Volume 2, Days 78-79
While eating my breakfast in the morning, I bumped into T, the Seattle-based fellow who was also on the walking tour the day before. Since we were both planning on visiting the Nazi-era parade grounds, I suggested we walk out there together. It was a fair distance outside the city but not an unreasonably long walk.
There is supposed to be a circuit around the lake that allows you to look at the congress center, the zeppelin field, etc., except for some reason a lot of the nice wooded paths were closed because landscapers were cutting down/removing trees. We wasted close to half an hour trying out different paths, all of which had dead ends. Despite all this, the sheer scope of the grounds was overwhelming. For example, the annual Nuremberg Volksfestival, which was setting up for a 2 week run starting the day I leave, only occupied a small chunk of the central avenue.
We went to the documentation center, which for some reason is what the Germans call every museum related to the Nazis and found that there was a really good offer on the municipal museums. Single entry was 6 euros, but for an additional 3 euros one could get a day pass covering eight different museums, one of which I had been planning on visiting anyways. Sold!
Of course, after the long walk to the rally grounds, walking around them, and the long winded explanations of the included audioguide, I was feeling progressively antsy and increasingly inclined to fast forward or skip sections as we moved through the museum. Other than the room introductions, the audioguide merely provided a translation of the exhibit by exhibit texts, so it was both a good exercise to practice reading German (while being fed the answers) and a way to know when to cut off the audioguide and move on to the exhibit.
It was after noon by the time we were finished with the documentation center and since we were now on the clock to get our money’s worth, we went to the S-bahn stop in front of the museum. However, Nuremberg charges exorbitant rates on the public transportation–over 3 euros for a single ticket or 8 euros for a day ticket! There were two other museums (the site of the Nuremberg trials and a museum of industry culture) on the outskirts which would have made sense to spring for the transport pass, but after a moments deliberation, we decided to skip them and do a handful in the center of town (after a lunch).
We walked a brisk pace and were back within the city walls in record time. I made a beeline for a snack shack that I had seen advertising 6 euro schnitzel with french fries which I had been dreaming about. It was a good deal with a huge mountain of fries.
After that little pit stop, we visited the City Museum in Fembo House. It wasn’t particularly exciting, but provided an overview of the history of the city in pure German, though there were two exhibits with headphones playing lengthy audio plays in English–one concerning the resolving of minor details for the end of the 30 years war (though the treaty was signed in Westphalia the details were hammered out in Nuremberg) and subsequent party, the other concerning a Neptune fountain that the city sold to St. Petersberg.
The next museum–Spielzeug Museum–was far more exciting with extensive exhibits on both the traditional tin toys manufactured in Nuremburg as well as a decade by decade history of trends in toys in the 20th century. It was quite the nostalgia trip. There was also a collection of video games on the ground floor available to play, including the original Super Mario Bros. Two German kids were trying and failing to even get past the first goomba on the first level. I crushed them.
We hung out there until the museum closed at five, then headed over to the Albrecht Durer house (open until 8pm!), which I had originally figured I would check out. At 6 pm there would be a tour by an actress pretending to be Durer’s wife, but since that incurred an additional fee, we decided to just got through it on our own–with the included audioguide. It was surprisingly detailed and informative with some cool multimedia terminals and an entire room of copies of Durer paintings.
After finishing the fourth museum, we celebrated a cost effective and educational day with a beer at the pub in the city gate next to the Durer house. It is a popular spot for locals where people grab a drink and sit on the square. The beer was okay but nothing special.
We decided to get a second drink and went over to another pub I had done some research on. It was a little better and significantly quieter so we could get a table on the street. T had majored in German and with the influence of alcohol we were playing around with a mix of languages. The table next to ours was hard not to eavesdrop on with an obviously bad date between a boorish American man and a local.
After the huge lunch, I wasn’t up for a big dinner, so we swung by the supermarket where I put together a salad and we found some chilled beers in the fridge case. T wanted something more substantial than a salad and we ended up splitting a freezer pack of chicken cordon bleu. It does seem a waste not to use the nice kitchen to actually cook something.
The Australian guy I met in Frankfurt was cooking in the kitchen and we all hung out a bit, but the evening wrapped up fairly quickly. I still had an entire dorm room to myself.
| Tageskarte | 9 |
| Water | 0.44 |
| Schnitzel mit Pommes | 6 |
| Dunkel Bier | 3.4 |
| Gold Bier | 3.2 |
| Groceries | 5.27 |
| Total: | 27.31 EUR (213 RMB) (USD 29.81) |
Running Total: 28289.3 RMB (USD 3958.80)
Daily Average: 362.7 RMB (USD 50.75)