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When morning rolled around we had arrived in Nuremberg. Although there wasn’t much to see where we were docked. Very industrial. The tour would take us by bus from the boat through the old Nazi stomping grounds where they held their massive rallies, by the courthouse where they got their comeuppance, and then into the old town.
While not very scenic it was interesting to drive through this part of town and see some of the ‘real’ Germany. We’ve been going from picturesque medieval town to picturesque medieval town without seeing how most of Germany lives. Granted it was only interesting for 5 minutes or so, but still interesting.
Fiona (our guide) started with some of the history of Nuremberg. It’s an ancient city. Part of Franconia, although now in Bavaria. She mentioned, as the guide had yesterday, that if you know what’s good for you, you won’t call the people Bavarians. Napoleon ceded this area to Bavaria from Franconia when he took over in the 1800’s and shuffled things around, and the people are still pissed off about it. They seem pissed off in general actually. Not a friendly people so far as I’ve said. But they live in a tourist area and we know from experience that dealing with tourists all day makes one lose their cherub-like demeanor, as John Pinette liked to say.
Anyway, it turns out there’s not a lot to see where the Nazis used to rally. Mostly because they had taken over such a large part of the city so the current Nurembergers couldn’t very well keep it all as a monument, even if they wanted to, which I suspect they don’t. The area, (freely given to the Nazis by the locals it should be noted), was huge. Something like 20 times bigger than the central part of town.
Fiona, gave us some background. There were 3 reasons the Nazis chose Nuremberg for their rallies. One, it was an imperial city in its day, a major site for the Holy Roman Empire and the Nazis wanted to piggyback on that feeling. Two, there was a lot of support for the Nazis in Nuremberg (and Bavaria in general). And three, it would be a central location for the country after they annexed Austria (always thinking ahead, the Nazis).
The rallies were massive. Hundreds of thousands of people. They would put a hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand people on parade and another 100,000 would watch them. They were masters of spectacle and used all sorts of stage techniques and pageantry to manipulate and impress. (And if that didn’t work, they trundled you off to Dachau, so people got on board pretty quickly or at least pretended to).
We stopped at the Nuremberg Stadium. An unfinished arena. The plan for this arena was very grand. It would seat 50-70,000, be built from granite on the outside for the intimidation factor, and marble and glass on the inside to project power. The war got in the way of completing it. Plus the cost. But the plan was to fund it with the spoils of war. It turned out there weren’t any, so now it sits as a sort of monument to the Nazi’s failure, which I think is the right sort of monument to have for them.
From there we drove by the building used for the trials and the prison where they kept those they put on trial (and shot the ones convicted). There wasn’t a lot to see but the story was interesting. As Fiona pointed out, this was the first time that anyone was ever tried for going to war or for war crimes. We accept it now as normal. But this was the first time it ever happened.
After that we had enough of the Nazis and headed into the old city. (There was an optional WWII tour where they pretty much spent the day focusing on the Nazi stuff. I’m glad we didn’t do it. Not the tone we were hoping for on this trip.)
In the old city, on top of a hill there’s a good sized castle called (very aptly) Nuremberg Castle. It took us awhile to wander through it, especially since by now we needed a bathroom break and with 40-50 people descending on the two stall bathrooms, it took a while. The view from up on the hill was great. Like an aerial map. Fiona explained that because of the heavy industry in the area, Nuremberg was pretty much leveled by bombing during the war. She showed us some old pictures. Pretty amazing. But some things, like the castle and a good part of the cathedral miraculously survived. When they rebuilt the town, the imposed height limits and made everyone use the old red roof tile so the city maintained its medieval feel. It looks medieval, but everything is fairly new. The city is surrounded by a 5 km wall. One of the most intact city walls left in Europe. (So I guess it mostly survived too.)
After the castle, we walked down towards the main market square, past Albrecht Durer’s house. Mr. Durer is an artist of some note (although I’d never heard of him, but Marion had). Quite the self-promoter apparently and pretty high on himself to boot. One of his more famous paintings is a self-portrait where he made himself look like Jesus. Probably a fun guy to get stuck talking to at a party.
From there we hit the market square, at the corner of which is the Beautiful Fountain. Which is. It’s probably 12-15 feet tall, covered in gold statuettes of saints and what not. Unfortunately, it’s surrounded by a not very attractive wrought iron fence so it’s a bit hard to see or photograph.
They had timed the tour just right so we’d be there at noon and could see the glockenspiel do its thing. We found a spot in front and waited. The clock chimed 12 and… nothing. Behind us we could hear two women kibitzing about it (clearly South Florida Jews). “It’s not doing anything. Isn’t it supposed to do something? They said it would do something. Oh, the trumpets are moving. See the trumpets moving? Well I can’t get a picture of that. You won’t be able to see it. Oh look the drums are going. What’s it doing now?” And on and on. And finally, “Is that it?” I must admit it wasn’t that impressive. But then again, it was built in the 14th or 15th century. But I loved hearing the back and forth. It was like a sitcom.
We had decided to stay in town for lunch rather than go back to the boat and come back into town. That seemed like a waste. So now, where to eat? We wandered around the square but couldn’t find anything that looked promising. We ended up, of all places, at a Mexican restaurant. It was totally empty, which was not a good sign. But we gave it a try. I got a burrito, which wasn’t bad except it had *peas* in it. What? Eww. Marion’s was even weirder. Turkey cutlet with asparagus, tomato, and American cheese melted on top. A strange little salad with mustard dressing and 2 tortilla chips. One inserted in the salsa and one in the sour cream. I guess tortilla chips are very rare. They still need a bit of work on their Mexican here in Germany.
The décor was Mexican but the place was clearly German. Except in the bathrooms for some reason, where they were playing Mexican music and had Spanish language newspapers. In the men’s room they had a condom dispenser, which isn’t that unusual, but also available in the dispenser, a mini vibrator and a vibrating penis ring. So I guess the place gets more interesting at night.
We were kind of shopped out so we decided to go to the toy museum. Nuremberg is known for its toys and holds the largest toy fair in the world every year. The museum had lots (and lots) of old toys from the 1800’s and early 1900’s. Very cool stuff. Unfortunately, no photos allowed so nothing to remember it by. Upstairs they had a massive array of miniatures, much to Marion’s delight and on the next floor, trains and erector set type stuff which I enjoyed a lot.
The lady at the counter had convinced us to buy a museum day pass for an additional 2,50 Euro. We decided to do it, even though we really weren’t planning to go to any more, but it worked out well. We ended up going to the Albrecht Durer house and the City Museum, which were both very interesting and filled up our last two hours before the buses would come for us.
The Durer house was the home he had purchased and lived in back in the 1500’s or early 1600’s (give or take). He was obviously not a starving artist. We did a pretty quick pass through the house (one benefit of not having to pay more for it). They were doing a demonstration of printmaking from his original plates, which was fun to watch, but the commentary was in German so a little hard to follow.
The Fembohaus that holds the City Museum was also great. We didn’t have much time since we had to catch the bus so we couldn’t listen to all the audio commentary provided. In fact, in yet another example of the fine hospitality we are receiving from the Germans, we walked in the place, and went up to the ticket counter. We are the only people in the place except for 3 people who work there. Two behind the counter and one standing in front. They are engaged in a conversation and I waited politely for them to have a minute or so to finish before helping us. But they didn’t. They continued to chat. I edged closer. Nothing. We’re short of time because we have to meet the bus in 45 minutes. Marion is saying “just hand the tickets to her” but I wasn’t prepared to do that yet. I finally put them on the counter and stared at the women and she finally deemed me worthy of attention. I had forgotten another Travel-with-Les technique we should have applied. If they ignore you, try to go in without paying. That usually gets them to speak to you.
But the rooms were very impressive – lots of deep rich woods in some, bright windows and rococo in others. And in the displays there was a history of the city and some idea of the life and times of the 16th and 17th centuries. There were also 3 or 4 big city models including a very large one carved from wood. It took 4 years to complete and was very detailed. It turned out to be an excellent reference when some 4 or 5 years later, the place was leveled by Allied bombers. And in another nod to recognizing the Nazi atrocities, they also pointed out that very shortly after the model was completed (months), the synagogues depicted were destroyed in Kristallnacht.
While we were in town, the boat had proceeded ahead. The river upstream from us had been very low and traffic had been held up for a while. Now the river was ok and the traffic was heading downstream. So there was basically a traffic jam coming and they wanted to get the boat farther along so we keep on schedule.
So they bussed us to where we would meet the boat. Another run through an uninteresting part of town, out to another industrial area like yesterday where we’d meet the boat. Only problem was, we were about 30 minutes ahead of it. The program director was very apologetic and I’m sure there will be people who complain about it. But it was not a bad spot along a very peaceful canal, the sun was out and if it means we won’t be late to Vienna than no problem as far as we were concerned. I took a walk along the canal and ended up chatting with a guy whose name escapes me it but it was quite pleasant.
Marion was pretty tired and skipped dinner. I went down alone and ended up eating with a family – the 4 of them and me. They’re from upstate New York and are probably the closest people to us in age on the boat. They were a lot of fun to talk to. (But for the rest of the trip when I tried to say hi to them or acknowledge them as we passed, they ignored me. Must have been something I said…)
After dinner we crossed the continental divide and are now headed down river (down canal?) to the Danube. Tomorrow we’ll be in Regensburg.
7/1/14
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