Today we docked at Nuremburg during breakfast after coming through 12 locks from Regensburg. The locks took us over the highest pass (for lack of a better word) on a navigable river in the world. The Danube is connected to the Mien River by way of canal connecting the North Sea with the Black Sea.
Our tour of Nuremburg was very interesting combing information on the Nazi reign of the 20th century with the medieval city of the 15th century. Much of the city was destroyed by Allied bombing toward the end of WWII. And the trial of the top Nazis took place in Nuremburg shortly after the end of the war.
We started the tour with a stop at the Nazi parade grounds - the famous pictures of Hitler at the huge rally were taken here. Then we drove by the building in which the trial took place and the prison where the Nazis were kept until execution. The guide told us that the Germans destroyed the cell block and the execution block and scattered the executed's ashes in the Danube so that there would be no place for people to honor as a shrine to the Nazi ideas.
Then we drove up to the castle which was the seat of power in the 1400s. It was an impressive castle. The methods of defense were amazing. It was on top of a hill. It had a dry moat all the way around it. The heavy doors were at the top of a steep slope. All this made it very hard to attack. And it looked down on what had been then a walled medieval city. All in all a neat place.
Tomorrow we get off the boat and head out on our own. Our first trainride into Munich.
Here are some pictures.
The Nazi Parade ground reviewing stands - used to be a huge swastika on top of the center building that the US army removed on Hitler's birthday in 1946.
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