Germany Log 3

Day five Trip to Nurnberg
6/26/2009
Friday

Day five of our trip was my birthday! We decided to go to Nurnburg. When my father was 17 he took a trip and stayed with a family in Nurnberg as a exchange student for 3 months and was very excited to return. He felt that this place held a lot of great memories and is where he really learned to love to travel, which is now such a major part of his life. The Hauptmarkt is a market in front of the amazing church, Frauenkirche, and the Gothic Schoner Brunnen (beautiful fountain). The fountain was originally supposed to be put on the church as it’s steeple but the architect was never paid and so he left it in a square and turned it into a fountain.
After we went to Albrecht Durer’s house. I was extremely excited for this because I have wanted to go ever since my freshman year german class when I did a huge project on Albrecht Durer. I love his work and it was great to see his house. He lived in this house from 1509-1528. On the three-hundredth anniversary of his death the town bought his house and it has been slightly reconstructed. It was still great to see a printing press from that town and a woman who demonstrated how he would have engraved things.
While in Nurnburg we also went to Kirche St Sebald, one of the oldest churches in Nurnburg built 1230-1273. We also drove past Dkumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelande (say that 3 times fast) a unfinished building from the Nazi era. Nurnberg was beautiful fun and for the first time since i’ve been here warm!

Day six car ride to France through Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria.
6/27/2009
Saturday

On our way to France we drove through many places. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to stop long at any of the places such as Neuschwanstein. Neuschwanstein is the magnificent fairy tale castle built in 1i869-86 by the crazy Bavarian Kin Ludwig II. It is located halfway up a amazing mountain looking out over the Schwansee (Swan Lake). I’m glad we were able to see it but I had really wished to go in.
We also drove past Dachau the concentration camp. It brought up a long conversation about how the Germans reacted to Hitler and WWII and such. Dachau was hardly on the outskirts of town and people would have walked by it everyday. It’s hard to think how it would feel to live so close to something so horrible and not know how or what to do and believe.
We also drove through Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. It’s so beautiful and here. The mountains remind me of Utah and the forests remind me of New Hampshire. I love it here and the drive, although very long, was miraculous. It felt as though two weeks was plenty enough time here but it feels as though I’ve hardly seen anything. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to see it now even if it feels like no time at all.