Day 15: Last Day, Nurnberg

Our first stop for the day was the Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände in the uncompleted Congress Hall at the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds. This exhibit, more focused on reciting facts than displaying artifacts, was true to its name: Fascination and Terror. Rooms alternately focus on the rise of the Nazi party and their architecture and art as supporting propaganda. The timeline runs through the war, and to the outcomes of the Nurnberg Trials. I don’t know that there is anything I can say about this exhibit that will get across just how heavy it is.

Documentation Center Museum.

On display in the museum.

Afterwards we walked part of the grounds. The space has been converted into a public park, and sunshine and birdsong were something I think we both needed. Some of the other structures have survived, including the Zeppelin Field, now used as seating for outdoor concerts.

Decaying grandstand at the zeppelin field.

View across the lake at the unfinished Congress Building now housing the museum.

The city can’t afford repair and renovation work, so this is slowly decaying into ruin. I’m not convinced that is a bad thing. Of course, the inversion of the original purpose, where now the bandstand is audience seating also has a certain appeal.

Back to old town.

A strange statue we passed.

There's something associated with luck and this "Beautiful Fountain," but that was lost in translation. The fence around it is covered in locks, though. 

Bill enjoying the Hauptmarkt without rain today.

Our next stop is lunch at a restaurant suggested by the Lonely Planet tour book. This is, and I cannot stress this enough, the single worst travel guide I have ever owned. Tram stops are mislabeled very little information on most locations is provided, and the section on driving is appalling. So I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this restaurant.

Bill in his natural habitat.

A copper door leading into the restaurant.

Pear brandy.

Bill took the guide’s advice and got the local variant of sausage. I took the menu’s advice and got the ox cheek they claimed as a house specialty. Damn that was good. Also, I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this yet – every time I order coffee or tea, it comes with a cookie. This is something I really like about Germany.

Then we head north to the castle, with plenty of time remaining today.

These guys seemed a bit overdressed for castle gawking.

Chapel inside the castle.

Double eagles pretty much everywhere.

An unwrapped view of the illustration on the previous glass.

Ceiling in the living quarters.

Helmets pulled from a lake bottom.

One of several painted glass windows.

Horse armor.

Oh, good. Stairs.

View of Old Town from the top of the tower.

A well in an old building. Almost 5 seconds pass between dropping something from this height, and hearing it hit water.

Part of the tour is a demonstration where they lower the candles down into the well.

And synchronize their decent with video feeds in this display.

On the way back, we approach the plaza where we got hailed on from a different angle, and it starts to hail again when we’re about the same distance away. So we get coffee at a little shop west of the main tourist drag.

It's hailing again. Time for coffee.

There are a lot of stores with puns in their names. My favorite so far is delikatEßen.

We stick with this street and stumble into my new favorite shop, Ultra Comix.

Ultra Comix!

This is 3 stories of board and tabletop gaming, costuming, comics, geeky toys, and books. Fantasy and scifi separately shelved, with a small section of steampunk also separated out. I talked to the guy working the counter in the miniatures section without ever getting anything like “do you know what class your boyfriend’s character is” or anything other than enthusiastic help. Alas, longsword wielding Eladrin swordmage in gaslamp attire continues to be and impossible to find mini.

We poke our heads into a few other shops, but the next major stop is the same beer hall we enjoyed last night. This time, Bill orders a style of beer we haven’t tried before, and I am instantly in love with it. I’m also sort of still full from lunch, so while he orders more sausages, I run out and find him a bottle of what I hope is a wine similar to what he had for lunch. We shall see.

Bill in his natural habitat. Before I steal that pint of Radler from him.

Apple brandy.

After a few beers, some brandy, and sausages, we head back out for another short walk around the area before retiring to the hotel for the evening.

This is our last day, and my last entry.

I don't know where we're headed next!

Day 15: Documentation Center, Castle, Rostbratwurst

Our last full day of vacation.  We sleep in… although not very late because we went to bed comparatively early.  Hotel Klughardt is a pretty nice establishment.  It has the personal touch that chain hotels seem to lack.  For instance, yesterday I had a postcard and asked about postage.  They provided both postage and mailed it for me free of charge “as a gift.”  The breakfast is included with our stay and is a pretty nice spread.

I don’t know if I stepped on something strange yesterday or perhaps I slept funny with my foot crammed against the footboard of the bed, but my left foot feels bruised this morning.  Walking is going to be a bit more taxing than normal.  We walk to the local tram line and buy day long passes to the public transportation.  I carefully place my ticket in my front right pocket (this is called foreshadowing).  Our first stop today is the Documentation Center (Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände) museum that is house in the former nazi rally grounds.  Nurnberg is the place that nazi party used for it’s annual rally.  They built a huge complex to house the massive events.  The black and white footage of huge nazi parades that you've seen were probably filmed at this complex.  Now the complex houses a museum that documents how the hitler and the nazi party came to power.  

I wasn't sure what to expect from this museum.  I wasn't sure how the events would be portrayed.  It turns out the museum does a good job of providing an objective account of how the party came to power.  I thought it handled the matter in a no-nonsense way and attempted to just state the facts as they were.  For me the most interesting part of the tour were quotations from a series of documents captured after-the-fact airing the grievances of the logistical nightmare the rallies turned out to be for the planners.  The museum definitely makes a point of also highlighting the Nurnberg Trials which provided the first legal framework trying people in an international court of law for war crimes instead of just exacting revenge upon them.  Towards the end there are some video accounts of people who were children or young adults during the war that attempt to explain how they got caught up in the movement and the role they played.  The museum tour was somber and reflective.  I’m glad we visited it, but it’s not exactly a cheerful way to start the last full day of vacation.

After the museum Dawn wants to walk the rally grounds.  At this point I think we must be in very different mental spaces.  I can’t say I enjoyed this very much.  To my mind it was nazi gawking and I didn’t want to give them the pleasure of my attention.  Again, I expect Dawn had a very different point of view of this exercise.

Next we headed back to the old town portion of Nurnberg.  By then it was early afternoon.  Yesterday we had spotted a restaurant in our tour guide that looked interesting called Goldenes Posthorn.  It has been an active restaurant since the 1500’s  and supposed to be a legitimate source of Franconia food (that the region of Germany we’re in).   It takes a bit of walking but we eventually find the place and sit down.  I've read about the local Nurnberg style of sausage that I really want to try called Nürnberger Rostbratwurst.  This place seems like the place to get that.  The sausages are short and thin like breakfast links.  They are served over a sauerkraut that has been seasoned with caraway and juniper (I think).  Since I noticed that the menu claimed this was a wine bar I also ordered a glass of the Franconian wine.  The wine turned out to be white but was excellent.  Enough so that Dawn actually sought out a bottle to take home later in the day.  Dawn had the restaurant's specialty which turned out to be ox cheek in a red wine sauce and a pear schnapps.  Both were fantastic.

With our spirits raised and our stomached filled we decided to tackle touring Nurnberg Castle.  During the Holy Roman Empire Nurnberg was an important city due to it’s location and castle.  Evidently the Holy Roman Empire didn’t have a capital city and the Emperor would travel the empire taking of residence in one area of the empire or another to settle local matters.  Nurnberg was a popular site for the Emperor to take up residence when he was in the neighborhood.  In fact, by convention each new Emperor held his first court session in Nurnberg (the coronation took place in another town).   We also learn this town’s deep connection with the imperial past is also one of the reasons the nazi party selected it to make it their propaganda backdrop.      

The museum includes a lot of original artifacts from the imperial days including a lot of armor and weaponry towards the end of the tour.   The museum tickets also include access to one of the iconic Nurnberg watch towers.  After a lot of walking our legs were already pretty tired so the climb up the spiral staircase was a bit challenging.  The view was very nice though.

The tickets also included a “demonstration” of how deep the castle well was.  The demonstration is carried out every half hour so we gathered around and waited to see what it was about.  They take you into a locked building housing the well.  There is a small tray of candles suspended over it.  The museum official spends about 10 minutes sharing what I am sure is interesting facts about the well.  Unfortunately these were all shared in German so I wasn't able to follow most of the explanation.  Part of it involved him asking people how long the delay in him emptying a mug of water into the well and a splash would be.. it turns out quite long (counted at least five seconds).

Eventually they lower the candles down into the well and everyone gets to watch the light slowly recede to just barely a pin point at the bottom.  Man that is one deep well.  I’m both impressed by and empathetic towards the group of laborers who dug this out in the 1400’s.  I’m sure it was no easy feat.

After castle time we wandered all over old town poking our heads in shops and taking in the sites.  As we entered the plaza where it started raining on us yesterday… it’s started raining on us again today.  Including the initial blast of hail.  What is it about us entering this plaza that makes the weather go goofy?  This time we duck into a coffee shop and wait the weather out over a warm mug.  After the rain we continue to walk around and eventually decide it’s time for a mug of beer.  We enjoyed the beer hall we visited yesterday so much we visit it again.  This time I order a beer style that I've seen on menus over here but I’m not familiar with called “radler”.  Turns out the radler is essentially a German shandy.  (I just looked it up and wikipedia says that it translates to “cyclist” because it has a reputation as being a “sports drink”....Germans!)  It’s surprisingly good and Dawn is particularly taken with it.  She also orders a sample of their house apple schnapps and we both agree it also very good.  I order plate of Nürnberger Rostbratwurst to snack on and we wile away or time over a couple of beers.  Not a bad way to end a day of sightseeing.

Day 15: Food

Dawn get's the house specialty, ox cheek.  (It's awesome)

Bill get's the town specialty rostbratwurst.

For dinner... More rostbratwurst.

Day 14: Residenz and Relocation, Würzburg and Nurnberg

We've retired to Hotel Klughardt for the evening. The reviews of this place were extremely positive about the service and comfort, which has so far held true. And Bill is happy to find that instead of chocolates, the pillows have small bags of gummy bears.

We both got up very early this morning, even before the alarm. Neither of us slept particularly well, but not for any definable reason. The up side was that we got an early start to the Residenz in Würzburg. Which gets an umlaut because otherwise the GPS can’t find it.

Residenz main entrance.

This building is just too large to capture in a single photograph.

There are two English tours of this former home of the prince bishops every day, the first at 11. We were about an hour early, so we started with the furniture exhibit that is traditionally where the tour ends. The big exciting part of this exhibit is an indoor carousel where children were expected to throw balls and darts through hoops, and knock the noses off of statues as practice for combat. I really, really wish photography had been allowed.

The tour was short, but interesting. There’s a painting where an ostrich has human legs because the artist had never seen one. America is more than once represented by an alligator. A dog painted on one of the ceilings gets fatter as you cross the room. Also, every horse in every painting and tapestry depicting a battle looks terrified, which seems accurate. The mirror closet is probably the most impressive part. Both for it’s completely over the top design, and for the fact that the entire set of painted mirrors are reproductions. The Residenz caught fire during allied bomb raids, and many of the rooms (this included) were destroyed. A year earlier, an evacuation effort had removed much of the furniture, tapestries, and gilded wall decorations, but the mirrors couldn't be removed. They broke one trying, and then decided that because the city didn’t have strategic value, the risk was low enough to leave the rest intact. The fragments of the one broken mirror were all that survived the heat, and they had to study it extensively to recreate period accurate mirror paintings and gilding, but without the mercury used in the original. There was also a really impressive wood floor that I would have taken a few hundred pictures of if we had been allowed. Same with the odd swirly marble columns in the chapel. Looks like there is a virtual tour which may be interesting to click through.

Photography was permitted in the gardens around the house, so after a lunch of mostly white asparagus, we wandered around and got a few shots.

Bill in his natural habitat.

Side of the Residenz as seen from the gardens.

Lots of statues hiding in the trees.

And not hiding in the trees.

We'll all understand if you bite one of those kids.

 

Oh, good. Stairs.

Residenz view from the gardens.

There was one very interesting lunch note, but I’m sure Bill will address it in his blog.

We then drove on to Nurnberg, the last stop on our whirlwind tour of Bavaria. After checking in, I took back the rental car. Resolving the ticket took a bit of time and convenience fee, but that’s one less thing to worry about when I get home. Seriously feel like the convenience was worth it.

We wanted to hit the castle today, but by the time we found the correct entrance, it was 30 minutes to closing, so we’ll have to squeeze that in tomorrow. Here are some pictures from our walk around the wall and gardens.

The walk between inner and outer walls.

Oh, good. Stairs.

 

We found our way up to the castle.

We then decided to hunt down a fountain the hotel staff had mentioned. Most of the way there, our miraculous weather luck failed. We’ve basically had almost no rain this whole trip, and even when it has rained, it’s been of no inconvenience. Like having the one table that didn’t get wet, or being under the covered wall walk when a shower comes through. So today we got hailed on for a while and then it was just cold rain until around the time we decided to call it a night. Of course, we have been expecting exactly this kind of thing and both had umbrellas ready. I didn’t let the weather stop me from taking pictures, though.

Hail will start falling in about 10 seconds.

Rain be damned, I am still taking pictures.

We found a quiet café for dinner, where I may have ordered too much.

Bill out of the rain.

Bill flipped through the tour book and discovered that one of the places we had passed a couple of blocks back was an ale house/brewery. That was our next stop.

A happy place.

Bill in his natural habitat.

Then we decided to check out the garishly touristy section of shopping near the main gate. The advantage being that between the rain and the late hour, we could window shop without crowds.

The most tourist trap portion of old town has been shut down by rain. Kind of cute when it's empty.

That put us close to the train station, where we could get the tram back to our hotel.

Tomorrow is our last day here, and we only have a couple of items on the agenda. And no more driving for me!