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 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.
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