Sorry -- I had to do it...
No really, the end of term marked the start of our next big adventure: Deutschland. Of course we had some obstacles to overcome here in England before we could travel to mainland Europe:
We overnighted at the White Cliffs (not literally, it's too bloody cold and rainy for camping right now) before heading over to the mainland via a remarkable feat of engineering, the Chunnel...
Basically you drive your car up in to a big cargo train, put it in park, turn off the engines and go! 35 minutes later, you're in Calais, France! You can get out of the car, walk around, listen to music, or whatever.
I took pictures. Jesse panicked as he was the first to notice giant the "No Photography" sign posted on the walls of the train. Here he is frantically trying to get me back in the car before I get arrested (or worse, our camera gets confiscated!):
Of course what we didn't realize was the sign was for no FLASH photography, as it interferes with the fire detection system on the train. We both assumed that the no photos sign had something to do with security and terror threats. Oh god - can it really be that the Bush propaganda has seeped that deeply into our brains?! Good thing we're living in England!
After passing through France, Belgium and the Netherlands we finally arrived in Germany (about 3 hours later). Despite what you may have heard otherwise, we found the Germans to be very kind and generous:
No really, everyone was great in Germany, even with our crappy conversational skills and Kim's repeated confusion between the verbs haben (to have) and hassen (to hate) - more on that to come later... Anyway, we stayed in Nurnberg the first three days, in a great little hotel in the Old City:
And inside the wall -- all the beautiful, medieval things you'd expect to find in an ancient city:
We had dinner at a few fantastic little restaurants - gorging ourselves on bratwurst and kartoffelsalat. Of course, Kim did manage to get a strange look from a waiter or two when she confidently marched up to them and asked, "Hassen Sie ein tisch fur zwei?". She received similar looks when questioning the bartender with "Hassen Sie ein weis wein, Bitte?". She did manage to clear her head of the the verb "to hate", but only after slipping in to french when trying to order a German pretzel, S'il vous plait. Ahhh, the adventure of language. She did manage to get better after a few days, really. Anyway...
As you probably know, Germany is well know for it's Christmas celebrations. Nurnberg is home to the one of the largest, oldest and most famous Christkindlesmarkt (Christmas Market) in Germany, if not in the world.
We were too busy distracted by the shiny objects to take lots of pictures. Unfortunately the discovery of Kim's new favorite winter beverage, Gluhwein, didn't help much when it came to trying to take focused pictures of the scenery... Anyway, we'll try to get some of the pics of the Church and the "Beautiful Fountain" up on Flickr, but check out this link if you'd like to learn more about Christkindles Market.
We also managed to find a little time to venture outside of the old city whilst in Nurnberg. Home to the Nazi Party during the WWII, we visited a few of the most famous sites:
The Dokumentationszentrum (above) housed a fascinating exhibit on the rise and fall of the Nazi party.
The Congress Hall and Nazi Rally Grounds (below):
Hitler spoke here, overlooking the Zeppelin Field, as seen in the film Triumph of the Will (1935).
Graffiti on the entrance to the main platform:
Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the courtroom of the Nurnberg Trials, as we had to set off for Munchen (Munich). More of our adventures to come (and Kim's hatred of common household objects) to be released shortly in Vol. II!
