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Nuremberg, Germany

O.k., so first of all, Mitch and I are alternating posts and today it’s my turn. It figures that I’d be the one to have to blog about the happenings in the WWII… Why does the past have to haunt us so?? But all jesting aside, this was a pretty incredible day. Powerful, disturbing, eye-opening. For this one, we figured Colin might have more fun hanging out with Gran, hitting the great playgrounds in her area, eating ice cream, things like that. Mitch and I then took the train back to Nuernberg and the tram to the Documentcentre in the southern part of the city. Once there, we picked up a couple of portable info-wands and took a tour of the centre. We strolled through the entire history of the NASDP (Nazi Party) and the Third Reich in a completely thought-provoking twoish hours. Lots of photos and film coverage of the day, as well as charts and graphs to help us understand a number of things, including a legend showing what the badges sewn onto a concentration camp inhabitant’s sleeve meant. Powerful stuff, to say the least. The Doc. Centre is housed in what used to be the Congress Hall in Nazi times, the hall being modelled after the Colloseum in Rome. Through the middle of the original building, a glass “hall” slices its way through the building and takes you out into the middle of the arena. Amazing architecture but not for the faint of heart. The bridge is suspended high above the colloseum grounds with a grate floor so that you can clearly see the ground below as the structure you’re standing on sways a bit in the wind. We then proceeded to check out the rest of the grounds. Huge, huge, huge. The terrain on which all the buildings and man-made (person-made??) lakes, stadiums and marching grounds once stood span many kilometres. Lots of examples of the man’s megalomania abound, including the Zeppelin Feld stadium where you can still stand where Hitler once stood to address throngs of adoring folk. The big stone slabs surrounding the stadium still have the large metal holders which once held the huge Nazi flags. To stand up on that podium, where he once stood, is eerie and strange. Quite the experience. To change the pace and relax a bit after yet another day of lots of walking and a good dose of serious historical experiences, we took the train back to Oma’s town of Neumarkt to sip on a delicious cup of coffee and savour a delicious slice of good european baking each. Yum 🙂 And after that, a short walk back to the appartment to hang out with gran and Colin. Definitely a day to remember.

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