Day 13: Friday, 20 May 2011

We docked at Nürnberg around breakfast time. Mom and Dad both made it to breakfast this morning. Mom is feeling weak, but both she and Dad were hungry, which is a good sign.

At 8:30 AM, we heard a lecture on “The Development of Nürnberg” by Margit Schmidt Pikulicki.

Today, Nuremberg is a beautiful, bustling city with the old mixing in with the new, but it also has a dark recent past: from 1933 to 1938 it was the site of annual conventions or rallies of the National Socialist German Workers (or Nazi) Party. It was at a 1935 meeting that the notorious Nürnberg Laws were put into effect, depriving German Jews of many civil rights. And then in 1945 and 1946, Nürnberg was the site of the Nürnberg Trials, the War Crimes Tribunal that tried Nazi leaders.

At 10 AM, we started on our bus tour of Nürnberg (also known as Nuremberg). Our first stop was at the Congress Hall that Hitler built for the Nazi rallies. If he had been able to finish the structure, it would have been larger than the Coliseum in Rome. We drove around inside of the Congress Hall and then stopped at the Documentation Center that was connected to it.

We had a hour one stop here with headsets to walk through the exhibits. There was a lot to take in, and so everyone felt a bit rushed to get through it all. It was exhausting and mentally draining to read and see the Nazi’s plan in action. There were a lot of old photographs and drawings of the Nazi’s plans for Nürnberg and other areas.

Next we visited the famous Zeppelin Field, which was another part of Hitler’s propaganda in Nürnberg. This is the site where Hitler made some of his famous Nazi speeches and stirred up the party with his rhetoric. We saw the platform where Hitler gave his speeches.

Margit told us that the massive complex that Hitler had envisioned for Nürnberg was never completed  or realized because the war ended, but the people of Germany have chosen to maintain these sites not as memorials to the Nazi party but as evidence of what happened here. The sites do not honor the deeds planned and done here, but instead they are constant reminders of the not-so-distant German past. No one wants to let it be forgotten what happened here either!! I liked that honesty.

Our guide Margit then led us on bus ride through Nürnberg. She pointed out the courthouse where the famous Nürnberg trials took place.

Next, we walked to the restaurant where we were to have lunch, but along the way, we got to see more of Nürnberg. She pointed out St. Sebaldus Church, which was begun in 1230/40.
We passed the Beautiful Fountain (or Schöner Brunnen) which was erected between 1389 and 1396 by the builder and stonemason, Heinrich Beheim. The 19-metre stone pyramid rises from the octagonal basin like a Gothic steeple top, narrowing in three steps, right to the top finial. Forty stone figures are arranged in three rows, all of them important 14th century sculptures representing the world-view of the Holy Roman Empire. The protective railing surrounding the fountain's basin was forged in 1587 by Paulus Kühn from Augsburg.

We passed the Church of Our Lady's (Frauenkirche) built here between 1355 and 1358 on the site of the destroyed synagogue of the former Jewish quarter. It was the first Gothic hall church in Franconia, constructed as an Imperial court chapel with three aisles.

Soon we arrived at the Heilig Geist Spital, a beer garden, where we had lunch. Each table had a different German college student joining us. We sat with Claudia (pronounced “Cloudia”). She was a sophomore studying to be a secondary teacher and was studying at the University in Nürnberg. She was originally from Dresden and was very sweet.

Our lunch was tasty but very heavy. We had bread served with butter or horseradish, a salad, and meat, potatoes and sauerkraut followed by an apple fritter with ice cream for dessert. It was good but too much for lunch. On the ride home, we drove through part of the walled city again. I think I’d like to see more of Nürnberg one day. There is a lot I missed of it on today’s tour.

Aunt Peggy and I then went to the Bavarian Beer Tasting in the lounge. Carol teased me and asked to see my ID during the beer tasting. HA! The German beers weren’t so bad. They were not too heavy or bitter. I liked the 2nd variety (a Pilsner) the best, but I’m still not a fan of beer in general.

Neither Mom nor Dad wanted any dinner, and so Aunt Peggy and I went to dinner on our own. We joined Dick and Audrey, Carl and Eunice. Carl’s daughter Susan and Eunice’s traveling partner Audrey are both sick with the virus that has plagued our ship. Lots of people have gotten it! I still hope to avoid it myself.

During dinner, we went through one of the massive locks that we had heard about, and so I ran up to the sun deck to get pictures. I missed the soup course, but I didn’t care. Must capture every moment on film! And then I noticed that it seemed like we were at the portion of the canal that went over top of the road. I had heard about it in the Main-Danube Canal lecture, and so I ran to the windows for a few quick shots. Now, that was cool!! You could see the road and some buildings below us.

Alec was dressed up in a native costume tonight, and so Aunt Peggy and I got pictures with him. He’s such a sweet kid and always has a good attitude!

After dinner, we all headed up to the sun deck, we were going through one of the highest locks (up some 80+ feet) on the Main-Danube Canal, and so we were all psyched about it. It was probably the most crowded it had yet been on the sun deck. It took quite a while for us to rise up high enough for this lock, but it was fun to watch. I went around and took pictures for people as we waited. Eventually, we reached the top, and then we could see the recycling water pools that we had been told about in the lecture earlier that week. It was cool!

There are 4 women who are called Peggy on this cruise. Two of them are fully named Margaret, but the other 2 are just Peggys, and so I took a picture of the 3 of them that were available. I think the other Peggy  (#4) was sick.

Favorite Thing or Funny Moment

• Me: Having Claudia share her story with us at lunch.
• FEELING: Anxious! I don’t want to get sick, but what can I really do to prevent it.