After roughly 6 hours on the train from Zurich, we arrived at our pit stop in Nurmberg. I had never been, but Chris had been for one day many years ago. We walked along the Old Town wall to our hotel Ibis. During this short 10 minute walk with our backpacks, we realized that we were really happy to have this brief time in Nuremberg.
Checking in at Hotel Ibis was much friendlier once the front desk guy realized that I was a fellow Greek. He shook our hands and bestowed free drink coupons upon us. Dropping our backpacks off in the room, we quickly headed out to start soaking in the city.
Past the stone wall lay the Old City, which consists of several alleyways containing shops and restaurants (for the obligatory consumerism), but also pieces of history. We walked past a square with a cathedral on one side and a bell tower on the other, followed by a very elaborate fountain. The whole area was so different than anything we'd seen yet. It was visually different with a beautiful use of stone, wood, and gold; it felt jovial and warm, but yet also a bit dark. Of course, we knew that 65 years ago, Nurmberg was a Nazi stronghold city and the epicenter of Nazi propganda, so it contained some sinister events: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg
We crossed a lovely old, wooden bridge and ate sausages and pork shoulder at a gaushaus. Chris found a really good, authentic tasting non-alcoholic beer, and I even decided to partake in a beer with dinner.
In the morning, we went to the Nazi Party Rally Grounds (Documentation Center). A horse-shoe shaped building was built for Hitler but was never finished or used. It now contains a WW2 museum, which we visited. Right next to the museum is Zeppelin Field, which was used for Nazi rallies, and Hitler spoke from the podium. If you have seen video of Hitler speaking to masses of Nazi soldiers, it was from this podium. Unfortunately, we only had a few hours that morning in Nurmberg, so we didn't have a chance to visit Zeppelin Field. Next time.
The musem gave a detailed timeline of the events in Germany leading up to WW2 and sought to explain the Hitler "myth" that he created. It was informative, tragic, and left us wanting to know more (both pre and post events of the war). We've all learned about the basics of WW2, of course, but there are so many background events, implications, and motivations of all involved that are really fascinating. For example, I didn't realize that many people in Germany opposed Hitler. From the Communists to the Democrats, there were several opposing parties. Hitler and his Nazis had them disbanded, killed, and/or sent them to the first concentration camps (used for Germans, not Jews at the beginning). The details of the Nurmberg trial were also fascinating, and they had video clips of the top ranking Nazi officials who were interrogated. Many of them were executed, and they even had the pictures of them post-execution--some still with nooses around their necks.
Of course, each country in the Allied forces quickly positioned themselves to take the most advantage of the German spoils. But the overall devastation to humanity was really sad to witness.
After the museum, we took a short walk around the the Old City again. There were many buildings that were also affected by the war, and they had to rebuild. Nurmberg Castle and the Cathedral were standouts for me there. At 2pm, less than 24 hours after we'd arrived in Nurmberg, we headed out for Prague!
the fountain
Zeppelin Field at the end of the war. 'Merica! F-Yeah!
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