First Day in Nuremberg

We reached Nuremberg around 7am Friday... five hours ahead of schedule because we didn't have to wait at any locks.  The ship arranged for shuttle buses to take us into old town so we spent the morning exploring.


typical houses in old town

Scott at Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle)

From the main square we hiked up the hill to the castle... nothing like a brisk walk to start off your day. 






old city from castle



Beautiful Fountain

The meeting point for the group was "the beautiful fountain" -- it's quite an elaborate contraption. 

fountain detail

Scott's favorite coffee shop

The main square behind the fountain is normally a farmer's market, but the city is preparing for it's annual Christmas market, so the place was a beehive of building activity.  We opted for a quieter location along the Pegnitz River, which divides old town in half.


After lunch we did the WWII tour --the main reason we chose this cruise.


the remains of the grandstands -- the little fence left of the light pole
was where Hitler would stand

We began at Zeppelin Field. (The name came because Zeppelin landed one of his airships here.) This was the site of many Nazi party rallies, parades, and other events staged to fuel the Hitler mystique.  It supposedly could hold 200,000 people.  Today the grandstands remain (although their colonnade and iron decorations have been removed).  These stands were for the party elite... the more important you were, the closer you could be to the center rostrum where Hitler would stand.  Everything was arranged and staged to deify him.


The area  in front of the stands is now soccer and football fields, a public park and, at the edge, the city's pro soccer stadium.  You see only the remnants of the towers they used for flags, and spotlights and the areas for the "peons" to view the events.



the field... you can see the tower blocks, particularly over the head of the person

the back side of the tower blocks

In one rally  they put anti-aircraft beacons on the towers -- turned on, they became pillars in the night.






Congress Hall, seen from across a drained lake

We then went to the Congress Hall... a horseshoe-shaped building resembling Rome's Coliseum that was built for a meeting of 50,000 of the party elite.  It was under construction when war was declared, and was never finished because the resources and manpower were needed for the war effort.  Today it is used for storage primarily, but it is also home to the documentation center --an interactive museum about the Nazi movement in Nuremberg, the atrocities of the war, and, of course, the Nuremberg trials at the end of the war.




inside the building

Palace of Justice

The tour finished up with a stop at the Palace of Justice, including a visit to Courtroom 600 where the Nuremberg trials actually took place.  (They told us we might not be able to go in the room because it is still an active courtroom for murder trials and anything where a large audience is expected.  We figured we stood a pretty good chance getting in because it was 4pm on a Friday.)   This was the highlight of the trip.  Scott had minored in European History in college, so it was great to visit places he'd read about and studied.











Courtroom 600

 Afterwards, we got one more short visit to the central square -- so we saw it with all the lights!