Then and Now by Susan Steele

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There is so much to tell you about Merrell that I don't know where to begin.

I'll tell you about our trip and maybe that'll "lay it out" better for you.

This trip was timed to coincide with three friends that could put us

up.. NOW.. they are moving soon, so it was "do it before September 2000". It

was wonderful not having to pay for a SINGLE night's hotel room (not to

mention the $$$ it saved) so we jumped. One friend lives in Frankfurt

(investment banker) and has a condo in Munich for his family to use whenever

they wish to go to Munich (he lived there once for 13 years and loved it).

The condo was empty for five years, but on Sept 10 his 19-yr-old moved into

it for the next 4 years to attend the university there. Thus, I will not be

able to use it for four years! It was a perfect routine as no family was

around to have to spend time with, etc and we were entirely free. So we used

that condo from Set 2-Sept 9.

 

We flew in Friday, Aug. 31 and arrived early Sat Sept 1, rented a car and went

over to Gerd's condo in downtown Frankfurt. He is in a very upscale area

near the opera house, near the shopping, great location. We spent Saturday

night with him and went out to eat and saw a bit of Frankfurt. His area is the

banking district and very pricey homes, a beautiful park, at the opera house

platz there were bands playing, a very active area. We loved it.

 

Sunday morning to drove down to Munich to get into his condo, and took Gerd

with us. He showed us around, how to access the U-bahn (underground subway

..Nurnberg finally got a very nice one in '78 as I was leaving). He took an

"Ice Train" back, which are like the Bullet Trains in Japan...they go 170 mph

I heard. It took up 5 hours to drive down and he got back to Frankfurt on the

Ice Train in only 2 hours!

Our location in Munich was wonderful...right at an U-bahn station, which took

up downtown in only 11 minutes, 5 restaurants right in our block, and all the

little shops we needed.. even a Laundromat (although it did take me a while to

learn how to use their machines.) It was the perfect setting to stay in for 7

days, and the autobahn to Nurnberg was less than two miles away...

 

Monday we devoted to downtown Munich and re-visited some places we had seen

in the 70's...ate at a great restaurant in the basement of the old courthouse,

in general had a good time just hanging downtown It was obvious that Munich

no longer had a base as no Americans were around at all. We were

flabbergasted at how modern everything was, how the merchandise in the

stores is just like what we have in ours (do you remember how strange their

goods were back then? Now even the clothes are the same!) Also strange is

that the men there could pass for Americans anywhere. Back in '74, I could

tell in an instant if they were German (tight, TIGHT bellbottoms, tight

shirts that were really tight through the midriff, tight leather jackets, etc.)

Now they dress just like us...sometimes the shoes were a little funky...more

shiny, but in sneakers you couldn’t' tell... The girls I can still tell apart

a little easier as some of them still dye their hair too much (did you ever

see those red hair colors?? and lots of black too..) and wear the worst

looking shoes in the world.. we think the platforms are chunky here?? You

ain't seen nothin’.. over there they look like stilts! Ugly black stilts made

out of old tires! What really hits you upside the head is how much we truly

are becoming a "global community"....we all are becoming more and more alike.

They have really made up for lost time in the last 25 years, and they are

more updated in electronics, they have cable with 40 stations, they get CNN

in English...(did you ever get to see German TV when you were there?? It came

on at 4:00 and went off at 10:00...very primitive.. more like old-time

PBS..news programs and soccer...only sitcoms were really old American ones

(in '75 they were watching Starsky and Hutch, Kojak, and Bonanza. To a

certain extent they still import mostly US shows, as they are now getting

Alley McBeal this month.. at least they are not as old as they were back then!

Their graphics are very hi-tech.. not quite like our TV today.. maybe more like

ours in '90-'92. They are learning fast!

 

Tuesday was to be our first day in the Nurnberg area. We left Munich really,

really early and went north of Nurnberg, to Bamberg and just past Bamberg to

a little town 10 min. north of Bamberg called Staffelstein.

 

The region is FULL of wonderful china and crystal outlets where you save

as much as 85%..so we hit the china outlet. Staffelstein blew my mind..

becasue they are close to what used to be the wall, a huge superhighway

was built by them into what was East Germany...so Staffelstein has quadrupled

in size (at least). I had to wind around a bit as the roads had been altered a lot,

but we found the factory and loaded up.

 

We went back down south to Nurnberg and entered the city at around 3....the

exit off the northern autobahn (A3) that went by our old condo has really

grown.. it's out by the airport and, just like here, had a million new hotels,

etc. A new industrial park. Getting closer into town and near my old house I

noticed weeds growing up through the strassenbahn tracks, indicating they had

not been used for a while! We turned into our old home like it was yesterday

(we left 22 years ago next month!) We drove up and parked and it was like we

never left.

 

I have to revert to "74 for a minute. Jim was a Spec 4 when we arrived in

Nurnberg.. he was tops in his class (nuclear missile maintenance tech.. Lance

missiles) at Redstone Arsenal so he made his E-4 out of AIT.(Ain't the

volunteer army something?? LOL) When he went to housing we told them we

preferred to live on the economy, not on base. They sent us to some of the

most Godawful places you have ever seen, and I kept going back and saying,

"no way". Then I found out that as a teacher I got officer privileges, and

that changed everything. They put us in a penthouse (no joke.. on the very top

of the building) BUT it had no furniture. The landlord kept promising

furniture, but after sleeping on the floor for a month I had had enough and

went back to housing. In line (for hours) at housing we met a nice German

man standing behind us, and he told us he wanted a nice US couple for his

mother's condo. He asked us if we were interested, and we said "YES!" He took

us to see it, and it was stunning. He bought it for himself to retire in.. but

he had his mother-in-law living with him and couldn’t move in (it only had

one bedroom) until she was gone. It was deluxe all the way, elevator,

underground parking, a woman in the basement that washed and folded our

laundry, and a 20-ft long balcony off the living room. And the view...what a

view. The building was high on a hill, so on my right was downtown with the

castle, on the left I could see the Coliseum at Soldier's Field, etc.....and

great sunsets. Our landlord was a great person and we had a great relationship

with him over the four years....

 

We lost touch over the years and I didn't know if the landlord, Herr Nahm

was still alive. He drank a lot, smoked nasty cigars, and I was sure by

now (he'd be 82) he was gone. My former secretary even died a couple of years

ago, so I just didn't have much hope. His wife spoke no English, so I didn't

want to try to call from the states. So when we snuck up to the building the

other day, we didn't know if he was still around. But there, on the mailbox,

was his name!!! So we knew they HAD moved into the apartment. We looked

around, went around to the back yard and peeked up at "our" balcony, and saw

lights were on inside.

Frauenkirche at Hauptmarkt

 

Jim then declared that if he didn't get downtown and find a bratwurst he

would die, so we went down to the Hauptmarkt (main market) and found one of

those wonderful carts on the streets that grills those yummy little

bratwurst.. three on a hard roll is still only DM 3,- ...today that's only

$1.30. We wolfed down a few! I then went to the phone booth and tried to look

up his phone number.. and felt stupid when I looked it up and realized it was

my old number (I left the phone in for him!) I called ,and told Jim that if

he didn't answer I'd just hang up...but, much to my delight, he answered! His

voice hadn't changed at all!! I teased him a little, asking him if this was

the Heinz Nahm from Wodanstrasse (where he used to live), and he cautiously

said, "Ya...", and then I asked him if he was still handsome and was still

practicing his English, and then he really became interested.. answering that

no, he didn't speak English....and I told him that "you used to speak it with

me..."...I could tell he was really getting strange (probably trying to

remember if he had had an old girlfriend that he used to coo English to..

So I let him off the hook, and he immediately became so excited, I could hear

him screaming to his wife to come, it's the Steele's from America.....I told

him we were coming back to town in two days and could we take him out to eat,

but he insisted that, no, you come here to eat, so we got an appointment to

be there at 4:00 on Thursday. That made my day!!!! To know that I would walk

into my old house and sit on my old balcony again was too good to be true!

 

We then determined it was time to see Merrell...and I wanted to re-trace my

daily drive to work......and then my mind was totally blown away. It was the

same.. yet NOT. A lot of the older buildings have been rebuilt, more fancy

hotels, everything fancier, more high tech, you name it. The U-bahns are now

everywhere, along with the buses and streetcars. Turning the corner at

Munchener Strasse and facing Merrell...we were stunned. it had totally been

restored! It looked beautiful...no chunks missing at the front of the

gate...I was immediately aware that something had happened as it now has a

huge metal electric gate, there was no MP booth...but there was an

ultra-modern booth with black windows you go by (you can't see them, but

they can see you...) Jim commented that maybe after the Gulf War, when they

were beefing up security because of the bombs, etc, that they did

that....then I saw it.. the German eagle on the sign.. and I told Jim that

meant we didn't have it anymore. As it was 5 o'clock there was no one there

to talk to. It was very frustrating until a man finally came out of the

electronic doorway (what used to be the gate) and said that for 3 years it

has been an induction center for immigrants into Germany.. they live there for

a while their backgrounds are being checked out. You would not believe

the difference! They took off the top floor (remember the old top rooms? We

had University of MD classes in them at night, and sometimes those classes

when you first arrived in Germany to teach the GI's a little German? They

have added a new modern roof with windows, totally gutted the insides and now

it's all sleek and modern. The employee told us to come back the next day and

go to the booth.. he said they had made a book about the history of Merrell

Barracks and you can buy them at the booth. I decided I would do that for

sure. We walked around by the left, where the motorpool used to be, and

walked back until we were looking back straight towards the old PX... They

are tearing down everything to the left (where my hub worked, where you

worked, the NCO club, the library, the building the 84th Engr. was in,

etc.. everything on the south side.. they are only keeping the big

double-quadrangle building that faces the front of the base. Don't know why,

as Hitler built it all together in '37...but for whatever reason, the

wrecking ball is knocking down the rest as we speak. I was kinda glad I got

there when I did so I could say goodbye.

 

By now it's 7 o'clock and we went back to the car and drove down by Soldier's

Field, where they were having a beautiful fall Fest with the Ferris wheels et

al. It looked so strange not to see that steady flow of GI's walking down

that sidewalk! I felt like thousands of little ghosts were all around! I just

can't explain to you how strange it felt not to have ANY Americans around in

that city! They have developed the entire park so much you won't believe it!

A new arena that holds 68,000 for sports ad concerts, about 8 soccer fields

for the kids, they are turning the Colliseum (which the US Army had used for

storage) into a museum that will open later this year. And a passel of new

hotels and fancy resorts on the Munchener Strasses side (go down beside the

base for 1/2 mile.. past where we would walk in to the small lake).

 

By dark I had seen so much my head was swimming, and I wanted to chew on it a

while. We drove back to Munich (and I cried the whole way...don' ask

why...I'm not even sure I know!) It was still MY Nurnberg, yet not.. too much

had changed to suit me, I guess. :=)

 

I seem to remember two movies the most.. "Tommy" with Tina Turner covered in

snakes....and The Last Waltz, when The Band retired.

We went to tons of movies over there.. we used to run to the hospital, Furth,

or Merrell depending on who had what we wanted

 

Let's see.. yesterday I brought you up through Tuesday, our first day in

Nurnberg. Since we were only 1 hr 20 min away, it was easy to bip up and down

the autobahn to visit from Munich. Wednesday I awoke with a bad cold, chills,

etc, so we took two days and hung close to home.. ate at local restaurants,

drove around Munich and slept a lot to get rid of the darn virus. Thursday

afternoon I tried to drown my nose in beer at a beer garden and we ate a

fabulous traditional meal that night.. and it worked! I felt much better!

German beer works wonders! :=)

 

Friday morning we drove back up to Nurnberg and it was a very beautiful

day..78F, sunny, just perfect. We immediately went to Merrell and bought two

of the books about the history of the base. It is a soft-cover book with

great pictures from the war, the seventies, and today. It was built in 1937

by Hitler to train his SS troops, in fact the name of it was "SS Kaserne". My

landlord was in the SS, was inducted there and trained there before he was

sent out as a General's chauffeur in Paris in 1940! That is why in 1974 he was

so excited to have an American.. he had learned intensive English in the SS

training and wanted to see if he could remember any of it (at that time it

had been 35 years!) By the time we left Germany his English was really quite

good. When I had called on the phone and was teasing him about speaking

English, the reason he said he didn't speak English was that he had not

uttered another word of it since the day I got on the plane in '78! He knows

no one that he can practice with! And now, another 22 years later, his

English is indeed rusty.. I had to speak German the whole time we were

there...and believe me, it is really rusty now. Jim doesn't speak the

language, so it leaves me to have to do the talking, and when you leave

you're ringing-wet from the strain! Makes me want to take a class and get it

back! (I majored in Spanish in college, so languages come easy, but after 22

years it was a trial for me!)

 

Back to the book...it shows pictures form 1940, pictures of the SS marching

around, etc inside, pictures of our time,,, and the text is in German, so I

understand about 2/3 of it. This winter I will carefully translate it when I

get some good snow time inside.. Herre Nahm was in Paris as a driver for two

years, but then he was sent to the Russian front, and only two returned form

his battalion, so he has NOT got pleasant memories of the Russians. Plus, the

Russians reached Nurnberg before the Americans, and because there was a

Russian prisoner-of-war camp in Soldier Field (all the cabins that Hitler

built for the families to stay in during his huge party rallies were

converted for the prison.. way to the back of the complex). the Russians went

form factory to factory, lined up the employees and machine-gunned them down.

Herr Nahm's father was one of them...so he really hates Russia. That's why he

(and many others there ) were so happy we were there to guard the

border.. they feared Russia coming back!

 

 Next we determined to find if ANY of the bases remained around Nurnberg, the

most obvious being the BIG PX at Furth. We drove out to Furth by way of

Furtherstrasse, the main road past the Bahnhof that the trolley road along.

It was freaky! NO streetcars! Seems that right after we left, they dug up the

streetcar tracks and dug into the ground, putting a subway underneath.

Instead of re-building the streetcars on top (which would be redundant) they

made that 40-foot wide stretch on top and long running park with trees and

benches and fountains. It really has beautified the city. So now only about

1/2 of the streetcars still run, mostly close in to the city, and the U-bahns

are now faster and better for the suburbs.

We finally realized the degree of change when we rounded the corner at Furth

and there was no px, no commissary, the American housing is all now German

apartments, etc. I finally grasped that there was no more Nurnberg Military

Community!

Downtown within the wall is still almost the same, the only change being that

all the outside electricity lines have been installed underground, and the

street lights have been changed to old-timey looking gas fixtures to maintain

the medieval look. The Hauptmarkt and up at the castle are so much the same

you can close your eyes and you're back there. Biggest change is that about

20 square blocks are now for pedestrians only...really nicer to walk around.

They still sell the tasty bratwurst on street corners. The legal prostitute

section is still alive and thriving, although I'm sure they miss the US Army

mightily..

 

The Hauptbahnhof was rebuilt while I was there, for the entire 4 years it was

scaffolded as they were trenching in the new (at that time) Ubahn. I went to

the grand-re-opening right before I left and it had a gorgeous new dome on

top. This time, 22 years later, we go back and it is once again in

scaffolding to be renovated. Seems my schedule never works out with the

Hauptbahnhof! It still has the sex movies, etc inside... We thought we'd

travel back up via train before we left as we were interested in trying out

the new Ice Trains. A roundtrip ticket on the regular trains from Munich to

Nurnberg for BOTH of us is only $22! However, a roundtrip on the Ice Train is

only 45 min. faster and is $110. One thing is for sure.. you sure don't have

to rent a car in either Munich or Nurnberg.. just pack light and, if you don't

mind walking, you can get around on buses, trains, U-bahns. S-bahns (subways

that go farther out.. into the suburbs), and the good old streetcars. Next

trip I may not rent a car...

 

Probably the one thing I am happiest to report is that they do bathe more

often now. In the early 70's the odors would sometimes knock you down on the

streetcars, etc. They only bathed then on average once a week, and with the

hairy pits, etc, it could be quite rough. Back then you had water heaters in

the kitchen and bath that heated the water one gallon at a time...so hot

water was not flowing readily. Now they all have gas heaters that heat as the

water comes in, so you can really see a difference (also, I suspect it's that

"world community" thing also.. more exposure to western ways, etc. About 1/2

of the women now shave (in the 70's the "good" girls didn't shave. It was

considered "trampy"...now the younger ones are shaving like

Americans...wonder if TV has done that?) Hair in general was much cleaner

than before...we used to groan when we'd see them with greasy heads, but

overall they looked clean and I only smelled three nasty bods on the whole

trip! Wonders never cease! Jim did spot one good-looking gal with thick LONG

black hair under her stockings (he is so funny.. it makes him gag...I guess he

has a problem with hair??? LOL) One day the heat got really steamy while

sightseeing and a lot of the girls took off their shirts to tank-tops below,

and the hairy pits were around, but thankfully, no odors! It bothers Jim so

much we have to walk on and get out of eyesight! LOL

 

One more observation: Germany was always lovely with all the flowers and the

window boxes (I thought) were wonderful back then.. but now there are even

MORE of them! I think the Germans have stepped up tourism much more and are

much more aware of the Bavarian charm, etc. They positively OOZE with flowers

everywhere now! There are also more tourists in general.. We used to go up on

top of the Zugspitz (highest peak in the German Alps) by cable car and eat

lunch on top, and they'd be maybe 30-40 people. Now it's crammed on weekdays

off-season with 200-300 people...whether it's that prices are lower, or the

average person travels more.. I suspect the later as our generation travels

much more than our parents ever dreamed of travelling. Cost is better too- we

only paid $399 round trip each, so it's not a bad cost for a direct flight to

Frankfurt! But anyway, they seem aware of it, are making a lot of money through

tourism, have a lot more modern hotels, etc.

 

We headed over to my former home at 4:00 and joined Herr and Frau Nahm for

dinner.. and it was delightful! He is even more rotund and jolly than before,

and for an 82-year-old he looked wonderful! She looked older and frail, but

we found she had had a stroke three years ago. He was very excited about the

book I gave him about his SS Kaserne, especially when he saw the pictures

from "his time". He told me about the new museum opening this fall and seemed

very "up" on it all! He was always a fountain of information about the five

flooded floors underneath MerrelI, the underground highway, the underground

target range, atc..and yes, it was true about the "trophy rooms" in the

Colliseum. Somewhere I have a sketch of what it was to look like inside the

Colliseum had Hitler succeeded..

 

I stood on "my" balcony and faced Merrell in the sunset, with the Colliseum

before me and the whole city bathed in pink light, and it was fantastic! I

never thought I'd be able to see it one more time! Our view from that balcony

had always been so phenomenal...and I wanted to see if it really was as good

as I remembered, or had I romanticized it in my brain?? Nope.. it WAS that

good! Herr Nahm told me that he did not get to move to our condo until 1985

(7 years! his mother-in-law held on for quite a while!) but instead of

renting, he took his time fixing it up and used it for a weekend retreat. I

cannot explain how strange and yet how "normal" it was to sit in my former

living room! he gave us some beautiful proof coins of 3 new 1-mark coins that

are coming out...they are gorgeous and pure silver. he gave Jim a very

expensive box of cigars (we didn't have the heart to tell him that neither of

us smoke anymore..) They were both so cute and sweet.. I have missed them more

than I ever dreamed.

 

We left them around nine but I just wasn't ready to leave Nurnberg yet. We

drove around town and walked throughout the downtown for a couple of hours. I

could not believe how much it was just like 25 years ago! I realized then

that I should have returned much earlier and that this town will always be

very special in my heart. I don't really know why we haven't come back

before....well, yes I do. You get busy, we had a son, I took a corporate job

with a Japanese company that entailed a lot of travel to Japan and Hong Kong,

and other priorities seemed to always crop up. We took this trip for our 25th

anniversary (last Dec 21..this Dec it will be 26 years!) I am a bit mad that

I waited till I was 48 to get back here, but I think in my head I felt I knew

Nurnberg so well, and that it would always be there, so I waited. What I

forgot was how much enjoyment I would feel from seeing and feeling it again.

While I was initially very sad that the military part is gone, I think a lot

of what I loved was not that ..er...beautiful???... base, but my experience

in the country and in particular, in Nurnberg. It is every bit as beautiful

as I remembered!

 

I did go through the few pics I have from '75 (before I started taking slide

film) and it seems they are mostly of drunk GI's <g>. I would invite the 21

"little" guys (I was all of 22 and they were 18-19..so to me back then they

were "kids"...yeah, right!) and cook a turkey, a ham, and make about 6 dozen

homemade rolls, and they would eat and drink themselves into a stupor. Ah,

the good old days...one night when they were way past gone the unit called

and reeled off 16 names and asked me if they were there (they wanted them

back for an alert). I told them yes, but that they wouldn't want them in that

condition...from then on they would call and just note who I had there and

would leave them alone..

 

One of the few things that we did not get to do was to get one of the pizza

calzones.. we used to go to a place on Sulzbacher Str. that made them.. they

broke and egg in the inside and then closed it over.. next time I will go for

sure. We also wanted to go to the Heilegeistspital (not sure it's spelled

right.. it was a hospital during the plague.. over the Pegnitz downtown.. really

good restaurant. Nurnberg is know for a dish called Shaufele...slow-roasted

pig shoulder...cooked all day.. ymmmmm. We ate at the landlord's instead that

night. I've already decided to start saving to do this again within 24

months, so that'll be a priority next time. So much food, so little time....

 

Saturday, September 9 (Day 8 of the trip) was to be our last in Munich, as we

were to drive south by 75 miles and join the other couple we flew over with

for four days. Originally they wanted to all be together the entire trip and

one car, and I'm so glad we did not. I think by each doing "our own thing" in

the daytime and meeting at night you stay better friends! :+)

We took the U-bahn into downtown Munich for one last time for the morning and

did some shopping. Staying in Munich as long as we did taught me a few things

about it: 1) much as I love Nurnberg, has a lot more to do than Nurnberg (3x

the size), 2) the shopping is the best in Germany (other than Berlin...Munich

is the second largest city), and 3) I could live in Munich in a heartbeat.

The public transportation was so good, and I'm usually the type that would

much rather drive than walk, but I could be reformed in Munich! You're only

an hour away from the Alps, from Ludwig's castles, and there is much to do

there.

 

Around 3 PM we packed up and headed south to the Allgau, the Bavarian Alps.

This is the Wisconsin of Germany and the cheese and dairy section. Rolling

hills before you get to the Alps are full of those long-eared moo-cows with

bells around their necks. It's rural, gorgeous, and very much like it was

25-years ago. It is Bavaria at it's best with lots of small towns to explore.

Roger and Viv had traded their Fairfield Timeshare in Florida of one in the

Allgau for two weeks. We joined them there on the 9th and stayed until

Wednesday the 13th. Sunday we explored local villages and then ended up at a

beautiful alpine lake called Die Alpensee to meet them for dinner at a

Gasthaus right alongside the lake at sunset. The schnitzel was so huge it

covered the plate! You can see the Alps about 10 miles away and it's a lovely

setting.

View of Mt. Zugspitze from Oberau the end of the Autobahn "Garmisch-Partenkirchen"

The tri-angle moutain on the left side of the picture is "Mt. Alpspitze". Mt. Zugspitz is on the right end.

 

Monday we drove down to Austria (about 1 hour) to the Austrian side of the

Zugspitz (the highest peak of the German Alps...10,000 ft high) and took the

cable car up to the very top, where we met Vivian and Roger for lunch (they

came up from the German side at Garmisch) The Austrian side is nicer than the

German side (they connect with a tunnel) as it's newer and the cable cars are

really huge (with piped-in music!) The German side is nice, but it's about 40

years old. After a great lunch looked out toward Switzerland and Italy, we

headed down and drove into Garmisch for some shopping and desert at a lovely

cafe/konditerei. Garmisch, like all the towns, has pedestrianized the

downtown area so it's nice place to stroll. If you remember, there was a base

there and an Armed Forces retreat in the 70's. It's been turned into a George

C. Marshall School for diplomacy for NATO, so a lot of Americans are still

wandering around. We then drove up the Romantic Road for about 15 miles to

Oberammergau, the wood-carving capital of the world. This town has loads of

the wonderfully painted buildings and flower boxes all over, and we used to

go spend the night every now and then when we needed a getaway in the 70's.

The Altes Post Hotel that we used to visit is still doing a lot of business

and all looked the same, maybe better. Ten miles beyond we visited

Weiskirche, the best example of goopy Rococo decoration in catholic church

in Germany. Built in 1635, it is awesome. We sat in the church while the sun

set, and the color coming through the stained glass windows were beyond

description. As it was 7pm and we were getting hungry, we headed home and

passed King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle up on the hill (the one Walt

Disney copied for the Cinderella Castle). I pinched myself (again) to make

sure I was really there again!

King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle

Tuesday we drove down to the Bodensee (Lake Constance..2nd largest lake in

Europe and ringed by resort towns) We went to Ludwigshafen, home of the

Zeppelin. We ate lunch there on the harbor and then toured the Zeppelin

Museun in the afternoon. They have reconstructed a portion of the Hindenburg

so that you can see what the sleeping quarters, the bathrooms, and the lounge

looked like and have the exact same furnishings, etc. Lots of great

memorabilia of how they used them to drop bombs on London in WWI, etc. I

loved it.. Stayed 3 hours.

 

On Wednesday we stopped by a cheese factory as we bid farewell to the Allgau

(that "mountain cheese" is now in there bubbling away in the lasagna I made

tonight!) We drove across Germany (past Stuttgart, Kaiserslatern) to the

French border to visit Trier. Trier was the capital of the Western Holy Roman

Empire and was a very powerful city 2000 years ago. We stayed with Monika, a

friend who had her house up for sale, so although I really didn't want to drive

5 hours to visit, it was now or never as she'll be moving north soon. I

wanted to see the Porta Nigra, a huge gate that the Romans built before the

birth of Christ to defend the city. That gate was on the cover of my Latin IV

book and I always hoped to see it one day! it was awesome to walk through a gate

that you knew that Caesar and centurions had walked through! They had lots of

Roman remains, the Roman baths, a colliseum where gladiators fought, and a

lot of the original wall is still intact. We spend all day Thursday, Sept 14

visiting Trier, and Friday we drove back to Frankfurt to wind up the trip.

Friday night Gerd took us out to eat at a great Greek-German restaurant, and

we drank and ate entirely too much. Saturday the 16th we watched 3 movies on

the way home and trip was over far too quickly.

Porta Nigra, Trier

 

In retrospect I realize that this trip was a trip of "must-dos"...Nurnberg

was a must, but also I wanted to visit with some friends and see Trier while

possible. Next time, however, I intend to take a much more leisurely stay in

the Nurnberg area, renting bikes, spending afternoons walking the city and

sitting by the Deuzenteich like in days of yore. I regret that I did not

spend more time in Nurnberg itself , so my next trip will concentrate more on

'staying locally". I'll get the pizza clazone, I'll eat at the

Heilig-GeistSpital, I'll spend time just strolling the Altstadt. I'd love to

see the Nurnberg Zoo again. Jim and I traveled constantly during our

four-year stay, so I don't necessarily feel that I "need" to travel the

country. Other than a jaunt to Berlin next time, Nurnberg will definitely be

my home base. And don't forget that the Colliseum will have the new museum

open shortly so that will be fun too.

 

Thanks for bearing through all this,...it's nice to have it written down so I'll

have it logged. I fear I have that city permanently in my pores. I have had a

hard time getting back to "business as usual", so I guess I need to listen to

my heart and get back more often! It's much more modern, it has a much higher

standard of living, but at the core it's still a beautiful country with a

fascinating history (entwined with ours) and a fabulous cuisine.....and it was

a delightful four-year honeymoon for us. Those years changed us in ways we

will never be able to measure.

 

Jack Kennedy may have been a jelly donut ("Ich bin ein Berliner") but, I

guess ich bin eine Nurnbergerein!

 

Susan

 

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