Day 3: We started
off this morning with a train to Nuremburg.
The train ride was pretty short, and it only took a little more than an
hour to get there. Then we got to the train station, there was confusion on how
to get to the Documentation Center, since the tram is not in service, but the
tourist info, showed us the bus to catch. Once we got to the Documentation
Center, its connected to the only remaining Nazi architectural building, the
Kongresshalle. The tour of the museum
shows the Nazis rise to power, how they made Nuremburg a center for the Nazi
Party, then the eventual decline of the Nazi regime. There was a mix of English, American, and German
tourists, and some English peeps were filming a documentary or something. Some of the highlights of the museum include
a picture of all the dead Nazi’s from the Nuremburg trials, being able to look
at the Kongresshalle from the exterior, and just all the different pictures
from different events. I tried walking
to the Nazi Rally Party grounds, but got confused by a sign, and didn’t make it
there. There is a huge river that you
have to get across, that I didn’t find the path too.
We then went to the “Aldstadt” or old city of
Nuremburg. It’s a city surrounded by castle walls, all cobble stone streets,
and uphill. Once we finally got to the
top, or the Kaiserburg (Castle), we were pretty tired. They were are doing work
on the interior of the castle, so we could only visit a arms museum, the watch
tower, and the well. The arms museum had some really old armor and stuff from the middle ages, so it was neat to see that. The well tour was
funny, since it was all in German, and us and the fellow Americans watching it,
had no idea what the guy said, until he said it was 47 meters deep.
When he splashed water down the well, there
was a good delay before you head it reach the water. We then walked down the main street and ended
up at Tucher’s restaurant. So we had to
have the Tucher beer, I prefer the Hefeweizen, and we had to have the famous
Nurnburg sausages, six small sausages.
After that, I checked out the St.
Sebaldus Church while everyone else went to the Christmas Market to buy the
famous gingerbread. We then met up, and
I went to go see the main church, the Church of St. Lawrence. There’s not many special things here, but
they have a display showing all the ruins from WWII bombings.
Then we ended up at a McDonalds, where they
serve bubble tea, and boba balls, that are not tapioca, but other fruits. I then went to check out the Germanisch
National Museum. It’s a huge museum, and
I only had an hour and a half there, so I maybe hit 2/5 main exhibitions. The
main one was the Albrecht Durer exhibition, the most famous German painter, who
is from Nurnburg. I saw one of his
paintings at the Uffizi last year, and well they had it on loan for this
exhibit. This was apparently the largest
exhibition of his work in 40 years in Germany and it won’t happen again in my
lifetime, due to their loan agreements.
His paintings were neat, it kind of sucked you couldn’t take pictures,
because of the artwork is really neat.
From his self-portraits, to his religious works, to his violent works of
the apocalypse. The exhibit had over 100
pieces of his work, so it was impressive.
I then tried checking out the Scientific instruments and Baroque and
Renaissance art wing. The scientific instruments were insanely decorated, so
it’s amazing they were actually used. I don’t know German Baroque/Renaissance
artists, so I breezed through most of this before I left the museum. But I was able to sneak one pic of Durer's work of former Holy Roman Emperors Charlemagne and someone else.
We ate dinner at some hotel linked with the
famous Andechs monastery, so we could get the Doppelbock beers. They were strong, delicious, and made us all
extremely tired. I passed out on the
train ride back to Munich.
Nuremburg is a very nice, clean, historical city, but
it’s tiring as fuck to walk around. I’m
only bummed I never got to go the Nazi Rally party grounds and see the only
remaining infrastructure, where Hitler gave his speeches and all.
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