Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Trip to Nuernberg - trial place for hitler's generals


Some time ago, the university took us on a trip to Nuernberg in eastern Germany. It is a big and old city with the city center enclosed in an oval city wall with castles, forts and watch towers. Much of these is still preserved. A river runs in the middle. It was a three day trip so we had plenty of time to see around. The King's castle has been excellently renovated and converted into a youth hostel. This is thus one of the most beautiful youth hostels of the country and this is where we stayed. It is located at one end of the city wall, high up a hill. The first day we wandered down from the castle into the city and went through the city center to the other end of the wall and back. We also went to the 3-D cinema there to get the schedule of their shows.

Second day, after breakfast, we were taken to a museum to learn about the history of the city through models and see the life of kings there. Then we went looking for a market of Turkish residents. Once there, we found restaurants and shops of Turks everywhere. We are roasted chicken from one shop and prayed in a mosque. We also went to the 3-D cinema to see a small 4-D animation where they violently shook our safety belt laden seats.

On third day, we were taken to the parade grounds outside the city, where Hitler used to gather and display his military strength. It was a very big stadium where about 500,000 people gathered every year before the second world war. There we walked on the long parade road, a large portion of which was a bridge over water. Then we saw the unfinished building which Hitler was building to become the largest of the World. There was also an audio-visual museum about the complete history of Hitler's rise and fall. Even two hours were not enough to go through it completely.