The next morning we packed up all our stchuff and schlepped it to the bus and then had breakfast right off the main square in Nuremberg. We got extra money from the hostel because apparently the boys had found bedbugs in their beds! Uck. Luckily, none of the girls had any bedbugs.
After a nice large breakfast, we met our tourguide: Diane, who was scottish. Funny. She was fantastic and full of lots of great and interesting information, and told us all about the square, the church, the fountain (where we all turned the golden ring and made a wish), and then led us uuuup the hill to the castle. (I forgot my camera on the bus. Yes, you can kick me if you wish, but rest assured that I have kicked myself a lot already.)
The thing I remember the most about the castle was Diane's story about this knight, who was especially nasty. After the wars, knights had nothing to do except for steal, and this particular knight was sentenced to death. His last wish was to sit on his horse. So they brought his horse, and he's sitting on it, on the top of this mountain. There is a dry moat surrounding the castle, and it was at least thirty or forty feet down to the ground. Lore has it that this knight jumped his horse off the wall, down into the moat, and escaped. (He was later executed.) Diane said, "I don't know if this is true, but if you look right here, there's the imprint of a horseshoe on the wall." And there was, and I touched it! It kinda freaked me out. It was awesome, but I sort of suspect it was put there for the tourists. Too bad...
We saw this really odd statue of this misshapen rabbit, and it was all about how we need to keep a hold of the environment. We also learned a lot about the different types of building styles: classical, baroque, gothic, tudor. Tudor style is fairly popular in Nuremberg, and almost every house has a bay window (which started out as an area for a shrine, but then the rich people wanted to have one, so it developed into something just for appearance). The churches almost all have gothic spires on their towers (I think-- correct me if I'm wrong, since I can't go look at my pictures, sad day.), and the towers on the wall that surround the city are all round except for one.
I could go on and on about Nuremberg, but we didn't really spend much time there, and so I'll go back and write more on it later. I bought some lebkuchen in the markt before the church, and then we got on the bus and went to the old Nazi Party Rally Grounds, after passing quickly by the courthouse where they had the Trials (I did get pictures of that). The Nazi Party Grounds are a huge complex (4 kilometers square, with a lake and large zepplin field thing as well as the main building, which is based on the Roman Colleseum, and probably just as big).
The colleseum housed the documentation center which was a museum, and we went in and sat in this auditorium thing and had an introduction by this professor dude before we went on the audiotour. I'm sure he was very interesting, but he spoke softly, and his accent was thick, and it was all we could do not to fall asleep, so, sorry, I didn't catch much of his speech. My bad.
The audiotour was interesting, and rather long. I had to skip some stuff, otherwise I wouldn't've made it out on time. It follows Hitler from the first Pusch all the way until after the war. I couldn't even begin to tell you everything I learned. One thing I remember that was particularly interesting was the movie "Triumph of the Will", which Hitler himself named. It was a movie made during a Rally in Nuremberg, and follows Hitler around through all the speeches and specticles of that. It won first prizes at the Venice Film Festival in 193-, and it now banned today from having public showings of it. It's pretty powerful, and such a beautiful and interesting film about someone and something that turned out to be so awful.
After we made it out of the museum, a few of us had just enough time to walk around the lake to the Zepplinfeld, the Zepplin Field, where Hitler inspected troops and working men and spoke to the Hitler Youth. I stood in the exact spot where Hitler had. And the Zepplinfeld was huge! I just had to imagine it crowded with people, and it was really amazing to think of it. What a show.
And this:
And this WWI/WWII memorial set randomly into the side of the mountain.
After a nice large breakfast, we met our tourguide: Diane, who was scottish. Funny. She was fantastic and full of lots of great and interesting information, and told us all about the square, the church, the fountain (where we all turned the golden ring and made a wish), and then led us uuuup the hill to the castle. (I forgot my camera on the bus. Yes, you can kick me if you wish, but rest assured that I have kicked myself a lot already.)
The thing I remember the most about the castle was Diane's story about this knight, who was especially nasty. After the wars, knights had nothing to do except for steal, and this particular knight was sentenced to death. His last wish was to sit on his horse. So they brought his horse, and he's sitting on it, on the top of this mountain. There is a dry moat surrounding the castle, and it was at least thirty or forty feet down to the ground. Lore has it that this knight jumped his horse off the wall, down into the moat, and escaped. (He was later executed.) Diane said, "I don't know if this is true, but if you look right here, there's the imprint of a horseshoe on the wall." And there was, and I touched it! It kinda freaked me out. It was awesome, but I sort of suspect it was put there for the tourists. Too bad...
We saw this really odd statue of this misshapen rabbit, and it was all about how we need to keep a hold of the environment. We also learned a lot about the different types of building styles: classical, baroque, gothic, tudor. Tudor style is fairly popular in Nuremberg, and almost every house has a bay window (which started out as an area for a shrine, but then the rich people wanted to have one, so it developed into something just for appearance). The churches almost all have gothic spires on their towers (I think-- correct me if I'm wrong, since I can't go look at my pictures, sad day.), and the towers on the wall that surround the city are all round except for one.
I could go on and on about Nuremberg, but we didn't really spend much time there, and so I'll go back and write more on it later. I bought some lebkuchen in the markt before the church, and then we got on the bus and went to the old Nazi Party Rally Grounds, after passing quickly by the courthouse where they had the Trials (I did get pictures of that). The Nazi Party Grounds are a huge complex (4 kilometers square, with a lake and large zepplin field thing as well as the main building, which is based on the Roman Colleseum, and probably just as big).
The colleseum housed the documentation center which was a museum, and we went in and sat in this auditorium thing and had an introduction by this professor dude before we went on the audiotour. I'm sure he was very interesting, but he spoke softly, and his accent was thick, and it was all we could do not to fall asleep, so, sorry, I didn't catch much of his speech. My bad.
The audiotour was interesting, and rather long. I had to skip some stuff, otherwise I wouldn't've made it out on time. It follows Hitler from the first Pusch all the way until after the war. I couldn't even begin to tell you everything I learned. One thing I remember that was particularly interesting was the movie "Triumph of the Will", which Hitler himself named. It was a movie made during a Rally in Nuremberg, and follows Hitler around through all the speeches and specticles of that. It won first prizes at the Venice Film Festival in 193-, and it now banned today from having public showings of it. It's pretty powerful, and such a beautiful and interesting film about someone and something that turned out to be so awful.
After we made it out of the museum, a few of us had just enough time to walk around the lake to the Zepplinfeld, the Zepplin Field, where Hitler inspected troops and working men and spoke to the Hitler Youth. I stood in the exact spot where Hitler had. And the Zepplinfeld was huge! I just had to imagine it crowded with people, and it was really amazing to think of it. What a show.
Back on the bus, and we were headed, finally, to Salzburg! Huzzah! Our busdriver had a treat for us: we watched "The Sound of Music" to help pass the time! Since the trip was about 4 hours, it worked out perfectly since Phoebe would start pointing out mountains and interesting stuff half an hour before arrival in Salzburg. I watched and and took many pictures of the German countryside, with the Alps in the background. Phoebe laughed at us, but the scenery was so picturesque that I couldn't help but want to take pictures. My favorite was when I could catch a kirche against ein Berg, because of the juxtaposition.
Anyway, the Untersberg was hiding his face, so none of the German side, but I got some pictures today of the Austrian side.
We arrived at the Lehrerhaus around 6:30, after passing the house they used as the back of the von Trapp's house, and also a statue of Abe Lincoln riding a horse in the back of the Lehrerhaus-- very strange.
The Lehrerhaus is yellow, and is currently being used as a little bit of a hostel until Monday, and then is being renovated. On the second floor (third floor) is where we three are, Forrest, Allie, and I, and the single rooms are great: huge and the beds are comfortable and the showers are great, the internet is fast (although I've been spoiled by wireless at home all summer-- now I'm back on the wire, sigh), there's a small gym area downstairs in the basement as well as a pingpong table and the laundry rooms, they prefer to hangdry their clothes, there's a large backyard area (with the statue I mentioned) and a comfortable patio, the kitchen is great, and we get pots and pans and cutlery and dishes, as well as our own locked compartments for fridge and shelfspace, there's two common rooms on the first floor, one for non-smokers and another for smokers, there's a library with some English books in it, two practice rooms with pianos in the basement which are soundproof, and it's just going to be amazing. There is so much shelf- and closet space, and I can't wait until I get to move into the double, because I have no doubt it's going to be as awesomely arranged as the singles are.
Because shops close around 6 on Saturdays, Iris, Phoebe's friend, had bought each of us a small box of food to last through Sunday (because the shops don't open at all on Sunday). I got cereal, milk, lots of fruit, cheese, cheese spread, turkey, a loaf of bread, green tea and sugar (wahoo!), some "Knusper-" something or other (nibble bars!), OJ, and plus I still had some lebkuchen from Nuremberg, so I didn't have to buy anything at all yesterday evening or today.
I woke up this morning fairly late (10:45) and took an amazing shower (the water pressure is fantastic) and blowdried my hair before heading off with Forrest into the city. Allie was so excited she took off by herself. Forrest and I waited at the Lehrerhaus for a bit because Julia said she wanted to meet us there, but she never showed up, so we just went. (I later found out Julia had done stuff with her Frau instead. Good. Then we hadn't left her stranded.)
To get to school, we have to walk over a mountain. It's a small mountain, but it is a mountain nonetheless. Then you cross the street very carefully and go through a chilly tunnel, and appear on the other side by this fountain of horses, with horses painted all over the wall behind it. We took the wrong way, and went up this really touristy street (I had to give my map away later, and the ones I have now don't show it, but I will find out) and over to Franz-Josef Strasse, which runs right along the river, and we followed that until we found the college. There is an easier way to get there, though, and we will take that route tomorrow morning.
There at the college we actually found Allie, who was starved, and she went to lunch in an Irish pub right down from the college while Forrest and I headed back to the dorm-- Forrest was thirsty, and didn't feel like spending a lot for water. We checked our email, and then set out, this time from the back of the dorm, and we were going to walk basically around Salzburg, heading out a ways and then up to the Augistiner place, where they brew beer and there's a nice biergarten there. We somehow ended up walking off the map completely. Eventually we found our way, but it was interesting. We saw some pretty flowers, like this:
And this:
So it wasn't all bad. We also found some stuff that wasn't marked on the map, like this Gerburtshaus:
And this WWI/WWII memorial set randomly into the side of the mountain.
Anyway, we eventually made it back to the dorm, and I really have to do homework now. (Uuuuuugh...)
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