Pictures part 1: US president Obama visits Dresden, Thursday, 4th of June, 2009

[dieastra]

I just realized I never posted the promised pictures of Obama's visit to my home city Dresden. So even though I am a little late I hope you'll enjoy them!

The first picture I took on Thursday evening, this shows the skyline of Dresden. You'll see the Brühl's Terrace, which usually is crowded with people, looking down to the river Elbe. It is also called "The balkony of Europe". During Obama's visit it was in the area which was closed down for security measures and I don't think I will ever again see it so empty:





At Thursday evening there was a "Welcome Mr. President" party with Line Dance, Rock'n'Roll, and also a German group called "Bandana" which is a Johnny Cash tribute band. Member Bodo Martin once stood on his basso and played from there:



There also was bull riding:




This is the building of the police authority, a lot of police cars and also police men had come from other countries, to help for the safety.



The trams all had a sticker on front which said "Welcome Mr. President" and the three flags - USA, Germany and Saxony:



Also at the side panel, where it says which way the tram will go, was the line "Welcome Mr. President" written:









The stage was decorated with white, red and blue balloons, the blue ones even had little stars on them:






I'll post the second part of pictures from Friday in a few days.

me and my Obama doll get famous all over the world
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Comments

[immerrda.livejournal.com]

What lovely pictures! Dresden looks like such a beautiful place. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to more pics!

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yes, Dresden is a very beautiful city, lots of historical buildings and lots of culture, museums etc. I'm going to send some Dresden pics to to by e-mail if that's okay, because the second patch of the Obama visit will not have much of these. There I went with photographing the security and all the TV teams and action, which certaily is very unusual for my kind of Germany, so we all were very excited!

[colej55.livejournal.com]

I'm late in posting because I had bookmarked this page to come back to so I could spend some time looking at your lovely photos. Dresden is gorgeous! And I'm so amazed that a presidential visit inspires so much effort, right down to bull riding.

I have always lived in cities where dignitaries never visit, so I've never seen if we do anything special to welcome other heads of state. I would probably be sadly disappointed. I'm fairly certain that Washington, DC takes these sorts of visits in stride without giving them the honor and respect they deserve. Princess Diana caused a big reaction, as does the pope, but that's about it.

I shall definitely add Dresden to my list of places to visit if I ever get back to Europe!

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

The bull riding and party and everything else was due to the fact that we had no "official" way to see the president for real. The whole area he was in was totally closed down. Only people living or working there were allowed in, but they had to prove their identity, and still didn't get in touch with him. This is why in all the news you see an empty place. It's not lack of interest, believe me! We were held away by the police.

It actually was no official visit either, he was there in private. He only slept in a Dresden hotel on his way to Buchenwald. The rest, the talking with Merkel and such, got added later.

Because of the importance of his Buchenwald visit he did not want to mingle with the local crowd, as he has done with other visits. He did not want anything to distract from the important theme, which I think is understandable. In fact, I watched CNN that day, and they also only concentrated on Buchenwald, you did get a few glimpses of Dresden before, but since it was very early for you in the morning I doubt many saw it. Now we all hope he liked it here and will come back officially one day ;) And that many people from all over the world saw how beautiful it is here and come visit also!

But of course local people expected "something" at this special day. So, we didn't get an official speech (but there was a press conference, together with Merkel) but what we got was a big screen for public viewing (I know this term means something entirely else in America, but here it is used for a crowd of people watching things at the big screen, like soccer matches). And we got the party and the typical American music and everything else, to have a place to go and celebrate.

And people waved American flags and just wanted to show their (renewed) love to America. Who cares if a few clichés were used for this - just think of it like American Oktoberfest LOL