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Published: September 19th 2016
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Berlin Wall
Largest remaining intact section the the wall with some new graffiti This morning was our last morning in Berlin before heading to Nuremberg and we made the not-so-great decision to drive there… more on that later. Before leaving for Nuremberg, we did manage to squeeze in more sight – the Berlin War Memorial. This was one thing that wasn’t available via tour bus yesterday, but I really wanted to do something Berlin Wall related. There are several different exhibits or sights throughout the city that talk about the Berlin Wall or have fragments of the wall, but the area with the largest amount of wall left was at the Berlin Wall Memorial and we opted for that. We got up early and took a cab to the location of the Memorial which covers a few city blocks and also includes an inside museum with more information about the Wall and the Cold War. We thought it was really well done. One block had many pieces of the wall still up and intact in the exact location of where it once was. In the places that were open between the wall were pieces of rebar marking where the other pieces would have been. The real wall pieces were enforced with this rebar to
Berlin Wall
These were remnants of the wall placed to mark where the cemetery had been that was split in half. make it really sturdy. You are able to really get an idea of what it must have been like to live with the Wall. Neighborhoods were literally divided overnight and we even divided a cemetery in half when they erected the wall. Inside we were able to read about people who tried to escape, the consequences of the wall, the effects it had on Berlin – it was really interesting. I have never really had a reason to really sit down and think about the Berlin Wall and the effects it had on the world and so I’m really glad we decided to squeeze that in this morning. Definitely worth seeing.
After seeing the Berlin Wall Memorial, we hopped in the car with high hopes about making it to Nuremberg in a timely fashion. HA! It didn’t start off so bad at first – we got on the famous Autobahn and were truly impressed/scared by the speed some of the cars go! Parts of the Autobahn have speed limits, but then all the sudden, they don’t. It’s like a “We trust you won’t be stupid – do your best to be safe!” and then off you go. We stayed
Autobahn
Check out that wind energy! safely put in the right lane for most of the time as we watched car after car WHIZ by at speeds of 100-120 mph right on by us. We also thought it was SUPER COOL how many wind turbines we saw along the way – talk about wind energy! We must have passed hundreds! The first hour or so was great and we were enjoying the drive and then traffic hit. And then the rain hit. And then we passed accidents, which lead to more traffic and we had more rain which probably caused accidents which probably caused more traffic. It was truly terrible. A 3.5-hour drive turned into a 5.5-hour drive. Ugh. There was a lot of “We should have just taken the train” talk in the car and we truly should have – however, I had a very solid reason to take a car and that’s what I kept telling myself.
The plan the whole time – and why we rented a car initially – was to stop at a tiny little town 15 miles or so outside of Nuremberg called Grafenberg. Grafenberg was the town that my Grandma’s family lived before coming over to the United
Grafenberg
Small town where my Grandmother's family lived States. Her grandfather and her great-grandfather owned a brewery in town and my Grandma went back to Grafenberg many years ago, herself, to see the town – we have pictures of her there and I wrote a 10
th grade “Immigration Report” about the Schmidt family (our family) and Grafenberg. Since we were going to be so close, I knew we had to see it. The car seemed like the best way to get there (until of course, we saw a train station right in the middle of town – yeah, that was killer).
Anyway, we did end up making it to little Grafenberg and despite the rain, it was as charming as could be. The town was on a hill and had many older looking buildings that made the town look incredible charming. We drove through and I got some good pictures, but if it had been nicer, we definitely would have stayed and explored some more. We did see that there are some breweries in town and even a Brauermuseum which I can only assume means Brewing Museum – so maybe the Schmidts left a trace of themselves somewhere in the city. I am glad we stopped to
Grafenberg
Small town where my Grandmother's family lived see the town and if I ever make it back, I will be sure to take the train!
We finally arrived in Nuremberg around 6:30 (we left Berlin at 12:00!!!) and got cozy for a bit out of the rain in our cute little hotel – Le Meridian Grand Hotel – at the edge of the little downtown area before venturing out for dinner. We looked for something good and close and found this awesome burger place called “Hans Im Gluck” that was really delicious and very fun and lively inside. The décor was awesome – there were birch trees everywhere and cute little pots of rosemary on every table. Right up my alley! After dinner, we decided to walk around a bit, as it is always fun to walk around these cute little European cities at night and we were pleasantly surprised. From our first walk through, Nuremberg seems to be a mix of both very old and very new. There were so many old, beautiful churches and buildings that were lit up at night, but then there were tons of modern store fronts and shops. We walked around and ended up following some music that led us
Nuremberg Church
Lit up at night! to the end of an orchestra concert in one of the squares. It seems like there may also be some kind of festival going on so we definitely have a lot that we need to explore tomorrow! I’ll leave it at that for now – we are truly exhausted! Tomorrow morning will be dedicated to exploring Nuremberg and then off to Munich tomorrow afternoon to join up with our friends! Auf Wiedersehen!
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Susan Abrams
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Grafenberg
I just looked at this blog again. Maybe my comments did not go through because I did not fill out where it says "Comment Title". Anyway, what a cute town Grafenberg is. And I forgot about the brewery. Sorry about the autobahn, but at least you can say you drove it.