right next to each other and much smaller gardens (yards). The houses here have more character, too. They are all two-story and colorfully painted. Germans have the right idea. There seems much more a sense of community here compared to middle-class, suburban America--in which people live in their own bubbles and rarely communicate with neighbors. I feel as if I am gaining insight into why, at least to a certain extent, the U.S. has social problems rarely seen in Europe.

So after we arrived, we ate with the W. family (I just feel as if I should grant others some anonimity in this blog). We then walked through a somewhat open and rural and then woodsy area of Radebeul. People have their own little gardens [kleingartens] and farms with well maintained and dare-I-say "cute" little sheds. It is something we see more now in the U.S., but not quite to this extent.

We also walked through a cemetery [Heidefriedhof] with some World War II memorials, one large one dedicated to the Nazi death camps and German cities decimated by bombing. It was quite a moving experience.

The later the day got, the more fried we felt. After playing a few games of Uno, we went to bed.