Our Big Adventure

NUREMBERG

After Berlin and learning so much more about Hitler and the Second World War, Nuremburg seemed the next logical destination. It was just sheer luck that the camping area we choose to stay at backed onto the arena and the never completed Zeppelin Field, a sports complex of megalomaniacal proportions, larger than 12 football fields, where Hitler’s mass rallies attended by up to 200,000 troops and supporters where held. We had seen this building in documentaries and were stunned to see it when we climbed out of the camper the next morning. This city was virtually levelled during the war and where the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials held, but it has done an admirable job of confronting the past with museums and exhibits. In fact it has so many museums, they are to the fire brigade, nationalism, hats, hangmen and even German pigeons (we missed that one). The Dokumentationzentrum in an unfinished wing of the Congress Hall had an interesting exhibition called, ‘Fascination and Terror’ about the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party, and the huge propaganda machine that incited the troops to fanaticism. The city itself is old and walled, rebuilt to look as it was before the bombings, but the newer malls and shops are encroaching on the old, hopefully it will keep it’s old world charm in the future. It did have a couple of interesting fountains, The Marriage Merry-Go-Round, an erotic fountain with naked people, animals and other odd things happening. And the Beautiful Fountain with a brass ring that you rub for luck, Brian and I did rub the ring although right now we are feeling pretty lucky already.

posted by Brian and Julie @ 12:34:00 AM