I had thought about ending the series with this group photo, but instead, I wanted to lead the last post with it at the beginning. This was a fantastic group and I wanted to say Thank YOU all!
A group tour, in my opinion, works best when the destination itself is awesome, the Tour Director is awesome, and the people you are traveling with are awesome. I realize that's a lot to ask for, but somehow so far I've been fortunate that each one of my Gate 1 tours have been just that ... AWESOME!! And I want to thank each of these people above for their friendship and camaraderie as we traveled through Germany!
In a previous post, I thanked Farid (2nd from left, above) for being a wonderful guy and superb Tour Director. We appreciate you so much!!
We also want to thank George (2nd from right) who was our Bus Driver for the entire trip. He was fantastic too! George had a smile for everyone and was always there at the bus door to greet us with bottles of water. And he'd load and unload our luggage at every stop. I never once worried about his driving ... everything went smoothly and he was a total professional. Thank you, George AND Farid!!
May 26 we boarded the bus about 8 am in Würzburg for the hour and a half ride to Nuremberg. We were just going to visit for a few hours, enjoy a local walking tour, beer tasting, and lunch, and then drive another hour or so to Regensburg where we'd spend our last two nights of the tour.
After yesterday's adorable fairytale-like walled village visit to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, this morning was a 180 degree difference as we started off by first visiting the building where the Nuremberg Trials took place in 1945-46. It was here that surviving Nazi leaders were held accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity following World War II. (Hitler committed suicide in his bunker on April 30, 1945, so he wasn't one of those who stood trial.)
We didn't get to go inside the building, but our tour guide showed us photos and talked about the trials that were held there. I'm sure I didn't pay enough attention during World History in grade school. Of course I know who Hitler was and I know somewhat how horribly the Jews and other minorities were treated ... tortured, killed. In school we read "The Diary of Anne Frank". But millions of Jewish people were killed during the Holocaust, and several other million for various reasons, not to mention all of the deaths and destruction as a result of World War II to eliminate the Nazis. Such a sad, sad time in our history.
The 21 defendants are all present during the International Military Tribunal trial at Nuremberg, Germany. One of the defendants, Von Neurath, is blocked off by an American soldier in the box on the extreme right. 3/8/46.
I'll admit that I'd rather not focus on the horrors of wars; the mistreatment of women, children, and animals; religious persecutions; slavery; prejudices; and other injustices. It's all terrible. And yes, there's so much of it that still goes on today. I don't watch the news if I can help it.
And for several years in Germany, according to our tour guides, they didn't want to talk about it either ... shame and guilt ran deep with some of the older generations. But today, Germany has turned towards remembrance and education, in an effort so that nothing like the Nazi regime ever exists again.
From there, we boarded the bus again and drove to the field where the Nazi party held their rally parades. Six Nazi party rallies were held there between 1933 and 1938. Today the grandstand still remains but the columns (from the photo) have been removed due to structural issues. The area is now a permanent memorial to the victims of the Nazi regime. In addition to remembrance and education, the site is also used for public recreation, an annual motorsports race, and a rock concert festival.
With Nazi Germany behind us, although collectively a more somber group, we got back on the bus and headed to the downtown area of Nuremberg for the remainder of our locally guided tour.
Nuremberg Central Train Station. According to the internet, over 450 trains stop here daily and more than 200,000 passengers use the station on average every day.
A quick drive past St. John's Cemetery, widely regarded as one of the most beautiful cemeteries in Germany.
Nuremberg is Bavaria Germany's second largest city. In addition to its complex history as the hub of the Nazi rally parties and the post war trials, it is also renowned for its beautifully preserved medieval Old Town, the Imperial Castle, and as the birthplace of traditional festive gingerbread.
Walking down to the market square, we saw all of these fresh veggies (above) being sold at a local farmer's market. And here are the famous white asparagus, which were in season and being featured at many of the local restaurants. If you recall, I had a serving of them (with salmon) back at Lake Titisee and they were delicious!
There is also a gothic church in the square (Church of Our Lady - from the 14th century), which we didn't go inside, but waited til noon to see the mechanical clock perform. It wasn't the most exciting "cuckoo" clock, but each of the little people moved slightly and then several wooden men rotated around the guy sitting on the throne.
If you'd like to see a small bit of the video, here you go. It took a really long time for each of the little guys to move their arms, so I didn't record it all. This was the best part of the motion to see.
Following the noon clock performance, we quickly walked to another part of the downtown for our brewery visit, beer tasting, and lunch. Beer is not my thing, but several in the group enjoyed it. I did take a very small sip of a couple of them and then passed my glass on to Jim. haha! I think there were five different kinds of beer to taste and the guy who gave the talk was very knowledgeable about the whole process.
In 1516, Bavaria enacted the Reinheitsgebot, a famous law dictating that beer could only be brewed using water, barley, and hops (yeast was added later after its discovery.) And everyone drank it! Beer was actually safer to drink than water. During the process of making it, the liquid was boiled two different times. And way back when, the beer had a very low alcoholic content, so even children (older than 5) would drink it.
After lunch we had some free time to explore the area on our own. Several of us decided to visit St. Lorenz Church. Groundbreaking for the church was in 1250 and it was completed in 1477. The church was badly damaged during the Second World War and later restored. It is one of the most prominent churches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria.
Jim and I spent the rest of our time in Nuremberg just walking in and out of a couple of shops, and then finding some ice cream for dessert! We met back up with the group and George had cold bottles of water waiting for us as we got back on the bus to drive the hour or so to Regensburg.
And now, since we are on the bus (although it may not have been THIS particular trip), it's a good chance to tell you about the "toilets" on our trip. While we'd label them "restrooms" or "bathroom" back in the States, in Germany it was usually just labeled "toilets" or sometimes "WC" meaning water closet.
If you went to the toilet in a restaurant, there wasn't a charge. But most other places, you had to pay to pee! Typically the cost was one euro ($1.15 USD). They had electronic machines and turnstiles to enter. You could pay by coin or with a credit card. This was a pretty normal toilet entrance ....
A few times though, we had some pretty fancy pottys! Here's a video that one of the ladies took of the automatic toilet seat cleaner. It was great that it cleaned the seat after each use, but it mostly left it damp, which wasn't all that great. But clean is better than not!!
When you paid your euro to enter the bathroom, the machine would spit out a ticket for you (photo below). Afterwards, you could take the ticket to the counter (if you were purchasing something in the store) and they'd give you back the one euro as a credit. I'd typically buy a Coke Light (Diet Coke) because you couldn't always order one in a restaurant.
We appreciated the way plastic bottles are made over there .... the cap stays attached to the bottle! It's nice because you don't lose it and it doesn't fall on the ground and become litter. I think all plastic drinking bottles should be this way!
Okay, sorry for the detour to the toilets. Just had to get it out. haha!! Back to the story!
So our driver, George, took us through the very narrow streets of old downtown Regensburg to drop us off near the Hotel Muenchner Hof. The front door of the hotel is down an even tighter road, which I don't think cars can even use. It felt more like an alley with storefronts. :) I loved it!!
There was a guy, with the hotel, who met us in the square to get our luggage. He was also the hotel bartender, and could have been the maintenance man too. ha!
THIS was the kind of hotel I had been looking for the entire trip ... quirky, colorful, historic, full of character, and located in the center of an old world downtown. Our room key was an actual KEY too, not one of those credit card keys. And at night, the staff go to bed also. ha! So if you came back after 11, the front door would be locked and you'd have to go around to the back and use your key to get in the building.
It was my favorite stay of the tour for sure! Each of the rooms were unique and there was no air conditioner, so our windows were opened and the fan on! :) They also had a tiny elevator that could hold about two people & luggage at a time. We were up on the third floor and looked down into the courtyard. I'm so happy that we were able to stay there for two nights!
The courtyard was small but very cute and there was a large mural up on one of the adjacent buildings. They also had two metal donkeys there, which reminded me of our own two donkeys back home at the ranch ... Ziggy and Marley.
One tiny side room down in the lobby was fully painted like a mural and had a glass window with a dead cat inside! I asked about the poor dried up thing and the lady told me that during one of the renovations, the cat was found inside the walls. Apparently way back in those days, burying cats in the wall was done to scare off witches and provide protection against burglaries and fires. Since it was a symbol of "good luck" to have a cat in the wall, they decided to keep it behind the glass panel.
Wednesday morning, May 27, we met a local guide in the courtyard of our hotel and she told us a bit about the history of Regensburg. From there, we walked around the downtown area and out to the Danube river. It's such a wonderful town ... for us we ranked it right up there in the top two spots with Rothenburg ob der Tauber being the other!
Regensburg is one of Germany’s oldest cities, tracing its roots back to a Roman military fort built in 179 AD. Although it did suffer a lot of bombing during World War II, most of the damage was targeted to aircraft factories, train yards, and bridges. Because its medieval streetscape remained largely intact, the Old Town was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2006.
One really cool feature of the town are these old stone towers (pictured above). Wealthy merchant families would build the towers (in the 11th - 14th centuries), mainly just as an opportunity to flaunt their wealth. The higher the tower, the more powerful the family. Because of this, people of this status were referred to as being "stone rich".
There were close to 60 family towers built in Regensburg, but only about 20 remain today, with many of these still in good condition.
Porta Praetoria (stonework above) ... This Roman gate from 179 AD, surviving to nearly its original height of 10 meters, marks the northern entrance to the legionary fortress Castra Regina (pre-Regensburg) —one of the most significant Roman monuments in Germany and evidence of Regensburg’s 2,000-year urban continuity.
This church below, also called the Old Church, is the Basilica of the Nativity of Our Lady. From the internet, "Despite its modest exterior dating from the 9th century, this church’s interior explodes with rococo exuberance following an 18th-century renovation. It is Bavaria Germany's oldest Catholic church and one of the most lavishly decorated sacred spaces."
photographer and uploader was Hajotthu at de.wikipedia
ABOVE: The ‘Goliath House’ (Goliathhaus), built in 1260, is considered one of the most well-known landmarks of Regensburg with its painting of David and Goliath done in 1573.
BELOW: The Old Town Hall was built when Regensburg was elevated to the status of a Free Imperial City in 1245. The oldest part is the iconic 55-meter high tower (photo that follows).
BELOW: The first church stood on the grounds of the present St. Peters Cathedral, in as early as 700 AD. After a fire burned down the first cathedral, construction began in 1273 to begin the first stages of the structure we now see today. The new cathedral however, was finished 600 years later in 1870-72 to its present form. You can currently see scaffolding where exterior renovation work is being done.
I just loved the old cobblestone streets and narrow alley ways of the town. It really did have everything you need. There were lots of restaurants, little cafes, places to stay, shops (both purely tourist ones and also useful local ones). And so much history!!
ABOVE: Because stone was such a premium item back in the day for construction, sometimes old cemetery headstones were also used. This one was found within the walls during a renovation of the house, and they decided to leave it uncovered.
BELOW: These small, brass-topped plaques mark the last known residences of Holocaust victims and others persecuted by the Nazi regime. They are considered the largest decentralized memorial in the world, with over 116,000 stones across 31 countries. Of those, there are 80,000 in Germany alone.
Following our guided walking tour, we ended at the Danube River where we boarded a wooden boat for a short (45-minute) river cruise. The most picturesque parts of the cruise were obviously the old town area, where we were, but it was still fun to ride on the boat and enjoy the breeze. They also had a place on board to purchase drinks.
Completed in 1146 after eleven years of construction, this old Stone Bridge served as the only permanent Danube crossing between Ulm and Vienna for 800 years. Of course parts of it have been renovated over the years. Today it is pedestrian only.
Following the boat cruise, Farid took us for a special Gate 1 surprise ... free pie and a drink for everyone! Yay! We all ordered a dessert and drink and enjoyed eating outside under the patio umbrellas and watching the people go by. I love dessert before dinner!
After that, our group kinda wandered off since we had a few hours on our own before our final group dinner that evening.
Jim and I just walked around a bit so I could take more photos, and we stopped in a couple stores as I looked for my required Christmas ornament from that town. And even though we had just eaten pie, we also HAD to go get a sausage dog from this historic riverfront restaurant.
Operating beside the Stone Bridge since approximately 1146 (originally feeding bridge construction workers) this tiny establishment, Historische Wurstkuchl, claims to be the world’s oldest continuously operating restaurant. And they grill their sausages over a charcoal fire, which is different from the norm. On the far side is a walk-up window where you can order your sausages to enjoy on-the-go, which is what we did. They were very tasty too!
This isn't my image. I "borrowed" it off the internet because we at ours too fast and I failed to photograph them. haha!
Der Hutmacher is a local hat shop and they are the ones who made the hat worn by Johnny Depp in Disney's Alice in Wonderland 2010 remake. Run by master hatter Andreas Nuslan, the historic family-run workshop has been handcrafting premium hats since 1875.
Just in case you were wondering what police cars and ambulances looked like over there, here they are! We hardly ever saw or heard either of them, but we saw this police car in Regensburg and the ambulance I think was from Würzburg.
They have a mouse carved into a wall in town and the legend was that those who touched the mouse would one day return to Regensburg. Of course you know I had to give it a good pet!! :)
For dinner that night we enjoyed our last group meal, which was a large steak with fried onions and potatoes. There was also a meat appetizer and apple pastry for dessert ... and wine/beer of course!
When we all walked back together to the hotel, there were hugs all around and a couple tears shed too. We had such a WONDERFUL time in Germany!!
I want to throw an extra special thank you out there to my guy, Jim, for taking me across the ocean for an incredible three week vacation! It was truly an unforgettable adventure! Not to mention, my 50th birthday was just five days after we got home, and he continued to spoil me then too!! I love you, Jim!!
The next morning a driver picked up Jim and I (about 4 am) to take us to the airport in Munich where we flew back on Delta airlines ... in Delta One seats, which was an extra special treat too!! After our meals onboard, we both were able to stretch out (the seats lay flat) and sleep a bit before landing in the US. :)
When thinking back on the entire trip, one thing we sometimes struggled with was our extremely heavy large luggage. We had each taken one large suitcase and a smaller carry-on bag.
Because we were taking the Queen Mary 2 ship, and also touring Europe, I thought I needed some nicer "dress up" clothes as well. I'd certainly not be taking that sort of thing next time. The buffet dining hall on the ship was actually delicious and you didn't have to dress up for that. I'd also take just one pair of walking shoes and maybe flip-flops. I'd leave any books at home ... I think I read a few pages just once on the boat. And I brought 2-3 small games (cards, dice, and a mini-mahjong set, which was used just one time). All that can stay home.
Jim agreed. Next time he plans on leaving his suit and dress shoes at home. He said he could have easily gotten by with a couple less jeans/shorts also. And he'd plan on getting a few euros in advance of the trip, since it was hard to find anywhere that would actually take American money. We could usually find an ATM though when we needed one.
We really didn't buy much of anything, besides food of course. I picked up a few postcards (sometimes they are the best photography from a place), and I bought a few ornaments for my Christmas tree. :)
The End!! :)