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Published: January 13th 2023
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Frankenstein Castle
On top of a hill near Darmstadt sits the ruins of Frankenstein Castle. Frankfurt to Munich via Nuremberg
Here in the fourth blog from Germany we have collected some very disperse kinds of sites. We can't for our lives find any kind of common denominator to these places other than that they all are in Germany and that we visited them all in just a few days during our vacation. So instead of a lengthy introduction, we jump into telling about the first of these places - a place with a name of literary fame.
Frankenstein Castle On top of a hill near Darmstadt sits the ruins of
Frankenstein Castle. It is possible that Mary Shelley never visited this castle but it is believed that it served as an inspiration when she wrote her novel
Frankenstein. When we read that there is a Frankenstein Castle we felt that we just had to go and visit it. It was worth going there for at least two reasons. First of all we are now able to say that we have visited Frankenstein Castle. That's a pretty cool thing to say. The second reason is that the ruin itself is pretty nice and the views from the top of the hill
Frankenstein tram station
It is possible that Mary Shelley never visited Frankenstein, but it is believed that it served as an inspiration when she wrote her famous novel. are awesome.
Frankfurt am Main After Frankenstein Castle we returned to Frankfurt am Main. This time we arrived in a different, slightly older, part of town from where we had been before. We decided to do some sightseeing on our way back to the hostel where we were staying.
In this neighbourhood Frankfurt am Main looked very much like many other towns in Germany. There were some half-timbered houses, an old church and so on. Perhaps the word "serene" can be used to describe how it was.
The neighbourhood where we stayed however looked very different from that. "Serene" is one of the last words that come to mind actually. We stayed in a hostel a few blocks away from Frankfurt central station. It is fairly common that in larger cities the area near central stations can be a bit rough. The area around Frankfurt central station was far worse than rough. On the pavements, and even in the streets, there were hundreds of drug addicts sitting or lying on the ground so stoned that they probably didn't know where they were. Most of them where probably homeless and had
View from Frankenstein Castle
Frankenstein Castle itself is pretty nice and the views from the top of the hill are awesome. nowhere else to go. The street is their home and that's where they do everything.
Being an addict to heavy drugs means that life revolves around being high on drugs or trying to score money to buy drugs that will get you high. We saw people injecting narcotics in their arms and even between their toes, we saw people waiving hypodermic needles, we saw people preparing drugs by heating it in aluminium foil or in spoons. We saw one person who probably had a bad trip. He was standing against a wall hitting it hard over and over again.
When we walked in those streets we kept some distance to the addicts. We weren't afraid but we were careful and vigilant. We never felt threatened by the addicts, they are far more dangerous to themselves and to each other than they are to visitors. They might not be threatening but they sure are unpredictable. A person who has a bad trip can do a lot of weird stuff.
Nuremberg We went to the city Nuremberg to see two things: the site of the
Nuremberg mass rallies and the site of the
Nuremburg trials.
Frankenstein Street
When we read that there is a Frankenstein Castle we felt that we just had to go and visit it. Well there is more to see in Nuremberg than those two places. There is a nice historical city centre with preserved half-timbered houses and other historical buildings. Here is a short introduction to some of these.
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Nuremburg Castle - A very large castle built around a thousand years ago. It is so large that it almost is like a small village inside of the city.
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Frauenkirche - a 14th century church with an astonishing façade.
=> Hangman's bridge - a wooden covered bridge built in the 16th century.
Nuremberg trials After the second world war the Nazi war criminals were put on trial to answer for what they had done. These trials took place in the
Palace of Justice in Nuremberg. The choice of location was based on there being suitable courtrooms available in the city. The fact that Nuremberg pre-WWII was an important place for the Nazis was only a coincident.
In the Palace of Justice it is possible to visit the courtroom where the trials took place and see an exhibition explaining more than we ever wanted to know about the trials.
Nuremberg rally grounds A tram that stops at Frankenstein
Mary Shelley may or may not have been at Frankenstein Castle. What we do know for sure is that if she went there she did not go by tram. In the years 1933 to 1938 the Nazi party in Germany held annual mass meetings in Nuremberg. To host these meetings, or rallies, the
Nazi party rally grounds were established. In this area congress halls, arenas, marching fields and more were built. Some of these were never finished before the start of the war in 1939. After the war there was no need for them anymore so they remained unfinished.
Today some of the structures in the Nuremburg rally grounds remain and are easily recognized, others have been completely removed or only traces remains. The main structures include
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Congress Hall - an unfinished semi-circular building designed to seat 50.000 people.
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Great Road - an almost 2 km long and 40 m wide parade road
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Zeppelinfeld - a supersized sports field with raised stands surrounding it.
Munich After Nuremburg we went to Munich. Here follows a short description of the things we saw there.
=> The historical city centre - a little grander and a bit more opulent than the average German historical city centre.
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Hofgarten - a pretty park in central Munich
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Futuro House - in the
Frankfurt am Main old town
Frankfurt am Main has a small historical city centre with some half-timbered houses 1960-ies a Finnish architect came up with an idea to create small round prefabricated houses that with little effort could be put up in places where it would be hard to build proper houses due to remoteness and/or unsuitable ground conditions. The product never became any commercial success and very few of these houses were ever produced. Of course even fewer have survived until today. One of those stands in Munich as part of the art museum
Pinakothek der Moderne.
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Englischer Garten - A large public park that we absolutely loved. This park is Munich's answer to Central Park in New York or Hyde Park in London. If you have visited any of those and liked it there we strongly believe that you will also like Englischer Garten. Make sure you have plenty of time when visiting because the park is very large, and it takes time to cover.
=> The Olympic village - In 1972 Munich was the host of the Olympic Games. The sport events were overshadowed by a terrorist attack against the Israeli Olympic team. The perpetrators killed a total of 12 people in this attack. In the Olympic village there is a memorial plaque at the
Bridge over Main
Bridge over river Main site of the main attack and outside the village there is a larger memorial with pictures, text and a documentary film.
We don't feel like ending this blog with such a dark episode in human history. Therefore we have saved one thing to post here in the end. The river Eisbach runs through the Englischer Garten. Right where the river enters the park it creates a wave that can be surfed. When we walked by there were several people surfing there. The most skilled of those surfers you can see in this video.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Exploring Germany
You've really seen a great deal and we appreciate you allowing us to follow along from afar. The world have so many wonderful places to visit. MJ