Prague to Nuremburg

Yesterday turned out to be yet another very long day, and by the end of it we were too tired to update the blog.  We started off the day bright and early before the sun even came up to catch a train from Prague to Nuremburg at 5 AM (!!).  Needless to say, we didn't do much sightseeing along the way as we were (trying) to sleep.  We arrived in Nuremburg at about 10 AM, feeling pretty groggy.  We made our way to the hotel but were unable to check in at that hour unfortunately.  We left our bags at the hotel and decided that our first stop would have to be coffee if we were going to do anything "productive" with our day.  Coffee in hand, we set out on the S-Bahn to explore the Nazi Documentation Center.  It is basically a museum that details Hitler's rise to power in Germany and the way that he was able to manipulate an entire country to conform to his twisted ideals.  The museum was pretty powerful. 

A view of the entrance for the Documentation Center, which is housed in a wing of Hitler's old Congress Hall.

 

We didn't take too many pictures inside, but afterward we took a self-guided tour around the grounds.  The first part of the "tour" is a walk around the Congress Hall, which is the largest surviving example of Nazi architecture.  The building was planned to host the mammoth annual Nazi party gatherings.

The Congress Hall from afar.

One of the other interesting stops was the Zeppelin Field.  This was the site of the Nazi's biggest rallies, where Hitler is typically shown "preaching" to up to 250,000 people.  The picture below shows Matt standing on the platform in front of the Zeppelin Tribune, where Hitler stood to survey the masses.  We discovered that today it serves as a skate park...kind of poetic justice, no?

After finishing up our tour, we were sufficiently exhausted and decided to make our way back to the hotel to get checked in and figure out dinner.  We decided on Barfusser, a Rick Steves suggestion.  The bar hall is in the basement of the Old Granary, a historic Medieval building in the walls of Nuremburg.  Unfortunately we forgot the camera, but the food was just mediocre anyway.  Actually, we kind of wished we had had a camera to document Kim's salad, which featured lettuce literally floating in salad dressing...pretty gross!  

After dinner we went on a brief stroll around Nuremburg and discovered that it's pretty fun to explore these towns at night when no one else is around and all the buildings are illuminated.  It was a beautiful brisk walk, and really got us excited about touring Nuremburg in the morning!

Gute Nacht!

Love,

Matt and Kim