Holly's visit - Nuernberg and Sachsen -Schweiz (Bastei)

Dear All,

 Monday morning we drove to Nuernberg to visit the Nazi documentation center.  It is a museum about the rise and history of the Nazi party in Germany.  Hitler started the party shortly after the WW1, but it wasn't until after 1927 that it stated to gain momentum.  The first city that really embraced the Nazi party was Nuernberg hosting with first big party rally in 1929.  By early 1933 Hitler had positioned himself as the leader of the party, the commander and chief of the military and the Chancellor of the government.  From that point he had the power and he removed anybody who threatened his power.  This is all well documented in the museum  which records everything through the Nuernberg Trials.  The Museum is in Hitlers old Congress Hall, which is patterned after a Roman Colosseum, and is close to the Zeppelin Field where he held his mass Party rallies.  Holly as a high schooler played soccer on that field, and I've included a couple pictures of the field .  We spent the night in Nuernberg and of course we went to the?  Up you guessed it the Christmas Market, which claims to be the first and oldest continually running Christmas market in Germany.

This is the stand at the Zeppelin Field of them mass Party rallies.  Originally there were 3 Large banners behind a huge Swastika   When the US troops took Nuernberg the blasted off the Swastika.  This is where Holly played Soccer.

You can take the girl off the soccer field, but you can't take the soccer out of the girl

Nuernberg Christmas market before the crowds came.

The next day we left Nuernberg and drove to the city of  Dresden.  On the way we stop in what is called the Sachsen- Switzerland, which is a national park with the huge rock formations.  We went to the Part named Bastei which was at one time an old fortress in the middle ages.  It was a cool day to say the least.

This was the view as we walked into the park

This bridge built in 1857 replaced an old wooden bridge that had been destroyed.  It is the oldness still standing and functional bridge built just for tourist usage.  




This is the same bridge taken from the old fortress.  The fortress had a cistern so they always had a source of water, and could survive any short to medium siege. 

This is a view of the village down below.   In the lower left hand corner you can see the Elbe River, this river runs through both Dresden and Berlin

This is one of the many catwalks connecting the different areas of the fortress.  The fortress had several levels of rooms, and in its day it must have been pretty formidable.  (yes you are right it was cold).

Here you can see mother and Holly going done the icy steps to a lower level.  How they built this fortress originally is amazing to me.  This was another good day , from here we drove onto Dresden.