Nürenberg day 2

30 September 2013 Monday

Breakfast at the hotel, then off to a MUSEUM to start the day.  For some reason this museum was not doin it for me.  I was super tired or something because I could not pay attention or remember anything they talked about.  It was an audio-guided tour, so we had headphones and a device where you type in the code number of the area you are standing in and you learn about it.  This museum was all about the Nuremberg trials...so I thought it would be so interesting!  But there was too much information and too many details, and we only had 90 minutes so there was no way to get it ALL...so getting bits was not working.  I liked watching some of the actual footage of the trials.  So basically the trials were held by the Allied forces prosecuting the top 23 prominent members of the Nazi political, military, and economic leaderships.  Some of the main guys weren't tried (like Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels) because they committed suicide several months before.  This is about November 1945 - October 1946.  I watched a clip where these men were taken through concentration camps and shown piles of bodies, and the men denied knowing anything about that going on.  Twelve were sentenced to death by hanging, seven received prison sentences, and three were acquitted.  So that general info I knew already, and I don't remember many details from this morning.  Watch this video on the trials it is great and quick.

(seperate building) walkway out to look at this wall area...

at some Nazi party house...where this museum was.

We went to lunch in the subway station underground...I got the most delicious yogurt I have ever eaten.  It was homemade by this lady with fresh berries and granola on it.  Aaaand I got a donut too.

We got to wander around some cute little shops for a while...I got a couple little things for gifts.  We met up again after a half hour and walked up to Albrecht Duürer's HOUSE (the artist who did the famous self portrait we saw in real life two days ago).  It was so cool!  We got to see where his studio was...even though all the props were fake you could tell but it was cool to imagine.  Headphone guides again!

this gold steeple was on the top of a church but got too heavy so they made it a fountain, and it is supposed to be lucky to touch maybe.

 

We had a few hours of free time after this...a group of us wandered around and went in so many little shops.  There are Christmas shops out already!!!  So cute!!  We got ice cream (Eis) and saw a cool bubble guy, and there are always beautiful fruits and vegetables out in stands on the streets in the square.

lucky bunny...??

Jordan eats the core of the apple...

We found an awesome antique shop...SO COOL!  There were so many random things in here.  Caelyn bought a hand knife for 19 Euro from WWI.  Jordan bought an honorary medal from WWII.  There were so many Nazi things...and they tried to put stickers on all the swastikas to cover them up.  Very interesting.

We met up again at 6:30 for dinner at this place.  It was so good!  I wish I could remember what my meal was called but I can't...it had potatoes, egg and sausage, and a really yummy salad.  It was very delicious and filling.  We talked for a while after because our waiter took forever to bring our checks.

Quote by Jordan at dinner: "I don't understand people who are like on diets...and are like "I wanna eat healthy"...I'd rather die."

Lexi is my apartment roommate tonight.  She is awesome.  We talked for a long time...and now I am getting to bed late because I wanted to post this because I paid a Euro to get wifi!!!!!!!!  SO HERE IT IS! Love you ALL

Nürenberg

29 September 2013 Sunday

We woke up in München at 7, I showered, and we left for church at 8:20 ish.  It was farther away (not sure where…) starting at 9:30.  We all sat on the front row… (Roger said “we should” cause it was empty…) but we all couldn’t understand so we were on our phones using the wifi to email and we felt bad.  Haha.  They knew we couldn’t understand though.  There are missionaries everywhere…we met two sisters, one from BYU.  She was excited to see us.  Nobody knew her though.  Church felt soooo long.  The weather was nicer today though.

We drove for a few hours today.  I slept on the bus.  Everybody is so funny and we laugh a lot so it is hard to stop talking and fall asleep.  We stopped at this rest stop for lunch…oh my gosh.  It was so stupid, they had this self-serve restaurant thing and we didn’t really understand how things were priced, so we got like, a medium amount of food, like normal, nothing extremely piled up on our plates, and then they weighed it and added something and mine was 12 Euro!  So stupid.  And you couldn’t put it back…so we ate it all and it was really really good (salad, schnitzel, potatoes, fries).  So we decided we wouldn’t get dinner tonight (which was good because I AM STILL FULL).  We drove more…….for some reason we stopped for dinner at the BK Lounge (Burger King) which for ONE, is nasty, and for TWO, is unhealthy and expensive, and for THREE, it was only like 3 hours after we had lunch!!!  So Tanner and I were the most full, so we walked down the street till we found a gas station.  I bought 4 granola bars on sale for 3 Euro in case I got hungry later (I didn’t…but I ate one anyways.  The rest will be for lunches throughout the week).  Good choice!  Nobody liked their BK meals.

MORE driving…and finally we made it to Nuremburg.  Paris and I did our GT History Fair project on the Nuremburg trials in 8^th grade.  We designed a website…and we won like two rounds of judging and went past state to region or something.  I wonder if the website still works/exists anywhere.  We were little geniuses who loved WWII.  So we pulled over at one point and walked into this huge stadium.  The Zeppelin Field.  It was the Nazi party rally grounds.  Nazis would come here once a year for huge rally things where they’d show off their weapons and march around and talk about how great they are and how many people they have beaten.  The place was huge!  It was a weird feeling to be on those steps where Hitler stood.

the beautiful MARA

Haley & Tanner

Hitler stood here.

We got to our hotel…Jeannie told me this is one hotel where Mom and Dad stayed while traveling with the Minerts one year.  It is really cute!  There was nowhere to hangout though, so we got permission for all of us to go in the boys’ room because it is the biggest.  We played games for HOURS….games where you sit in a circle and just laugh at how dumb the game is.  “Signs”, the verb game (I can’t remember what we called it), and “sounds” were the best.  We were going to start iPod karaoke, but only Haley got to go before we got a knock on the door and were shushed.  This game is when you put on headphones that block out all sound, and you play a song you know really well, and you just SING loudly and confidently and it is really embarrassing because you can’t even hear yourself singing so you are usually way off key.  It is hilarious.  So at 10:00 we were shushed, and we all went back to our rooms and got ready for bed.  Wifi costs €1 for 24 hours.  A few of us paid for it, but I didn’t (so this post is a day late).  It will be nice to get to sleep an hour or two earlier than usual!  I have been getting to bed past midnight, around 1AM most nights on this trip, then up at 7.

the house across the street from our hotel for tonight!

I love this group!!  This trip has been amazing.  My feet got a good break today from walking and they feel good.  Hopefully I can take 5 more days of intense travel.