Transfer Continued...Nuremberg

- May 28, 2025

Today was a tough day. At least it was for me. My cold, or whatever this is, is brutal. I best describe it as congestion, a cough, and a headache that feels like your head is being squeezed in a vice. It appears that more than half the boat is suffering from this. As a result, our 4 hour bus ride from Passau to Nuremberg to get to our new boat, seemed a heck of a lot longer. Our new vessel, the Viking Ve, was ready when we arrived. They are accurate when they say the boats are identical. But I miss our lady who cleaned our room who called me Mr. Kevin and will certainly miss our bartender Christian and his sense of humor. Oh well, when I feel better, maybe the new one will be just as entertaining.

Our 2 tours were now at the same time so we chose to do the 'Surviving the War - Art in Nuremberg'. The dock in Nuremberg is outside of the city. Nuremberg was never a port city. In 1992, a canal was opened that linked it to Ravensburg in the south and to Bamberg in the north. So once again we were loaded on a bus and driven into the city. The trip in took longer because we were given a whirlwind tour of the city hitting the highlights of the tour we had had cancelled due to the conflict of our 2 tours. So 1 hour and 45 minutes later we arrived at our start point of our walking tour.

Nuremberg has been described as the most German of all German cities. More about that later. It has been an industrial powerhouse since the industrial revolution. I guess an explanation is necessary as to how this is relevant to today's tour. When Hitler annexed Austria and then invaded Poland starting WW2, the leading townspeople of Nuremberg decided that they had better protect/hide all their valuable art. It is like they had an inkling that this war might not end well for the city. Of course due to Nuremberg's industrial capabilities, it became a major player in the Germany's war production. It was especially known for its building of guns and tanks. So the city leaders stored art in the natural tunnels beneath the city. The biggest one had been used for the storage of beer for centuries. This was a top secret project. It also stored some of the Nazi stolen art. They put in a humidity and temperature controlled underground system here to preserve the art. Hollywood's movie, The Monument Men was loosely based on this storage of art in tunnels especially emphasizing the stolen art. It was a little weird to be able to tour these underground tunnels with all their infrastructure still in place.

Were the city leaders correct about what might happen to Nuremberg eventually. Yes they were. Nuremberg was the 2nd most bombed city in all of Germany. It was 90% destroyed. Most fascinating is how it was rebuilt trying to return it to how it was before the war. The American's and the British dropped 1000's and 1000's of bombs on the city in the Spring of 1945. Remember the statement earlier that the Nuremberg area was considered the most German of Germany. As a result Hitler had chosen Nuremberg to hold his biggest Nazi rallies. A 100,000 people would come to listen to his 'rants' (my interpretation of his speeches). You have to wonder if that was not in the backs of the minds of the powers that be of where to bomb. Let's decimate the city that 'The little Austrian' loved so much!

Nuremberg is actually a nice city. It is too bad that it is remembered more for it's Nazi past and the famous trials held here after the war.