The Zeppelin Field

my last day in Nürnberg

03/03/2011

I woke up early and was able to go to breakfast with Jeff. I must say.....this zimmer goes WAY out of their way to accommodate you. It's been fantastic. Hotel Probst is just wonderful. It's owned by a family and all of the them are very nice and just hospitable. At breakfast we sat with a German woman who was born near Cologne. Very nice lady.

Jeff left early and I stuck around for some more of that bologna. I swear, bologna for breakfast works!!! I love it! Anyway, I headed out the door and had to do some errands. Went to the underground to by my day pass, went to the DBhan station to buy Jeff and my bus ticket for Prague, and I had to pick-up my laundry at the cleaners. Which is another great story I'll share for another time. Remind me. I dropped off my laundry to the hotel and then caught the train to the Nurnberg Documentation Center. The self-guided tour was okay. The center gives a history of Adolf Hitler, Nurmberg, and the surrounding buildings from beginning to end. How Adolf Hitler come to power is such an fascinating sequence of events and pretty scary. Like I said, the tour was okay. It wasn't too interactive...you just walk around and read the posters and listen to the audio guide. Also, it was pretty depressing. Just sad history. At the end our the tour I decided that I wanted to walk over to the Zeppelin Field.
Documentation Center

Documentation Center

When I arrived at the Zeppelin Field I was taken back by it's size. It's HUGE! To think that you are walking in the same place where decades earlier was swarmed with Nazis. It's a crazy feeling! I felt like a character in the TV movie "The Winds of War" but deep down I feel like Val Kilmer from the movie Top Secret. Classics! So, I walked around the Zeppelin Field and up the steps of the concrete stands were soldiers once sat. I walked to the top at the main platform where Hitler once stood. It's pretty chilling as you lookout at the gigantic field thinking, "One man influenced this entire field full of people". It's crazy! For a moment the thought of, "What would I do if it were me standing here in front of these people?" You'd like to think that you would make the right choices and promote peace. But more so, I thought about how one person could influence so many people. Makes a guy wonder what we would be like if he had a different set of values and a positive message. The common thought of "I am only one person, what could I possibly do in the grand scheme of things?" is a harsh reality. You really have to admire those who risk their lives for positive and moral causes. I've always been a fan of JFK and if you go back and listen to some audio clips of his speeches you'll being to realize that he was a man before his time. There is more to say about my thoughts while walking through the Zeppelin Field, but I'll leave it there for now.

The Zeppelin Field

I walked away from the Zeppelin Field and toward the convention center (which wasn't far away) to meet Jeff for lunch. I decided to walk though this forrest-looking area which (if it went all the way through) would be a short-cut. Thankfully, it did! Walking though the forrest brought back thoughts of the old World War II movies like the Winds of War. It honestly held the appearance like the Inglorious Bastards movie. A great flick! It was peaceful, yet spooky.

Spooky Trail

The series of trails led to the back of the convention center where the parking structures were. I jumped on a free bus and took it around to the front. I met Jeff and we walked over to another part of the center where a different group was holding a consumer show geared around sports, leisure, travel, and gardening. Let me tell you, the Germans know how to put on expos. Most every room in the expo had a Beer Garden where you could get beer and German food. They'd be in the middle of the expo with all of the booths around them. This particular expo had about 6 halls full of booths: Sports, Gardening, Camping, RVs, Cars, and a leisure-type one. In the sporting room there was a group that was showing off their scuba equipment so they had a tank full of water with scuba divers in it. Pretty cool! There were also many wine bars, cooking demonstrations, and just a bunch of cool stuff. Jeff took off to man his booth at the tech expo and I walked around the booths for quite a while.

The Tank

One of the Gardens

Once I'd pretty much covered everything and I was getting tired I went on over to one of the restaurants in one of the halls. It was called, "The Red Grizzly Saloon" and it was a Western-themed place. I needed a little Americana so I hiked up my belt and moseyed on in. You know, I've never mosied before. I've walked, I've ambled...I even sashayed once. Well, this place was more of an Ookie bar than a O'okie bar. Yep, thanks for reading. It was decked out in Western everything! Even the staff was dress for the occasion. They had a group on stage playing "both kinds" of music: Country and Western. Plus, a little bluegrass in the mix. It was great! I was in there for close to an hour just resting, drinking beer, and enjoying the music.

The Red Grizzly Saloon

Later, I met back up with Jeff and I helped him brake down his booth. We took the train back to the zimmer and rested before dinner. Now, Jeff had been debating something since In arrived in Nurnberg. Well, he'd been debating it for a LONG time, but he was about at his breaking point. I finally told Jeff to stop making such a big deal over it and just do it! The night before I even offered to do it with him if he would just stop worrying about it so much. Well, back at the zimmer he takes a shower to "wash off the trade-show" and then I hear, "I'm doing it Matt". I'm sure you could only imagine where this is leading. Well, after a while he says, "I might need your help in a moment". I walk in the bathroom and there is Jeff with his head mostly shaved. Just a few spots he couldn't reach on the back. So, here I am in a zimmer bathroom in Nurnberg shaving my brother's head. You know, 10-years ago I never thought I'd be here. It looked good!

After, we walked around Nurnberg a little more. Jeff showed me the castle which offered a really nice night view of the city center. As it got cold we decided to head to dinner. We walked back over to the place that was busy a couple nights ago and we were able to snag a table. Jeff recommended a pork tenderloin dish that was fantastic! We ate our pork and drank our German beer (or bier). Ah, so good! After, we found a dessert place on the way back to the zimmer. Tomorrow we will have to get an early start if we want to get to Prague at a reasonable hour.