Saal Marina near Kelheim on the Danube
Guten Morgen,
Yesterday we left the Main Donau Kanal and started down the Donau itself (Danube.) We are now at Marina Saal where we will spend a few days. We will take the train or rent a car to visit Regensberg just down the Donau but which has no place for DoraMac. The weather gods as well as the lock keepers were kind to us with blue skies and short waiting times. You can’t ask for more when you travel these rivers and canals. We spent last night in Berching where I met one of the library’s staff. More about that in future emails.
Ru
Nuremberg = Nazi trials to many of us. That’s all I knew before we visited. I’d read the play Judgment at Nuremberg and had seen the movie. And as I said previously, much of my knowledge of Europe has come from TV or movies. I studied American and Russian history in college, but never the history of Western Europe. I studied places that related to me personally.
I still don’t know particularly much about Nuremberg or Germany really, but what I remember most will be the friendly folks like Andreas Klein in Oberwinter, Charly and Erika in Bischberg, Ingrid Olbrid from the Berching Library and Linda, Wolfgang, Gitty and Franc from here in Saal/Kelheim. To quote Maya Angalou : “….people will never forget how you made them feel.” I have felt very welcome as an American. Do they know I’m Jewish? No, but I can’t imagine it would matter to the good people we meet. There were no guards around the synagogues in Cologne or Nuremberg or the Jewish Museums in Frankfurt. There were security checks once inside which we never had in churches. But that’s all over Europe as well as in Singapore. Only Israel had no security check at the Great Synagogue in Tel Aviv.
We had a lovely day in Nuremberg itself. Late in the afternoon Randal and I had to visit the FedEx facility to collect his new ATM cards and my new Credit Card. (The taxi was a Mercedes, maybe the first I’ve ever been in. Nice helpful driver.) I’d gotten a new card last time at home but the issuing bank decided to change everyone’s cards so I needed a new one. It’s very handy that FedEx has collection sites; sort of like the old American Express offices, but then maybe American Express still does that sort of thing.
“Nuremberg boasts a unique mixture of tradition and modern times. Both people born here and people who moved here appreciate its extraordinary quality of life. At the same time, Nuremberg is a modern city with 500,000 inhabitants, and the centre of a prospering European metropolitan region with 2.5 million inhabitants. Its almost thousand years of history are still obvious in its cityscape.”
http://www.nuernberg.de/internet/portal_e/buerger/
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Craftsmen’s Courtyard at Konigstor Tower “Behind the massive city walls craftsmen’s traditions are still being cultivated in the small workshops. Pewterers, glass cuters, leather workers, gold and silversmiths, stained glass painters, gingerbread-makers, and a doll-maker offer their wares for sale and let visitors look over their shoulders while they work….” Nuremberg Furth Tourist Booklet (We actually didn’t see any workshops, just shops and restaurants. But we didn’t ask either. |
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Mary selecting some “made in Nuremberg” souvenirs. |
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Was ist das?
http://www.nmn.de/de/presse/unschaerfe.htm explains it all in German but I wasn’t surprised to find it was next to the Design Museum. The Design Museum in London had interesting exhibits in its outdoor plaza.
Great reflective windows! The New Museum with its curved glass facade rises over the medieval city walls in the heart of Nuremberg. The handsome museum has received many awards for its striking modern architecture and is a venue for contemporary art and design. http://tourismus.nuernberg.de/ The prominent building by the architect Volker Staab with its nearly 100 metre wide, gently curved glass façade is a completely new element in the old town of Nuremberg. Two storeys provide an exhibition space of nearly 2300 m² for the presentation of art and design. The art collection, opened in 2000, includes works from all sectors of art from around 1960. |
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Old town Nuremberg |
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Central Monument to Escape and Expulsion 1945 “…..Some of the people who left those eastern countries were recent arrivals, who had been settled in German-conquered territories by the Nazis as part of their long-term plan for German domination of eastern Europe. But most of those being expelled came of stock whose ancestors had been settled in the eastern lands for generations, and who knew no other place as home. The Volksdeutsche, as the Nazis had called them were, however, for the most part, victims of a calamity of which they were themselves part-authors. Not all were Nazis, but a majority had become supporters of Hitler.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/refugees_01.shtml explains A more sympathetic explanation of this expulsion can also be found in the Huffington Post article by R.M. Douglas the author of "Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War" Yale University Press http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ |
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I saw these ladies in their lovely hats and snuck a photo. Then I walked up to them and told them I loved their hats and asked if I could take a photo. One smiled and seemed she agreed, but the other shook her head and said no so that was that. |
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Historic Old town
I have no words to do this fountain the justice it deserves. “In 1589, the iron caster, Benedikt Wurzelbauer, completed the Fountain of the Virtues (Tugendbrunnen), commissioned by the City Council of the Free City of the Empire who had intended to demonstrate their stature in the world. Six allegories of the three theological and the three cardinal virtues with their attributes are placed on a round platform: Faith with a cross and a chalice, Love with two children, Hope with an anchor, Courage with a lion, Moderation with a jug, and Patience with a lamb. Above the figures, cherubs carry the two coats of arms of the City of Nuremberg. The seventh virtue, Justice, stands on the top of the pillar with blindfolded eyes, a sword and a crane as a symbol of alertness. The fountain marks the spatial boundary of Lorenzer Platz towards Königsstraße.” http://www.nuernberg.de/internet/portal_e/reiseziel/ctz_4604.html |
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Germany, the home of the Nutcracker legend. |
