On Thursday we had to be a bit organised, as we were getting
an early train from Regensburg to Nuremberg (when I say early, I mean
10.30am...). It was a nice trip, only a short distance to Nuremberg, and when
we got to our hotel to leave our stuff while we went exploring the lady at
reception said our room was ready and we could go upstairs! Tops! The room was
pretty cool, like a little apartment with a kitchenette and the bed in this
weird little cubby-area behind a wardrobe (not that I’m complaining, I’ve
always loved a good cubby!). But the annoying thing was that there were
housekeeping people ringing the bell and walking in all the time. I mean, all the time! Even the next
morning before checkout! Super annoying.
Anyway we had a nap before heading out into Nuremberg, once
the propaganda centre of Nazi Germany. The main part of the city is surrounded
by a wall – this was a bit hard to find, I asked at reception for a map and the
receptionist put a cross where the hotel was. That cross was nowhere near where
the hotel was – in fact the hotel’s location wasn’t even on the map! So we
spent a while wandering around in circles trying to find a street that was on
the map to get our bearings, in the meantime being asked by a couple of
teenagers to buy them tobacco for their shisha. We declined, and finally found
the city wall! Hooray!
A tower on the city wall. Hooray we found it!!
A tor. Aka gate.
So in we went and wandered around, as we typically do.
Nuremberg is pretty cool, it feels like a really old, medieval town, which I
guess it sort of is, but it was pretty much flattened after the war so it’s
hard to tell what’s been rebuilt. I felt like the place had kind of a weird
vibe (Mads disagreed), could be something to do with the weird statues and
fountains dotted around the place: like the one that has two corpses wrestling
on the back of a giant iguana. I’m sure it means something very poetic and deep
or whatever, but I don’t get it...
Wandering in Nuremberg
An old-looking tower
Tower gate.
The weird fountain with fighting corpses on giant iguana. Creepy and super weird.
You’ll never guess what we stopped to eat: ice cream!! There
was a gelato place selling Amarena so we had to get some – disappointingly not
as good as the Italian stuff, but still pretty yummy. I really do hope that
Italy hasn’t ruined ice cream for me. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to go back
there all the time to eat gelato. What a shame...
Anyway, we wandered across the Pegnitz river, which was very
pretty, up cobbled streets (I have to say, cobble streets are overrated. Sure
they look pretty, but being the klutz I am I have nearly tripped over about a
million times! If only I had a Euro for every time that has happened!) and in
to a market square where there was a market, as well as a pointy gold sculpture
thing and Frauenkirche, into which we headed. Apparently this square and church
was built on what was the Jewish area of Nuremberg back in the 13th
or 14th Century: the Jews who lived here were driven out, and
hundreds of them burned so the square could be built. So sad! I wonder why the
Jews have faced so much persecution throughout history...
Nuremberg city skyline
A whole shop of coloured pencils!! Heaven!!
The Pegnitz River
Outside of Frauenkirche
Gold sculpture thingy in market square outside Frauenkirche.
Frauenkirche is pretty small, but it’s quite nice and there
is a medieval fresco on one of the walls that was discovered when the organ was
moved a while ago. It’s very worn, so you can’t really tell what it’s
depicting, but it’s pretty cool all the same. We then went to the St Sebald
church, which is older than Frauenkirche, another big gothic cathedral. I know
we’ve been to a lot of churches, but they are very impressive buildings, with a
lot of history and they’re generally free! Anyway, while wandering around the
church a fellow asked us if it was our first time in St Sebald’s. As it was, we
replied in the affirmative, and he then proceeded to give us a guided tour,
showing us an original painting by a famous artist from the 1500s, other
paintings that were done showing family trees of wealthy Nuremberg families,
the stained glass windows, various sculptures done by one particular artist who
depicted moving cloth in ear shapes on all his sculptures, as well as the big
reliquary in the front of the church which holds St Sebald’s bones. It was all
a bit odd, but he seemed to know what he was talking about. Having just been in
Italy, of course, I was waiting for him to hold out his hand for Euros, but he
just asked us if we would like to go to the castle across the road, and when we
declined he lost interest and just sort of showed us the exit and walked off
back in to the church. Okie dokes. Whatevs.
Medieval fresco in Frauenkirche
Cool window, Frauenkirche
The back of St Sebald's
A very German-looking doorway
St Sebald's
Inside St Sebalds
Cool street in Nuremberg
Mads wanted to be back at the hotel by 6 to watch Water for
Elephants on TV (she’s been very happy to find a channel that plays English
movies), so we started back to the hotel, grabbing some maccas on the way for
dinner. Once we got there, however, she discovered she’d been looking at the
wrong day in the TV guide, so instead of Water for Elephants we watched
probably the worst films in the history of the planet: Supernova 2012, in which
a supernova threatens earth and they have to figure out how to use missiles to
protect the world (yeah, likely!), then Masked and Anonymous starring Bob Dylan
and a few other usually really good actors that didn’t really make sense,
followed by Foxy Brown, an awful, awful 70s movie about... I don’t know what. But it was top quality.
Anyway, up and packed again the next day, we stored our
luggage and went to see the Nuremberg Trial Memorial at Nuremberg’s Palace of
Justice. The exhibition is located in the East Wing of the courts, around
courtroom 600 which is, of course, where the Nazi party big-wigs were tried for
conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the
victorious allies. There wasn’t much actual stuff in the exhibition, they had a
box in which documentary evidence was transported in, two of the benches on
which the defendants sat during the trial, and copies of the minutes of the
trial as well as files used at the time. But there was a lot of audio guide
material and it was a really interesting exhibition. You can go into Courtroom
600, it’s still a working courtroom, so it looks different to how it did during
the Nuremberg Trial, but there are features that are still recognisable from
the photos and videos: the door through which the defendants were brought into the
courtroom, the wooden panelling on the walls.
On the way to the Palace of Justice
The East Wing, where Courtroom 600 is located, home of the Nuremberg Trial
Box used to transport documentary evidence against the Nazis.
Benches on which the defendants sat in the exhibition.
The bottom shelves of this cabinet hold the minutes of the trial as well as files used in the trial
Windows in Courtroom 600. During the trial the judges from each of the Victorious nations sat in front of these windows.
In this corner is where the defendants were seated. The small door to the right of the main entrance is where they were led in to the courtroom.
The witness stand was by the door on the right.
Those men were just so evil! It’s so vile and disgusting
what they did and what they stood for, and then it’s weird to go outside again,
into Nuremberg, into Germany and think that it wasn’t all that long ago that
the people of this country, people I’ll walk past in the street, or their
parents or their grandparents, allowed indescribable atrocities to occur in
return for their own comfort and wellbeing. Don’t get me wrong, I really like
the Germans I’ve come across– they’re so nice and friendly and helpful; but
it’s incredible to think about what ordinary people, people like you and me,
are capable of doing or even capable of allowing under certain circumstances.
And that’s why it’s so important to never forget.
I would have liked to have gone to the Nazi’s rally ground,
which is also in Nuremberg, but we ran out of time – it’s a pretty fair toddle
from the Palace of Justice. After getting some lunch in a pretty flash KFC it
was off to the train station once again to catch the train to Berlin! I was
really looking forward to getting to Berlin, I’ve heard very excellent things
about it. Also very excited because Germany was playing Greece in the quarter
finals of the Euros. Unfortunately our train was getting in too late to go to
the Brandenburg Gate to watch the game, but the bar in our hotel was showing it
so we went down to watch the last half hour or however long it was. GERMANY
WON!!! Mads didn’t think I was doing a very good job of being enthusiastic. I
thought I was doing well: I said ‘oh’ at the right moments and cheered when
something good happened to Germany, like scoring. And I was outraged by a Greek
flopper. Okay, okay fine, so Fussball isn’t my thing. I like Rugby Union
personally, and other sports where points are actually made. But it was still
kind of fun... Maybe if I move to Europe I will get into soccer. I mean
Football.
Pretty flowers on the table in KFC! La di daa!
I just thought this church was cute, on the way back to the hotel in Nuremberg.
Boy oh boy our bed is so comfy here! Hooray for not moving
on anywhere for the next few days! We slept like logs, and late. I tried to
have a morning bath, but the plug in the bath doesn’t seem to do anything to
stop the water from draining out – super disappointing. Anyway we slowly got
ready and headed out into Berlin to see some of the more famous sights!
Wandering through a really nice office area, with lots of fancy glassy
buildings and water features and greenery, we managed to make it to the city
without too many dramas to find that we were in the midst of another gay
parade! Seriously guys, two weekends in a row you have hampered my sightseeing
efforts. What is the deal?
Anyway we stumbled upon the holocaust memorial, a huge area
full of concrete blocks of varying heights and sizes. It was really cool –
sombre and peaceful but not too intensely so. A nice place for reflection and
wandering. I don’t know the theory behind it, what it’s meant to represent or
illustrate, but to me it did seem appropriately large scale for such a large
scale event.
How hilarious is this sign! In the lift of our hotel. I'm not really sure what collywobbles is supposed to mean. So I guess I will be using the lift anyway...
The Spree River in Berlin
Fancy pants office building (and I think some residential too), sort of near Potsdamer Platz
In the holocaust memorial.
The holocaust memorial
We went to the Brandenburg gate, which was surrounded by
parade-attendees and stuff set up for Euros-viewing, but it was still quite
impressive. Then to the impressive and beautiful Reichstag building, with its
classical architecture and huge glass dome. We had our afternoon meal next at a
cafe with super slow service. Mads didn’t mind, she likes to sit. But I like to
move around and do not like to just sit without having anything to do. I had
spaghetti and Mads had Schweineschnitzel (pork schnitzel), then we waited for
aaaages, then I had apfel strudel and Mads had a mousse cake, then we waited
for aaaaages for the bill. Finally we got out of there and wandered along Unter
den Linden looking for Bebelplatz and the book-burning memorial. We were
somewhat confused when we arrived: no signs telling us if we were at
Bebelplatz, and for a while we couldn’t find the memorial. Idiots, you may
think, but it’s just a glass window in the pavement looking down onto a white
room with empty bookshelves outside the Humboldt University, commemorating the
day in May 1933 when the Nazis burned a whole heap of books in the Bebelplatz.
The Brandenburg Gate, formerly on the east-west divide.
I think this is the Fernsehturm, a TV tower
Outside the Reichstag
A statue on Unter den Linden
Bebelplatz
The Humboldt University
If you look carefully you can see the empty bookshelves under the glass.
Sights around Berlin
We decided to try and find our way back to the hotel, at
first getting lost as Potsdamer Platz has twin entrances to the train station
on opposite sides of the road. Tricky!! But we made it back, stopping in to get
some conditioner from a shopping centre in the fancy pants office district. First impressions: I really like Berlin! Can't wait to explore some more in the next couple of days!
No comments:
Post a Comment