Nürnberger Volksfest, Teil Eins

Author's Note: There will be a couple parts to this, because the use of images at this event, including the blending of various companies' IP was just amazing. I mean this in a good way. I was laughing at a lot of these things, things we'd never do in America now.

We got on the tram, the stop was directly in front of the apartment building. Convenient. We were still able to use our Bayern ticket-- basically a day ticket for all public transit in the entire state of Bavaria, good from 9 AM - 3AM on weekdays, all day on weekends. At the hauptbahnhof, we switched to another line, as per Volker's instructions. This tram was filled with middle and young high school aged kids, so we were obviously going in the right direction.

When we got off the tram, I had a bit of a shock. There it was, LOOMING in front of me. The Nazi Party rally grounds. Those of you familiar with history, or film history, will know this as an important setting in Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will". It's still there, having survived the war. There was a great deal of construction going on, and I'm not sure if the museum is opened, but we weren't planning on a visit on this trip.

So there it was. This looming structure, the first surviving obviously Nazi structure we've seen here. It's used for various things now. It's been built out again, and has exhibitions along with the Documentation Center museum, and the fair grounds. That's where we were headed, to the open space along the water.

So this Volksfest wasn't what I had expected. I thought it would be more of a traditional thing, or have those elements. This was a straight out carnival. Lots of rides. Lots of food choices, some quite interesting. Lots of families and young teens. Think of a really large church carnival, then add that LOOMING building behind it. The structure really put a damper on things for me.

We didn't go any rides, though I was tempted by the giant, enclosed Ferris wheel and the swings. Not to mention the "American" log flume and whatever ride had the Minions on it. Like I said, the abuse of intellectual property was fabulous.

It was loud, chaotic, and Herr Hai was getting a little antsy. Crowds sometimes aren't his thing, so we found a place to eat, and decided we'd do that, then beat it back to the apartment. We had a lot planned for the next few days, so we needed some rest.

For dinner: German fest food. Local beer, a really long wurst, and of course the traditional small Nürnberg wursts, the Drei im Weggla-- three in a roll. Also fries with mayonnaise, because that's what they do here. On our way out, we bought some Gebrante Mandeln, sugar roasted almonds. They had a lot of sugar roasted things at the stand, and maybe we should have gotten some more.

Pictures incoming, two post worth...Baca lagi