Nuremberg

Nuremberg was the location for the Nazi party rallies from 1934 to 1938.

Why Nuremberg?  

·       This was where the Emperor held his first diet (meeting of the nobles) after his coronation since 1356.

·       The Bavarian Nazi party had held rallies here since the 1920s and its leader stepped down in favor of Hitler.

·       This was where the German railroad had its start and had connections to the rest of Germany.

·       This region has historically been right wing (90% of the vote in last election).

Hitler at Zeppelin Field

Zeppelin Field and Congress Hall were part of the Nazi Party rally grounds, designed to dominate the attendees. Used just one week a year, the rallies would attract 500,000 participants. Each year, the rally would have a different theme and different ceremonies each day. The 1939 rally was called a Rally for Peace but was canceled when Poland was invaded and World War II began. Today, the colonnades have been removed, and the concrete is crumbling. The field is used for parking lot for the nearby soccer stadium.

Nuremberg Defendants

We then visited Court Room 600, home of the Nuremberg Trials, where the International Military Tribunal tried 22 individuals for their part in World War II. The US, France, England, and Russia each provided a judge and his alternate. Three out of four had to agree to convict. After 11 months, 11 were sentenced to death, 7 to life imprisonment, and 3 acquitted. Why Nuremberg for the trial? It had a large courthouse of 580 rooms that survived the war with a prison next door, and was in the American sector of Germany (there was concern that the Russians would just execute them without a fair trial.

Nuremberg Castle from Sinwell Tower

After a lunch of sausages in town, many of us climbed the hill to visit Nuremberg Castle, the location used for the Holy Roman Emperor’s first diet (meeting with other royalty and bishops) after their crowning since 1356. We toured the Double Chapel, the Imperial Hall and other rooms filled with imperial items and armor. Then we visited the Sinwell Tower and the deep well. The deep well was particularly interesting. It was protected in a locked room to prevent poisoning in one of the courtyards. The guide poured water into the well, it took 3-4 seconds to splash in the bottom of the well. 44 meters below us. He lowered 4 candles into the well which we saw below us. Afterward returned to the Market Square with the Church of Our Lady and the Beautiful Fountain.

Church of our Lady and Beautiful Fountain

Germany Politics: the Shift to the Right

This last election, the AFD, Alternative for Deutschland, was second in the voting. The party was formed in 2013. The traditional parties CDU and CSU formed a coalition to govern. The AFD is against the EU, immigration, non-Christians, and democracy. It is also pro-Russian with the goal of restoring the oil and gas imports from Russia. They attracted most of the East Germany vote as well as the rural and young voters. Their issues are immigration, the high energy prices, the increasing defense budget and Ukraine. 

Kelheim, Germany

 

Interior of Liberation Hall

We can see Liberation Hall from our dock. The athletes hiked up there to see the memorial to the defeat of Napoleon.  The drinkers toured the Kuchlbauer Brewery founded in 1300. There are 598 breweries in Bavaria. The current ownership is in their ninth generation. They specialize in wheat beers using a top fermentation process. We were able to enjoy their beer. But the brewery is not only known for its beer, but also for its artistic tower and buildings designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  

Hundertwasser Tower

That afternoon, we entered the Rhine-Mein-Danube canal. Most of the time, it was hard to tell we were in a canal. We celebrated going through the tallest lock (81 feet) of our voyage in the evening.

81 foot high lock

Rhine-Mein-Danube Canal

King Ludwig completed the first canal in 1846 with 102 locks, up to 50 feet wide and 5 feet deep, for vessels much smaller than today’s riverboats. Railroads were more competitive in 1835 when the canal were finished. It took 11 days to cross with horse versus 2 days using the modern canal. It was deserted in 1950 after the damage from World War II made it too expensive to repair compared to the boat traffic volume.

The current canal was completed in 1992. 105 miles long from Bamburg to Kelheim over the 1332-foot-high European continental divide (separating water that flows to the North Sea or the Black Sea). It took over 70 years of planning and 32 years of construction. The canal handles vessels that are 190 meters long and 11.45 meters wide.

Pedestrian bridge across the canal

Regensburg, Germany

 

The Old Stone Bridge

Regensburg, the Castle on the river, was founded in 179 AD. After the Roman Empire fell, a Bavarian tribe took over the city and it became the capital of Bavaria. The high point was between the 6^th and 12^th centuries when trade to the East and West along the river made this the largest city in the region. In 1135 they began construction of the Old Stone Bridge, which would become the only bridge across the Danube for almost 200 years. The legend has it that the builder of the bridge had a bet with the builder of the Cathedral for who would complete construction first. The bet included doing bodily harm to the loser. The Cathedral had God on his side, so the bridge builder made a pact with the devil that the devil could have the souls of the first three who crossed. The bridge was built in eleven years. The duke, bishop, and mayor wanted to be the first to cross. But the builder told them we should test the bridge by having two cats and a dog cross first, saving their souls. We saw the remnants of the Roman gate into the castle.

St. Peters under reconstruction

St. Peter’s Cathedral was started in 1275, but the steeples weren’t completed until 1872 (a clear loser in that bet). Unfortunately, they were completed in cheap concrete and are undergoing their second renovation.

Nearby was the golden tower, nine stories high, taller than any of the 20 other towers built by merchants.  The town hall has rods that are the official measurements for length in the region to keep the merchants honest. After our tour of the city, we stopped at a nearby tavern for a beer. 

Let's have a beer

That evening we were entertained by the Regensburg Girls Choir. Their singing sounded angelic and brought me to tears.

Passau, Germany

 

Passau Town Hall

Passau is built on a strategic confluence of three rivers: the Danube, Ils and Inn. As such it was a key port for the lucrative salt trade. We started at the city hall, which typically was built by the trade guilds and has a clock tower to counter the power of the Church with its steeple. We could see the flood levels marked on the hall. We walked the streets until we reached St. Stevens Cathedral with its 17,000-pipe organ. Unfortunately, that organ is under refurbishment, but we still enjoyed the organ concert.

St. Stephens

In the afternoon, we hiked up to the Veste Oberhaus fortress to get a great view of the rivers and the city of Passau. The fortress built in 1219 had a major renovation in year 1499 (at the time a 4 was written as the lower half of an 8).

That evening we celebrated the twin's birthdays.

Bob and Richard 

Wachau Valley and Melk

 

Dornstein Castle

In the morning, we sailed through the Wachau Valley of the Danube. This valley has been a wine region for 1200 years. Our first castle was Dornstein Castle where Richard the Lion hearted was imprisoned during the third crusade. We cruised by several towns, churches, and castles for the next hour.

Vineyards above the town of Spitz

Melk Abbey has been here for 935 years as a Benedictine order. The Benedictine Rule was to pray, work, and study. It was a favorite retreat of Empress Maria Theresa who visited three times.  Today it houses a school for 10- to 18-year-olds. It also has 60 guest rooms. The museum tells the story of the abbey with artifacts over the centuries. The main hall looks like it is made with stone columns, but they are just stucco. The ceiling which is flat appears to the eye as a vaulted ceiling. 

Ann and Char at Melk Abbey

The library is the most impressive room with over 9000 books written in Greek, Latin, and Aramaic. The church was very impressive. We continued into the gardens and then walked into town.

The Library

Vienna Day 2

 

Hapsburg Palace

We started our day with a bus ride tour of the ring road around the old walls of the city. The road is constructed where the city walls used to be. Many of the government buildings and museums are visible along the road as well as numerous parks. Our walking tour began at the Statue of Maria Theresa, who reigned the Hapsburg empire from 1746 to 1780. She had 16 children, 10 reached adulthood, and were married to other nobility.  We entered the Hapsburg Palace  through the gate remaining from the old city walls. The palace was built from the 15^th to the 19^th century and has over 2600 rooms.  We walked to St Steven’s Cathedral built in Romanesque and Gothic Style. It was destroyed in WW II but rebuilt in 7 years.

St. Stephens

In the afternoon, most of our group went to Schoenbrun Palace, the summer home of the Habsburgs. 

Schoenbrun Palace

I visited the House of Music, which is the museum of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. It featured rooms for each of the major Viennese composers: Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Mahler. The highlight was the piano keyboard staircase, which played music on each step.

Before dinner, we heard a lecture about Austria, Past and Present. The lecturer made it interesting as he had various audience members play the various emperors, empresses or composers. The Danube was the border between the Roman Empire and the barbarians. An important Roman fort was in Vienna right where St. Steven’s Cathedral now stands. Austria was ruled by the Hapsburgs from 1273 until 1918. The Hapsburg Empire included much of Germany, Hungary Spain, the Netherlands, parts of Italy, the Spanish colonies of the New World. The Habsburgs would marry the royalty of other countries and take over when those dynasties died out. Austria also was influential in classical music. For example, Mahler created the rules for Opera. After WW II, Austria was split up similarly to Germany between the US, USSR, UK, and France. In 1955, it became a neutral state, neither in NATO nor the Warsaw Pact.

Vienna Day 1

 

We flew from Denver to Vienna through Dulles without incident arriving at 8 AM. We were shocked to be able to go immediately to our cabin when we arrived at the River Aria. 

The River Aria

After lunch, I went to the Sisi Museum in the Imperial Palace. Sisi, Elizabeth was the wife of the Emperor, Franz Joseph. They were wed on April 24, 1854 and she became Empress Sisi. She was considered very beautiful with her hair tresses down to her ankles and her hour glass figure. A bit of a rebel, she had tattoos and would strap herself to the mast of a ship for thrills in a storm. She found Hapsburg court life quite suffocating. After the death of her son, Rudolf in a murder/suicide she withdrew from court duties and began traveling widely. While visiting Geneva in 1898 she was stabbed in the heart and died. 

Portrait of Sisi in Franz Joseph's Study

I managed to catch the end of an organ concert at St. Peter’s on the return to the ship. St. Peter’s is a domed Baroque church built in 1733 with the Coronation of Mary in the dome. 

All 11 members of our family were on the ship by dinner time.

John, Mary, Richard, Char, and Jane

Ann, Carol, Cindy, Bob, Steve, and Carolyn

The Octagon House

 

Octagon House

We had our last tourist stop of this trip at the Octagon House in Watertown, WI. I hadn’t been to Watertown since my senior year of high school. At that time, I took first place in the state for my knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.

The Central Staircase

The Octagon House was built in 1854 by John Richards. It has early forms of central heating, running water and ventilation. There is a cistern on the roof of the 5-story house and piping for running water, assuming it rains. The house is fitted with French doors, air vents, and a top hatch for ventilation. Each room as a stove in it with piping to the four chimneys on the roof. The Watertown Historical Society maintains the home with furniture from various times; sixty percent is originals from the family. In the yard is the first kindergarten established in America. 

The Cliff at High Cliff State Park

We continued to High Cliff State Park and had dinner with my brother, Bob, and his wife, Cindy, at the Out of Town Supper Club. We go here every time we’re in the Appleton, Wisconsin area. The most reasonable prices for drinks ($3.75 for an Old fashioned) and delicious steaks and seafood (I had the halibut).

The remainder of our trip was spent visiting relatives in Wisconsin and our daughter's family in Minnesota. We celebrated Claire's fifth birthday and noticed how tall Mallory had become at age seven. In Minnesota, we camped at Lake Elmo Reserve and made use of their beach area. 

Claire, Greg, and Mallory at Lake Elmo

New Salem State Park

New Salem Historical Park

 

Time to head to Wisconsin. We headed up Interstate 55 through central Illinois. There are a lot of sites in Illinois to learn about Abraham Lincoln including the Lincoln Presidential Library and the site of his home in Springfield. We’ve visited both, this time we went to the New Salem State Historical Park. Lincoln spent 6 years of his life in his mid-twenties in this village. 

Lincoln, the surveyor

He was a shopkeeper, surveyor, and postmaster here. He also spent a lot of time reading, eventually becoming a lawyer. He left the town to become a state legislator, the start of his political career. The park movie explained this as well as the fact that the village died soon after he left. The. Site has about 15 or so buildings, mostly recreations that represent this historical village. Unfortunately, there were no folks who replayed the characters of the town today, so the village wasn’t very exciting. The highlight of the place was the 15-minute video. We camped that night at Starved Rock State Park.

The Coopers shop

St Louis - Chahokia Mounds and Missouri History Museum

 

Monk's Mound

I had planned on going to Chahokia Mounds, the largest prehistoric Indian site north of Mexico. Unfortunately, the museum was under renovation, but we still headed out to the site since the rain of the morning had paused. This land was settled in 700 AD and became a highly structured community in about 1000 AD. This was a rich land for crops and wild game. Cahokia became a regional center from 1050 to 1200 AD with a population of 10,000 to 20,000 people. Cahokia was organized around Monks Mound, a 40 acre Grand Plaza and many smaller plazas. The mounds were made from earth dug up from ‘borrow pits’ with stone tools and then transported to create the mounds in baskets on people’s backs. Monks mound rose over 100 feet and covers over 14 acres. A massive building once stood on the top.

What Chahokia might have looked like

We then went on to visit the Missouri History Museum. This was a disappointment after the great museums we visited in the last two weeks. It seemed more like a promotion for the Missouri Historical Organization than anything. The museum is in the park that had the 1904 World’s Fair but was built later. The best of the permanent collection was the exhibit about the fair. 

Model of 1904 World Fair Grounds

But most interesting was a collection about the LGBTQ+ community and their struggles over the years in this community. It really did a great job of explaining that there are lots of variation in sexual nature. We really appreciated the video testimony of a man who became a woman after discovering that they had XXY chromosomes and was going through menopause.

LGBTQ+ Exhibit

Car Troubles

 

We left Montgomery, AL headed for Natchez Mississippi on June 1^st, but just west of Demopolis, AL we had a indicator light indicate that our car was overheating. We crept into Demopolis, bought some antifreeze and continued. But the temperature light kept going up and down from normal to overheated. So, we turned around to head back to Demopolis, but the car decided to stop running. Time to call AAA for a tow. We had lunch at about 1:00 in the trailer while waiting for the tow truck. It arrived about 3:00 and carried the car while towing the trailer on the back.

Our Car on the AAA tow truck

We dropped off the trailer in Cuba, AL on their lot and proceeded to Meridian, MS arriving at the Firestone car repair shop just before 5 PM. It was open and they took the keys and some basic information. We took an Uber to the Holiday Inn about 5 miles away. Calling in Monday morning, the manager said he probably couldn’t get to it today but would try on Tuesday. I called Tuesday afternoon, and there had been a communication issue, they hadn’t looked at it yet, but they would take a look now. Of course, we were imagining all the things that could have been wrong. Worse case had we fried the engine? What would we do? We had a trailer here, you couldn’t rent a car to tow a trailer that big. We decided we would repair the car up to an engine replacement, so we could keep camping for a few more years. About 5:30 we got a call from Firestone, the car had a leaky water pump, needed a new water pump, thermostat, and a radiator flush. The thermostat would be delivered the next morning; the car should be done that afternoon. Next day, we got a call about noon that the car was done at a cost of $1288. Another Uber ride to pick up the car and then we picked up the trailer, 18 miles down the road. We decided to do laundry at the hotel and then pick up our itinerary in St. Louis. This Natchez Trail camping trip would never spend any time on the Natchez Trail.

Our trail parked at the tow truck parking lot

We got up at 6AM this morning to get an early start to our long day of driving. We got out to the trailer and were boxed in by a vehicle and trailer in front, so while we could attach the trailer we couldn’t pull forward. And behind us was a fire truck, taking care of a diesel spill. We had decided to have cereal in the trailer for breakfast. While we were eating the fire trucks left and the owner of the car and truck in front showed up. Meanwhile the Enterprise truck next to us moved, so that we finally had a clear turn around to get out of the lot. We took most of the day to get to St. Louis, arriving just before 5 PM.

 

Gunter Hill Campground

We travelled to Montgomery Alabama, camping at Gunter Hill Campground. The Legacy Museum is built on the site of a former slave warehouse. It tells the story of blacks from enslavement to mass incarceration. It is quite an emotional experience as numerous stories are told via film, holograms, and placards.

Legacy Museum

Interesting findings:

·       In 1730 half the population of New York city had slaves.

·       Savannah, Georgia was the arrival port to half the transatlantic slave traffic.

·       Two million people died crossing the Atlantic to become slaves.

·       Congress abolished the Atlantic slave trade in 1808.

·       The domestic slave trade separated nearly half of all black families.

·       The Reconstruction period after the civil war offered a brief hope of equality for blacks.

·       Over eighty percent of black males registered to vote during reconstruction in Alabama.

·       But a series of supreme court decisions allowed state laws to ensure racial superiority for whites. 

·       Blacks could be arrested for vagrancy if they weren’t employed.

·       By 1898, 73 percent of Alabama’s state revenue came from convict leasing.

·       From 1877 to 1950 over 4400 lynchings of African Americans have been documented.

·       We read a newspaper headline about out a lynching to be held the next day. Ten thousand whites showed up to hang the man and shoot him with bullets until it ended when a bullet hit the rope.

·       In the 1960s through the nineties the Drug War and “tough on crime” bills built many new prisons that were filled by predominately black inmates.

·       The projection for the 21^st century is that 1/3 of black baby boys will go to jail or prison.

Of course, the story of Segregation was also told. It was here that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man and was arrested. The Montgomery bus boycott led by the young new pastor, Dr. Martin Luther Jr, lasted for 11 months, one of the early civil rights protests. A sampling of the videos is available on youtube. 

Suspended tombstones - one for each county

We then went to the Peace and Justice Memorial with its suspended tombstones, one for every county where there is a documented lynching.

Each lynching

We finished our day with some Alabama barbecue at Dreamland BBQ to have some ribs. 

World War II Museum, New Orleans

 

We had an interesting trip to the World War II Museum, we had thunder and heavy rain, the streets started to flood and twice a passing truck doused our car with enough water that we were temporarily blinded. We spent over five hours at the museum seeing five main exhibits. 

Cook books and ration books

The first exhibit was about how civilian life changed prior to and during the war. We went from most people taking an isolationist stance with a slow move to supporting Great Britain against the Germans and Japanese. When Pearl Harbor attacked there was a quick change of heart and quick enlistment into the services. Soon industries changed their purposes to make tanks, ships, planes, and munitions. Goods were rationed, and people had new cookbooks based on what wasn’t rationed. 

Ships and Planes on D-Day

The second exhibit focused on D Day, the largest invasion in history. 11,000 aircraft, 6000 naval vessels and 2 million soldiers, sailors and airmen from 15 countries.  We went on to the 4D presentation beyond all boundaries which presented numerous stories about the war. 

Hopping island to island

The exhibit Road to Tokyo made us realize how close we were to losing the war with Japan. A few courageous actions and luck ended the domination of the Japanese Navy and allowed us to hop from island to island to allow our planes to attack Japan. Still based on the “die for the emperor rather than surrender” on Okinawa and the emperors refusal to surrender despite the death tolls in Japanese cities, made the choice of the A-bomb a logical choice for Truman. Finally, we went to the Road to Berlin. The many videos available in each of these exhibits made the day more interesting than reading a lot of placards.

Bombing Japan

New Orleans

 

We’re expecting rain this afternoon, so we parked near the National Jazz Museum and walked through the French Market to Jackson Square. The French Market was founded in 1791 along the banks of the Mississippi. At 10:30 AM the market was just opening since their lifeblood today is tourists. Lots of drinks, food, and souvenirs. We looked over Jackson Square with its statue of Andrew Jackson who defeated the British here, not knowing that the War of 1812 was already over. 

Jackson Square

The St Louis Cathedral is the backdrop to the square. It is the oldest cathedral in the US. 

St. Louis Cathedral

We stopped at the Café du Monde for the obligatory beignets and café au lait. (I had to sneeze when I breathed in the powdered sugar accidentally.) 

Beignets and Cafe au Lait

We headed back to the Jazz Museum. It had lots of artifacts from famous blues and jazz musicians, but we were disappointed that it didn’t have more recordings. We did enjoy those they had. We learned about the invention of the bass drum pedal in 1907, allowing for the creation of drum sets where one drummer could set the beat for all the musicians. The highlight of the museum was hearing other visitors making rhythm on a Congo drum.  We also learned about Louie Armstrong playing trumpet when he attended the school for Waifs. We left about 2:00 just as the rain began.

Wetlands Acadian Culture Center

 

Flat bottom boats designed for the wetland

Our timing problem came again today. We were supposed to visit the Oaklawn Manor, but it was temporarily closed (but it looks permanent). We went on to the Wetlands Acadian Culture Center. Run by the National Park Service, it just had a small museum and several interesting videos. I had hoped to do a boat tour of the wetlands, but none were scheduled for today. The video we watched focused on the Cajun culture through modern times, especially the music and the unique Cajon words, most borrowed from French.

We’re camping at St Bernards State Park, about 12 miles southeast of New Orleans. We passed ports and refineries to reach a forested countryside with signs: “Do not feed the alligators".  The campground is beautiful with great campsites – what a find!

Do not feed the Alligators!