Okay, picking up where I leapt off the computer to go and explore the Nazi architecture of historic Nürnberg...
Back in Traubing, Münich and surrounds we visted the many castles and palaces of Ludwig II of Bavaria. He was a crazy man but in the good way. Neuschwanstein was my favourite - the new swan palace is the castle upon which the Disney castle is based. It is up in the Swiss Alps and on the day we visited it was covered in 40cm of fresh snow. The fist snow I have seen! The turrets, towers (is there a difference) and general castle-ness make it surreal from the outside but inside it was pretty unbelievable. The rooms were filled with thousands upon thousands of candles in elaborate chandeliers, the ceilings were either plated in gold and stones or decorated with incredibly detailed paintings of scenes from fairytails or Wagner"s operas. All this seemed reasonable, if extravagant but in the middle of this decoration there is a cave room complete with stringgy vines and dripping walls, there is a full size concert hall and a bat cave. They called him Ludwig the Mad.
Day trip to Austria to visit Salzburg was a highlight - only two hours on the train and we were in another country! We saw the incredibly symmetric Austrian gardens of the Schloss which was bizarre as the frost had frozen the bright petals on the flowers so hard they could snap. Explored the katakomben which was actually carved into the cliff face so we were actually inside the mountain! Also cruised through Festung Hohensalzburg which was used to keep all the residents of Saltzburg safe during seiges in the middle ages.
The trip we made to Dachau was pretty heavy. It is so important that the memorial is open and atrocities never forgotten but it sure wasn" my favourite trip. I was colder at Dachau than I have been the whole trip and cannot imagine how the men survived in their thin uniforms.
Spent a couple of days in Nürnberg visiting Heidi so we saw the schloss and did a walk through the old town. In the evening we went to the Nürnberg Christkindlemarkt - the biggest in the world! It was absolutely magical with fairy lights, traditional songs, beautiful old-fashioned rides, the smell of German cooking and a very light sprinkling of rain.
We did a trip to the old Nazi rally grounds and saw what was left of large-scale Nazi architecture in Nürnberg and saw what Hitler"s plans for the area had been. Very neat, linear, symmetrical and cold.
In the afternoon it was on to our next country - Switzerland where we were to stay in Zürich. Being the students that we are we wanted to get there the cheapest possible way. Not the easiest or logical way. Eight hours. Seven trains. Three sprinting connections less than 4 minutes. Arrived just before midnight in Zürich having caught the right train at each stop. AWWW yeah!!!
We2ve been in Zèrich for several days and it is my favourite city so far but internet time is up for tonight so more on that later xxoo
