Today is our last day in Germany and though we are looking forward to returning home, we are also sad to leave. It has been a wonderful trip and we’ve had a great time. Earlier today I asked Jacob to think about a few reflections from our time here. This is our list in no particular order…

1. Why don’t the windows have screens? A few nights ago when we were in Dresden we had the windows open to let air in and two giant mosquitoes flew in. They were sitting on the wall and they were so massively gigantic I had assumed there were moths only to discover on closer inspection their true identity. I quickly smashed them with my shoe and they exploded on the walls. It was disgusting.

2. While we were here a van drove into a crowd at a restaurant in Munster. It is easy to understand why something like that can happen here. Many of the crowded squares and shopping areas grant access to vehicles for deliveries. We especially noticed this in the morning. We’d see big trucks and vans making their way through narrow roadways, driving slowly behind pedestrians. Many of these areas are open the entire day, though some areas do have barriers to block cars. When we walked across the Westminster Bridge in London, we noticed large barriers were in place to prevent cars from accessing the pedestrian zone. I don’t know if these were added before or after the attack last year.

3. Getting food this trip felt easier. I’m not sure if its because we felt more comfortable or knew where to look, but if I needed a quick snack it was easy to find one. We often used small grocery stores to get quick pre-made sandwiches or pastries. Also, the cost of food here seems to be on average less than food in the United States. We could easily find a sandwich, bratwurst or hand-pizza for a few euros.

4. Jacob said he isn’t looking forward to returning to driving in the US. Here, the roads are very well maintained and people follow the rules. If you are driving slowly you stay in the right lane, if you want to pass you do so in the left lane and then you get over. It was not often that we saw slower cars in the middle lane, though it happens occasionally and cars that were not going fast enough in the left lane were quick to get over if they saw someone behind them. We noticed this rule following when it came to crosswalks too, it seemed like in Germany people more often waited for the signal to cross the street whereas in Paris and London people crossed whenever with disregard to the pedestrian signal.

5. Another observation we had is that it is important to have cash/coins with you at all times. It is not as common that places take credit card here, especially small vendors.

6. Jacob’s last observation is that you can often find a town every few kilometers and they are actual established towns, not just a cluster of random homes.

I’m sure there are more things we observed, but that’s all we can think of for now.

Today we woke up at our Motel One in Nuremberg and then went downstairs to enjoy our breakfast. I did my best to load up on as much food as possible since I knew we’d have a busy day.

After breakfast we walked only a few short blocks into the old town part of Nuremberg. We entered the old town by passing through one of the many old gates to the city. The city walls which still surround the old town, were the defensive mechanism. Construction for the wall began in the 12th century and it runs four kilometers around the old town.

From there we wandered the streets and stumbled upon St. Jakob’s Church. I made Jacob pose for a photo with it.

Continuing on we walked through the square where they have the famous Christmas Market.

Then we walked up the hill to the Nuremberg Castle. This castle was beautiful and itself surrounded by its own wall.

We took in the views and then continued on our way back down the hill. We were a bit pressed for time since we had to check out of the hotel at noon.

Along the way we stopped at shop and picked up some apple strudel and pretzels for the road.

Our next stop was the Documentation Center Nazi Party Rallying Grounds (or in German, Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände). For only 6 euros a piece we could enter this museum. This was somewhere I had wanted to stop. We had seen many castles and cathedrals, but hadn’t spent much time learning about more recent Germany history. This museum is built into the former Nazi congress hall that was built by Hitler in the 1930s. Though this building was never completed it is still the biggest preserved national socialist monumental building that exists. We spent a few hours at this museum, using our audio guides, we learned all about the rise of Hitler, the party rallying grounds, the consequences of the war and the conclusion with the Nuremberg Trials.

It was really eerie to learn all this Nazi history while in an old Nazi building.

The congress hall is just one part of the rally grounds, so after visiting the museum we walked over to check out the Great Road. This road was built to be the focal point of the rally ground and to be the stage of large parades. It stretches over a mile.

While in the museum we saw many photos of large gatherings during the rallies. Jacob said it is hard to quantify how many people were there because you have nothing to judge it against, but by seeing the congress hall and the great road – it gave us a better sense of just how many hundreds of thousands of people were in support of the Nazi party early on.

We also had the realization that we are the last generation that has a tangible connection to World War II through our grandparents.

After that, it was time to move on and do a lighter activity, like shopping! We stopped by Kaufland (shopping land) to get 15 pounds of gummy bears and chocolates. Jacob was worried we may be getting close to our weight limit for the checked bags. 🙂

After shopping we were on the road to Munich. Along the drive, there was an accident on the road and everyone had to stop suddenly. Drivers alert others to slow down by putting on their four-ways, Jacob was excited to take part in this German experience. After that, he was complaining that he thought a bug was on him. Next thing I know I see a little spider crawling up his arm, I reacted and smashed it quickly against Jacob’s arm with no warning. He then exclaimed, “I’m going 90 miles per hour!”

Oops… we were fine.

We arrived here around 6 p.m. and settled into our room to get our bags organized. We have an early morning. Need to get the car turned in and then head over to the airport. Jacob was randomly selected to have his passport information confirmed so he can’t get a boarding pass until we do that. In other words, he may have to stay here.

Just kidding! I wouldn’t leave him behind…

This time tomorrow we should be back in the US of A! Until then…