Nurn...Berg!

Wednesday, June 1:
So far, we've been to Berlin, Bamberg, Regensburg and now...Nurnberg! This morning, Marianne, my host and I boarded the train and headed straight for the Nazi propaganda capital of Germany. This was my first European train experience, and it was everything I dreamt of and more...except no free wifi (what the H Germany!). Riding this train made me want to pursue some public transportation in the US - I heard there is a National Park train ride tour - cough cough...Ryan? :)

We arrived in Nurnberg and I immediately bumped it up to my favorite German city! It was like Bamberg, but with so much more. We started with, of course, the St. Lorenz cathedral and it was just as beautiful as the others. We visited the old town hall, the Albrecht - a famous house of the draughtsman, the oldest church in Nurnberg - that has been completely rebuilt after World War 2.

A little background on Nurnberg - Hitler and the Nazi's held many of their meetings, rallies and speeches in the city center - almost all of the media photos are from Nurnberg. So of course, this city was hit heavy when the world decided to fight back. It has been completely rebuilt and there are memorials everywhere - it is truly amazing to stand in the city center and imagine what occurred in the 1930s - I felt like I was living in a history book.

At noon, we headed over to the women's church in the Hauptmarkt for the noon showing of the dancing figures! This is very popular in Germany and so exciting to watch! We will see another in Munich that is supposed to be even better!

It was lunch time and I sampled the Maultauschen - Bavarian ravioli - red beer, and a variety of gasoline...I mean Schnaps made from beer. I'm slowly sampling every Germany food and loving all of it!

After lunch, we headed to fairytale land with the Kaiserburg Castle! We toured the outside and got some great views of the city - it made me think - what would the Castle inhabitants have thought of the 1930s.

The end of Nurnberg concluded with a bus ride to Courtroom 600 - the location of the trials for the leaders of the Third Reich. Just like every other experience so far, the information was flowing! We sat in the courtroom, listened to the audio information, watched videos of the trial and felt the eery atmosphere once experienced in this same space.

 I never thought about how important it would be to have these educational experiences, but I am so grateful for all of them. This has truly been a trip of education, culture, history and emotion.