Wonderful Winter Vacation (Day 4)

I’m a person who likes to know as many details about a destination as possible. Therefore, I used Google Earth™ to extensively track our course once we boarded the Amadeus Diamond… I did this prior to leaving home. In so doing, I discovered that the Danube River flows nowhere near Nuremberg; but I was able to trace a body of water from Regensberg, Germany back to, and beyond, Nuremberg. It was the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal that links the Danube with the Rhine. It’s Europe’s answer to our Northwest Passage (which is yet to be found).

The locks along the canal - We started in Nuremberg and went up!

The canal was created, not so much for the cruise ships, but for the cargo vessels. It has proven to be a tremendous commercial success in allowing goods to be transported less expensively across parts of Europe.

Using Google Earth™ I took a guess at the most logical place for us to board the ship, and shortly after boarding, I asked a man in a naval uniform for details about our location. He informed me that we were in an inlet of some sort and would have to back out and turn around once we got to the main canal.

His answer caught me off-guard. I was sure we could simply start forward and continue that way. But what did I know?

I later learned that the man I was speaking with was the “Hotel” manager and had nothing to do with the navigation of the vessel. I could only wait until we actually began sailing to learn which was correct – his answer or my guess.

On December 19^th we woke with no need for a wake-up call. My internal clock was still somewhere in the mid-Atlantic. We made it to breakfast with ease and ate too much. The breakfast buffet included bacon, sausage, baked beans, scrambled eggs, and triangles of minced potatoes that had been deep fried. There were also numerous choices of cold cuts, cheeses, Kippers, raw salmon, hard boiled eggs, rolls and pastries, various dry cereals, fruit, and other platters I bypassed. Each table also held a menu of items that could be cooked to order, such as omelets, pancakes, French toast, and the like. Of course, there was a wide variety of juices (including prune for the less than regular guys), tea, and coffee. The one mistake I made was imbibing in the Kippers. The taste was with me the rest of the day.

While preparing to board the buses for our tour of Nuremberg, I discovered the answer to a mystery from Munich. A day or so prior, as we were leaving the HofBrau Haus (Note the spelling of HofBrau – I had it wrong in earlier installments), there was a group of people gathered around a man speaking into a microphone. I thought it rather odd because I could hear him perfectly well – but not because of some sort of amplification system. I wondered if the man new his amplifier had died on him.

The magic sound system for walking tours.

Now, as we left the ship, we were given small audio receivers to hang around our necks. Each was numbered and we boarded buses or hooked up with tour guides with the same numbers. When the guides spoke into their microphones, we heard them through our headphones.

Our first guide took us on a bus tour of Nuremberg. I’m sure there were many points of interest, but the young lady was more inclined to chat about herself and her Christmas traditions. From time to time she’d say. “What should I tell you about now? Does anyone have any questions?” She did go into detail about the Nazi parade grounds.

Nazi Parade Grounds in Nuremberg

Another view of the Parade Grounds

We learned that Hitler began his rise to power in Munich – at the HofBrau Haus – but later moved his base to Nuremberg. Adolf Hitler would rally his troops and the local citizens by standing on the highest point of the grandstand and delivering his fiery speeches to thousands of cheering supporters. As I stated in an earlier account, his message was one of “Hope” that most Germans needed desperately to hear. His country had been broken by the Treaty of Versailles, and his actions brought the country out of depression and hyperinflation. Who wouldn’t have seen him as the savior? It wasn’t until years later that the German people discovered the true monster in whom they had placed their trust.

The building that housed the Nuremberg Trials after WW II

The above photo is the Justice Building where the Nuremberg Trials were held. A number of Nazis were tried; most were convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging. A few were acquitted. Of the ones sentenced to hang, some committed suicide; if they couldn’t face a firing squad, they did not want to die by hanging. No one knows how cyanide was smuggled into the prison.

Close-up of the statues on the Justice Building

Does anyone know what the statues along the Justice Building represent?

After visiting the various Nazi historical sites, we were taken to the Christmas Market inside the walls of the old city.

Walls of the old city - seen from a speeding bus.

I was fascinated by the many walls around certain parts of the towns we visited. It was like traveling back in time to the days of castles and knights. I’m not sure where Germany stands as far as the number of castles, but they seemed to be everywhere… as did the old walls surrounding parts of the cities. Although this was a “Christmas Market” tour, I would’ve loved to devote more time to exploring the walls, towers, moats, and castles. Obviously, we have to go back and take a slower tour of the country!

Entrance to the Nuremberg Christmas Market

This sculpture was at the entrance to the Nuremberg Christmas Market. By the time we saw it, our guide had already left us on our own and had given us a time and place to meet so we could re-board the bus and return to the ship.

Close-up of Sculpture

I’m sure there was a story behind the people adorning this structure, but our guide saw no need to explain.

Roman Catholic Church near the Christmas Market

This is the Roman Catholic Church that stood at the rear of the market. We went into the church hoping to take some pictures, but they were in the middle of Communion. We’d forgotten it was Sunday.

The nearby Lutheran Church

This is the Lutheran Church which was a few blocks away from the Christmas Market. It too had a service in progress. Had we been able to go in, it would’ve cost us each one Euro for the privilege. I guess that’s a better way to raise money than a fish fry.

It’s interesting that we’d been dropped off to wander the market and spend our Euros, but Lu and I had spent so much time at the Christmas Market in Munich that we were quickly bored and spent more time exploring the town around the market.

Lu on bridge

This is Lu standing on a bridge overlooking a stream that might have filled the moat – although our guide said the moat had always been dry. Makes one wonder why anyone would bother having a moat if it isn’t full of water. Note that had a moved my gloved finger a bit more to the right, I could have taken Lu out of that picture entirely.

Jim on bridge

Lu did a much better job of taking my picture.

Nuremberg Castle

High on a hill overlooking the town and Christmas Market stood the castle. I walked half-way up the hill with Lu and decided I’d eaten too much for breakfast to go any farther. (The snack of brat wursts I had at the Christmas Market had nothing to do with it.) Lu, being much younger than I, continued on.

More of the castle

The complex was extensive with all sorts of buildings, walls, and storage structures. At one point Lu aimed her camera back down the hill and tried to find me.

Looking down from the Royal position

I may be that person standing down there wondering what happened to my bride, or that might be a total stranger. In all honesty, I was off taking more important photos.

A relic from the past

With the advent of cell phones, this may become obsolete. Future travelers may not be able to view such relics.

All too soon our fun in Nuremberg had to end and we returned to the bus and the ship. We were scheduled to set sail just as lunch was being served.

We were hardly into the soup course when I realized we had come to a stop. I looked out the window and saw a wall. We were in a lock! And I wasn’t out on deck to witness this wonder of modern engineering. I had waited weeks to experience going through a lock for the first time, and there I was – stuck eating soup!

As I finished my soup and waited for the next course, I saw the wall going down. By the time I finished the main course, we were looking out over the wall and waiting for the gates to open. All too soon we were on our way again… and I had only seen the process from the limited view of the dining room. Poop!

After lunch, we went up to the lounge and found seats near the front of the vessel. I had no idea how long it would be before the next lock, but I wasn’t about to miss it.

By the way, the Hotel Manager was totally wrong in his prediction of our sailing. We simply pulled away from shore and headed in the direction I’d determined based on my research. I didn’t say, “I told you so”, but I didn’t bother asking him anything more about the navigation of the ship.

Approaching the second lock

It wasn’t long before my wait was over… or so I thought.

Getting closer - OH! The Excitement!

The lock was within reach, and we began to slow down. However, we also started to move to the left. I hoped the captain knew what he was doing, because the way he was going, he was going to ram the wall to the left of the gate. It was then I noticed the cargo vessel to our right.

A "parked" cargo vessel

But it was tied up and it seemed to be parked there permanently. Before long, we were tied up on the left side of the canal and we were informed that a ship was stuck in a lock a dam or two further on. Traffic was halted until they worked out the problem. They expected us to be stalled for at least two hours.

Finally moving again

Night had fallen by the time we got the go-ahead to move into the lock. I decided to go to our cabin and get my jacket. I planned to stand on the deck (in sub-freezing weather) to get some good pictures. While in the cabin, I turned on the television to see if the crew was sending us any messages on their on-board network. That’s when I discovered they had a camera mounted on the front of the ship and it did a much better job of recording our journey after dark.

The view from our cabin's TV

The picture on the TV in our cabin was much better than I could hope to take with my Kodak, but I had to get the first hand experience or being on deck.

View from my camera

I rest my case.

That night, the ship televised an old movie, “Judgment at Nuremberg”. Lu and I decided to watch a bit of it before falling to sleep.

Did I mention the ice in the canal? Well, after going up through a number of locks, we were quite a bit higher above sea level and the ice on the canal was very much thicker. Lu began fearing we might duplicate the fate of the Titanic. I kept reminding myself that the canal was no more than ten feet deep and, even if we did sink; we could go up to the lounge and be high and dry. We could then walk across the ice to solid ground.

In the meantime, we turned the volume on the TV as high as it would go and still couldn’t hear the dialogue over the sound of ice crushing against the hull of our ship. I likened it to being in a thunder storm with constant thunder.

We finally gave up and turned off the television. We soon fell asleep to the calming sound of ice being crushed and shoved aside by our relentless moving toward our first port of call. Morning would find us arriving at Regensberg. This time it would be a walking tour, but we were looking forward to walking off as many calories as we could prior to another round of delicious meals.