Rainy, somber and sobering Nuremberg

by | Dec 9, 2023 | Photography

Our room was as bad as I described in the previous post. It turns out that on our floor, they had all the hallway lights turned off, so it felt like you were marching down a corridor to your cell. There are still some really tiny rooms and even smaller bathrooms. Steve and Jamie had warned us to be careful because the floor was slippery when getting out of the shower. They were worried we might fall on the floor. When they said that I was amazed because I hadn’t seen a floor in the bathroom…it was that small. And the place has only ONE elevator for guests. Talk about lines.

We did get a decent night’s rest, found out the breakfast buffet isn’t equal to the Marriott in Prague and then I even got to go out (before it started raining) and shoot a few photos. They are below in the first gallery.

We were all (as was everyone else going on our longship) signed up for the included walking tour of old town Nuremberg. So off we went with our guide in some pretty bitterly cold temps. It was a tour with a short amount of walking (you can probably see every street in the Old Town in less than two miles of walking) and a lot of just standing in the wind and the cold and eventually the rain listening to our guide…who BTW, was very good. About halfway through the tour, the cold got to Kathleen’s sore knees, so I walked her back to the hotel and used the Find My app to find my brother, and I rejoined the tour.

The tour finished at the downtown Christmas Market. Now, this was a Christmas Market. Comparatively speaking, this one made the ones we saw in Lisboa and Prague look small. And lots of things to buy as opposed to the majority of stalls just being food. I took some photos while we did this tour, which are below. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Steve and Jamie decided to hang out at the Christmas Market and get lunch at a nearby restaurant, so I walked back to the hotel and got Kathleen, and we had lunch on our own. We found a little place in Old Town that looked good…and it was. We both loved what we ordered. Kathleen got the schnitzel, and I got the Sauerbraten. Both were out of this world. Add in two really great German beers, and it was a lunch fit for a king and queen. Having lunch on our own is a big deal for us on December 8th. We call it Magic Day. It’s the day, way back in 1997, when we first met in person (after corresponding for three weeks online). We say it was “magic.”

After lunch came the somber and sobering part of our day. I had signed up for a Nuremberg’s Place in WWII tour. Some of you may not know this, but my college degree is in History and Political Science. So, I am an avid history person. Or at least I used to be. In my sophomore year in college, I had a professor named Dr. Reccow. I still consider him the best instructor I had during my college experience. He taught History, and his favorite was European History of the 20th Century. He was in his late 60s when I took his classes (I took every class he taught), and he was a survivor of the Holocaust. He was also an amazing lecturer. He taught his classes with such drama, describing the horrors, tragedies, and triumphs as well. We watched numerous documentaries about Hitler’s rise to power, the horrible things he and the Nazis did, as well as many of them getting their final justice here in Nuremberg.

To be honest, I was expecting this four-hour tour to be mostly about the post-war trials because I did not realize how much of a part Nuremberg played in Hitler’s rise to power. Our first stop was at Zeppelin Field. As soon as the bus pulled up, I knew where we were. In the countless documentaries I have seen of Hitler speaking, he was standing on the podium of this gigantic field. He held his largest rallies here. It could hold almost 200,000 people. More like 200,000 sheep listening to him spew his hatred. This was the start of his power, and he directed his master architect, Albert Speer, to build these gigantic edifices to honor him and his horrible ideas. It was truly sobering to be at the place where what I consider to be the worst evil the world has ever known all started.

We also toured an unfinished indoor Colosseum that Hitler had started constructing, but it was never finished. It was built to house winter rallies when the weather was like what we were experiencing by then—heavy rain and bitter cold.

Inside a very small part of this half-built edifice (you will be able to see the size of this space in my photos below) is an exhibit that tells the story of Hitler’s rise to power as it relates to Nuremberg. The exhibit was divided into four parts, encompassing the years between the end of World War I and the end of the Nuremberg War Crimes trial in 1946.

I almost forgot to mention that we had one of the best guides I have ever had toured with, leading us through these dark and horrible places. Werner was a guide from a non-profit organization called History For All. Their goal is to educate all people about the evil that grew, existed and was finally brought to justice here in this city. He did an amazing job of doing that, and I found myself hanging on to his every word. He knew his history, and like Dr. Reccow, he did an amazing job telling it to us and making it come alive.

After we had toured the exhibits, we were back on the “luxury motor coach” to cross Nuremberg to see the courtroom where all this hatred and horror finally got justice. On every bus ride we took, Werner would fill us in either with more history or with his thoughts on his city. It was so clear what a passion he had for his work of educating people about the Nazis. One of the reasons he said that his organization was founded is that following the war, most Germans just didn’t want to talk about what had happened. Many expressed total disbelief that the Holocaust had even happened. So they started this organization (History For All) to make sure that people knew and, more importantly, remembered what had happened. And as Werner said, today we. have the rise of the neo-Nazis who believe that maybe (in some ways) Hitler was right. Let me just state right here that Hitler was NEVER right. Not in any way. And no one should want history to repeat itself.

Another thing I fully realized (of course, I knew this prior to our visit) is how much the rhetoric, ideas and tactics of Donald Trump and his ilk around the world are very much like those Hitler employed. Only Hitler used radio, newspapers and public speeches, and today’s leaders use the internet.

Something I learned that I had never thought of before was that not only did the trials at Nuremburg seek to provide justice and punishment to the Nazis but they also established four areas of crimes that had not been considered in the same way before. The Nazis tried at Nuremberg were tried for “(1) crimes against peace (i.e., the planning, initiating, and waging of wars of aggression in violation of international treaties and agreements), (2) crimes against humanity (i.e., exterminations, deportations, and genocide), (3) war crimes (i.e., violations of the laws of war), and (4) “a common plan or conspiracy to commit” the criminal acts listed in the first three counts.” (My source for these four crimes is here.)

Before the trials, none of these were considered punishable crimes. There were no “war crimes” or “crimes against humanity.” Now there are. And now, African dictators and leaders like Putin can be put on trial for these offenses. Hopefully, that will happen to our “friend” from Russia someday as well as many other dictatorial rulers from around the world.

Getting down off my soapbox, here are the photos I took inside the famous Courtroom 600, where the trials were held, as well as stuff I took earlier in the day. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After we visited the courthouse, we went back to the hotel to try and find someplace for dinner. IMPORTANT ADVICE: If you ever come to Nuremberg at Christmas, make sure to pre-book reservations for dinner. We could not find a single restaurant with an opening in the Old City. That meant another lousy meal (especially the service) in the hotel bar. The hotel restaurant was even totally booked.

After dinner, I went back to take photos of the lights in the Christmas Market but was sadly disappointed that almost all their lights were exactly the same color…gold. So far, the lighting award goes to Lisboa. Here the pics I took that night. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.  —Adolf Hitler

Prague—cold and icy but still interesting

by | Dec 7, 2023 | Photography

Goodbye Lisboa, Hello Prague

When I last wrote any real content, we were still in Portugal. As I mentioned briefly yesterday, the day of our flight from Lisbon to Prague was pretty uneventful. We had breakfast at the hotel, hung out in our room until 10:45, got picked up by our driver from Welcome Pickups right on time at 11:00, and we were off to the airport. Other than a long line at security, everything went pretty smoothly. 

Three hours later, we arrived in Prague. It was there that we were meeting my brother Steve and my sister-in-law Jamie, who we would travel with for the rest of the trip. They were supposed to have gotten in much earlier than us, as they were coming from LAX on KLM. Originally, they were scheduled for about a two-hour layover in Amsterdam before flying on to Prague, but the day before they were to leave, they received a note from KLM that their Prague flight had been canceled. YIKES! 

But everything worked out in the end. KLM was able to get them on another flight, but with a layover of more than five hours in Amsterdam. In what might have been fate, we got off our plane in Prague, walked up two gates to the restrooms, and when I came out, they were standing there. Their flight had arrived two gates down from ours…in an airport with four terminals, each with more than 25 gates. You have to admit, that’s pretty amazing. 

We were met by a rep from Viking Cruises because this is where our pre-cruise extension started. So now we (and all our travels) were their problem ?.

As we drove into the city, we noted that not only was it cold, but there was snow and ice everywhere. This would play a big part in the next day’s plans. 

When we got to the hotel (Viking uses a number of them in Prague—we were at the Prague Marriott), Steve and Jamie, who had been up since the day before at home (about 30 hours), were off to bed. Kathleen and I went into the hotel restaurant and split a sandwich before we did the same. 

Ice and Snow

The next morning, I had truly hoped to do my customary pre-dawn photo walk, but when I got up and saw that it was well below freezing and that the snow and ice were VERY slippery, I stayed in and wrote Tuesday’s post about our trip to Sintra.

The hotel provided a huge buffet breakfast that was part of our Viking extension, and we truly enjoyed it. My brother Steve said it passed the “Steve Test (he would eat there if it were a restaurant near his home). After breakfast, we were supposed to do a “Panoramic Tour of Prague” with Viking as part of our cruise. The tour was labeled as “challenging” in their description, but we were still going to try and give it a go with the idea that if it became too much for Kathleen’s knees, hip or back, we would bail and go back to the hotel. But now there was the problem of the ice. 

I decided to put on my boots and go out to walk around and see how slippery the sidewalks were. What I found was not good. I walked from one end of the block the hotel was on to the other. Along the way, I almost fell three times, and I saw at least four other people slip and wind up flat on their butts. On some of our most recent trips, going out for a walk has not been real fun for us. A few years back, Jamie slipped and fell while visiting us and broke her kneecaps. In May of 2021, Kathleen tripped while we were doing a shore excursion in San Francisco (on dry pavement) and broke her elbow, which meant a six-hour trip to the ER and surgery a few weeks later. I had fallen two years ago on ice a block from our old condo and really hurt my back. So only Steve seemed immune. 

Kathleen, Jamie and I elected to skip the morning tour and see if the sidewalks got any better as the day went on. Steve decided to brave it and headed out on the tour. At about 10:00 am, I decided to go and test again, and I walked for about 15 minutes and wound up in the central square of Prague, where their largest Christmas Market was going. This allowed me to get some photos (you can see them below) and to tell Kathleen and Jamie we could do our afternoon tour—a visit to Lobkowicz Palace. 

Visiting a Palace

Our morning tour (that three of us skipped) was one of Viking’s included tours. When you do their pre or post-excursion, you get a free tour every day, so skipping it was no big deal, but the Lobkowicz Palace was a tour we paid for and included lunch, a concert and a private tour of the palace. We really wanted to go. So at 11:30, Viking transported the three of us to meet Steve and the rest of the tour he had gone on that morning at the castle, where we would do some touring around before getting to the Palace. 

When it came time for the morning tour to end, it turned out that only the four of us would be going on to the palace. The rest who were finishing up the morning tour would return to the hotel. At this point, Kathleen’s knees (which she had really strained on the TukTuk ride in Lisboa) told her not to walk any further, and she headed back to the hotel with the morning tour bunch. 

Jamie, Steve and I went on and did the Palace. When we got there, after only walking about five minutes, I truly wished Kathleen had come with us. We were ushered into a beautiful room and fed a delicious lunch. Then, we were escorted to another room where a classical trio (one violinist, one cellist and one pianist) played a selection of classical pieces for us. They were very good. 

After the concert, our guide led us to a private balcony at the back of the palace where we could see incredible views of all of Prague. Of course, I took a ton of photos. The city looked like a Christmas dream, all draped in snow. 

After the balcony viewing, we were off to see the collection of art housed in the Palace. This kind of thing usually does nothing for me, but I have to say this was one of the best audio tours of a gallery I have ever heard, and I got a lot out of it. It was thoroughly enjoyable. The entire time, I kept thinking, “I wish Kathleen had stayed.” 

But then it was time to board the bus back, and we were led down what must have been a 300-yard, fairly steep ramp covered in ice and snow. It was at that exact moment that I was thankful she had gone back to the hotel. Even with a rail to hang on to, that ramp was a bit scary. And then, when we got to the bottom, we had to walk about another 150 yards to get to the bus through ice and slush. 

All this would have been a real problem for her, and I was so glad she had headed back earlier when the bus had left from where we had originally arrived—a very flat walk to get to.

To top it off, on the bus trip back, there were two sets of Viking cruisers. Some of the people on the bus were just finishing their cruise. They were doing their post-cruise extension in Prague (we are going in the opposite direction and doing Budapest at the end), and because of that, they were staying at a different hotel—a huge Hilton about 20 minutes from our hotel. Because it was closer to the Palace, we went to the Hilton first, where all but the three of us got off. The only problem we had then was that the bus driver had taken his usual route through a parking lot, and someone had parked their car illegally, and he could not move the bus until that car was moved. We sat on the bus while the hotel management tried to find out who owned the car before we gave up. We went into the Hilton and got a cab back to the Marriott. It was not the bus driver’s fault, but Viking should have done a better job of taking care of us. They said that they could get us a cab, but when we got to their tour desk, they said they would need to get the expenditure (around $8 US) approved and that might take a while. At this point, it was almost 5:00 pm, and we had 6:00 dinner reservations, so we decided to pay for our own taxi and got back to our hotel in less than 10 minutes. 

An amazing dining experience

Speaking of dinner reservations, a good friend we know from our Trilogy Travel Club back home had lived in Europe for a few years and either lived in Prague or visited often (I am old, I don’t remember which) had told me about a small, out-of-the-way steak place. Now, I am not really into steak, but I know my brother is, so I said great and made reservations. WOW! I am certainly glad I did. It was one of those dining experiences you only get once or twice on a trip. The place was a tiny, almost below-ground-level restaurant that had so much charm it spilled out the front door. It reminded me of a party mix…it was packed full of Czechs ? (I owe my granddaughter $1 for that one). We were the only non-natives in the place, and it was PACKED! 

We opened our menus and saw a wonderful option just perfect for the four of us. It was a steak platter featuring five different cuts of steak, with three sauces and four side dishes for less than $100 USD. Add that to the two excellent bottles of a good red wine we drank, and we had quite the meal. This restaurant not only passed the Steve Test for me, but if it was near our house, I might go there every couple of weeks. The food and service were top-notch, and the prices were a great value. Especially when the servers only expect a 10% tip. We had a wonderful time. If you are ever in Prague, make it a point to eat at Bila Krava (which I am pretty sure means White Cow). You will not be sorry. BTW: That platter with the sauces and sides was plenty for us. And it was totally delicious.

Of course, after that, it was an $8 Uber back to the hotel and bed. We had a big day coming up on Thursday. 

At this point, let me show you the photos I got yesterday around Prague and at the Palace. Hope you enjoy them. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Our Jewish Quarter Tour, then on to Nuremberg.

In the morning, after a repeat of Wednesday’s superb buffet breakfast, we were off on a tour that featured much less walking than the one Steve had taken the day before and a lot more chances to sit down during talks that Kathleen could take advantage of. Plus, we would be in and out of buildings all morning so that we would stay much warmer. 

Our tour was of the old Jewish Quarter in Prague. We got to visit five separate synagogues and hear about all the horrible things that had been done to the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia for centuries. 

But we also saw some true beauty in these incredible places of worship as well as some horrible sadness in the synagogue that is covered with the thousands of names of Czech Jews killed by Hitler and the Nazis. 

The tour took most of the morning, and our tour guide, Eva, was EXCELLENT. In fact, all our guides here in Prague have been excellent. Steve truly liked the very nice lady who did the morning tour, and we joined him for the end of that tour. He thought she did great as well. 

The Jewish Quarter tour lasted until noon when we returned to the hotel, got some lunch, walked out to find a piece of local artwork (those of you who have been in our home know where that’s going), and then we boarded a “luxury motor coach” to Nuremberg, Germany where we will spend tonight. As I am typing this, I am truly sitting in that luxury motor coach (no sarcasm intended here—it is a really, really nice bus. If it only had WiFi, it would be perfect) headed to Nuremberg. It’s 3:39 in the afternoon here, and we won’t be at our Nuremberg hotel for another three hours, so I thought I would do a little writing on the way. Next up for you are my photos from our Jewish Quarter tour. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

As I write this, it is Thursday morning…you are still enjoying Wednesday evening…and I am up posting this at 4:45 am. We are staying at the Grand Meridian Hotel in Nuremberg. It (like our Prague hotel) is a Marriott, but a much older and historical one that they purchased. Older and historical means…strange and weird to me. The rooms are tiny, the doors open out into the corridors/hallways, the bathrooms are minuscule with tubs with high sides, and the WiFi is slow. They are passing the hotel off as a “historic, boutique hotel.” I myself like boutique hotels. The Hotel Portugal we stayed in in Lisboa was a “boutique hotel.” This one is just depressing to me, with long dark corridors and a single (JUST ONE) elevator to cover a hotel with a capacity of more than 80 guests per floor on six floors. Coming in and out with luggage can be a long wait. And that elevator holds about five people max. Needless to say, Viking picked this hotel, not me.

We had a quick dinner (if you can call it that) in the hotel bar before retiring to our cells ? for a good night’s sleep (the beds aren’t bad). The place just seems like an expensive jail or maybe an abbey or a convent (to me). We are here for two nights before we depart for Regensburg, where we. board our longboat for our first-ever river cruise. More about our Nuremberg adventures coming up soon.  (Editor’s note: the quote below is my reaction to the names in the Jewish Synagogue in Prague. Sorry if I offend anyone.)

A thousand years will pass, and the guilt of Germany will not be erased.  —Hans Frank