Nuremberg Fine Food Blog and adventures with Ron’s umbrella

We got back from our touring day and Ron said that someone needs to invent a conveyor belt/chair system, which will allow us to tour the world as we see fit by simply sitting in one place and having items of interest pass in front of us. And, for once, I feel his suggestion is solid and helpful.

Here’s my first photo offering for you today. I’ve been declaring that I want some KFC since way back in Paris, so this is a real highlight for me (and you):

The weather continues to be poor. Today, I used our OTHER Munich ski hat for our touring…a blue one…just for variety’s sake. I think my purple coat is in every picture we have taken so far! I’ve got half a suitcase of spring clothing that hasn’t even been unfolded yet.

Ron has taken to walking around with an umbrella borrowed from the Melter Hotel. As far as I can tell, the umbrella has only two uses: 1) for Ron to try to poke out my eyeballs and 2) for Ron to get stopped at EVERY museum, so that staff can direct us to a special room – inevitably far away from where we need to enter the museum – where the umbrella can be stored. And it steams me – because clearly the museums are worried about Ron poking out the Museum Staff Eyeballs but no one is worried about my eyeballs.

We started off our day with a rainy walk to the Nuremberg Trial Memorial. The Palace of Justice was used from 1945-1946 to hold the trial of 24 major Nazi criminals. Although 24 Nazis were indicted, only 21 appeared for trial. 3 had committed suicide before they could be tried – Hitler, Goebbels, and Himmler.

Rudolf Hoess, commander of Auschwitz, gave the first under-oath testimony that indeed 2 million Jewish people had been murdered there. Footage of concentration camps was introduced along with documentary evidence of the Nazi plan and Final Solution.

We walked through an amazing interpretive exhibit that focused on all parts of the investigation and the trial. I came across a picture of the defense attorneys and it really stopped me in my tracks. I mean, I’M a defense attorney and, all these years, when people have asked me how I do it…how I help the drunk drivers, the reckless drivers, the assaulters…well, I always say that I’m part of the system. I make sure the wheels of justice move fairly and that everyone gets an advocate in our system.

But I did not feel that way today. I didn’t care. I knew I could never do what those defense attorneys did…while simultaneously understanding that part of the prize of having the Nuremberg trials at all was the concept that we were not taking revenge on the Nazi criminals but instead meeting the better goal of seeking out justice according to the Rule of Law.

I was especially bothered by this picture. It’s a Nuremberg prison cell for a high-ranking Nazi and it just seemed so…humane…to me.

It’s a funny dichotomy. I absolutely get the justice concept but I’m too emotional about the facts to embrace it. Sometimes in life, you just feel how you feel. At any rate, here are the brave defense attorneys:

We ended our visit to the Memorial with a chance to sit in the actual Courtroom 600, where the trial occurred. Here’s the courtroom:

From the Nuremberg Trial Memorial, we took the U-Bahn back to the old city instead of our standard walking. It was (STILL!!) raining and I wanted to protect my vision from Ron and his umbrella and we’re just tired of being cold.

I’ve mentioned before that buying transit tickets in foreign countries is not a strong point of mine. Somehow, I just can’t seem to make the purchase…I can’t make a ticket come out, I can’t figure out what station I want, I can’t figure out what station I’m in, I can’t tell which direction my train needs to go…

But I was desperate today and so down we went into the U-Bahn where, by stopping a German man to find out what station we were in, and by trial and error with about 10 practice ticket purchases, I managed to buy us two tickets for a train!

But as we sat there, waiting for the U1 train, I realized that we didn’t need tickets at all! Our Nuremberg Tourist Cards gave us free access;)

Using that amazing tourist card, we continued our plan to enter any old museum we came across. We started at the Transport Museum, largely in German but here’s a picture to prove we were there:

Then we hit the Communication Museum, still mostly in German, but with fun displays of phones and TVs over the course of time:

Finally, when we were really too exhausted to care…heck, when even you are too exhausted to care…we went to the German National Museum, which is exactly the kind of museum you want to avoid at the end of a touring day.

It’s a fantastic place – it’s filled with ancient medical equipment, ancient clothing, furniture pieces from the 1600s, books from the 1500s, old clocks, old jewelry etc. etc. etc.

The way we decided to approach the museum was this: we were going to split up and meet in the coffee shop in an hour, even though this museum clearly warrants an entire day. I planned to observe as much of the museum as I could while mostly seated on a bench somewhere while Ron wandered.

First though, we got stopped by security, and they made Ron take his umbrella down a flight of stairs and across the building, to be locked in a cubby. So we went down the stairs and over to the cubby and, of course, Ron did not have the Euro coin necessary to lock the cubby and so back he went to get a coin. This would all be excusable if it wasn’t the Schedule of Events at every museum:)

Here’s just a few highlight pictures from the German National Museum…from my tiny stroll through. Benches are liberally available!My chosen photos should give you a small sense of the variety of the collection. If you find yourself in Nuremberg, you might want to start your day here, not end it – and no umbrellas!!

Here’s an anatomical model of a pregnant woman, from 1700, functionality unclear:

Here’s a Turkish shoe, from 1569, functionality clear but comfort questionable:

A door from a house in Nuremberg, from 1565:

How about a fire extinguisher from 1499?

And, finally, these dresses, the first one from 1730 and the second from 1760:

I’ll leave you with this. It’s a German mail service delivery bike: