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Published: December 19th 2006
Days in Nurnberg
Monday: A Day of Rest and the Toy Museum Yesterday we didn’t really do all that much so we didn’t dedicate a blog entry for the day. After we woke up we went in search of breakfast. Kel wasn’t feeling very good because of a headache so we needed to get food right away in hopes of making her feel better.
While we were searching for place to eat, we stopped and got pretzels. Very cheap, but very good and fulfilling; the pretzels carried us until we found an acceptable place to eat. Once we found an acceptable place we each did breakfast in our own way. Kel had broccoli and cheddar soup while I had toast with honey, butter and jam. Yummy!
From there we headed to the Spielzeugmuseum (Toy Museum). The Toy Museum has four floors of toys starting with simple wood carvings from the middle ages all the way up to huge toy train sets from modern train builders. Kel and I sat and played with a Brio train set for a while which reminded me of one my parents bought me when they were in Germany
when I was very little.
There were lots of cool exhibits. Kel really liked the intricate doll houses. Many of the houses were obviously from rich families because of the intricate wood inlay and detail work on things like kitchen appliances. I really liked the erector sets and motorized toys which started with small steam engines for boys to play with and went all the way through to motorized trains and remote control cars.
There were some interesting pieces that were politically incorrect that were fascinating because of what they showed about how society has changed over the past few hundred years. From Nazi specific toys to racist stereotype depictions of black people and Chinese people toys, there was a whole gamut of things that would never be sold today.
They also had a significant display on toys that came out during WWII on both the Allies and Axis sides. They served both a propaganda purpose (the Knock Hitler in the Nose game) as well as teaching kids/families (the Blackout game and Win with Scrap Metal). Since these were all before our time, we found them really intriguing.
The rest of yesterday we rested in the
room and played on the internet. Since Kel wasn’t feeling very good it was nice to have a really comfortable room. Also, most things are closed on Monday so other than the toy museum and a few cathedrals which we visited on our way back to the hotel, there was very little to do.
The German National Museum Today we were both feeling nice and rested so were excited to get out and see some more of the great museums in Nurnberg. We started with a light breakfast of cheese (and in my case salami) pretzels and some coke/diet coke. Then we headed off to the Germanisches National-Museum.
The German National Museum is huge; it has more than 20,000 pieces of art and objects ranging from BC 2500 to the modern era. We saw all sorts of cool stuff that we could take pictures of so that you could see it too. We also rented audioguides that gave great detail in English about selected artworks.
We started with ancient art where we saw old church relics and pre-Christian tools and weapons. In this section we really liked:
Christ on a Burro: Used during
Hurdi Gurdi
Haven't you ever wondered what a hurdi gurdi was...well now you know!Palm Sunday to be lead into church and sometimes on parades. The statue was created out of wood and was pretty lifelike for its time.
St. George Killing the Dragon: I though this piece was cool because of the detail the artist carved into the piece. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but the horse is very detailed and even St George’s outfit had subtle detail in it.
Next we moved on to the armor section where our favorite pieces were:
Bucket Helmet: This helmet was one of the earliest types of full head helmet. Many of these were destroyed as weapons and armor progressed so this one, along with only a few others, is the only ones still in existence. This one was humbly proclaimed to be the best of the survivors.
Ancient Navigating Tools: These sextants and compasses were in immaculate condition which isn’t much of a surprise because they were very cherished by their owners. Their gold still shows off of the detail they must have shown the day they were built.
Next we moved on to my favorite part of the museum, old musical instruments. Our favorites:
Guitars: Many, many
different varieties were shown. A few of my favorites were the two necked guitar and some of the lutes which were incredibly intricate. The cool thing about the audio guide was that it not only told you about the instruments but it actually played a piece of music actually played on that particular instrument.
Pianos: They had a ton of pianos which was really great because it allowed me to follow the progress of pianos from the very first varieties to modern design. Innovations included first two strings per note with no metal supports to the movement to cross stringing with metal supports. First dampers and controls for the pianos were manually done by hand controls which then moved to bottom mounted knee levers and finally to the modern foot pedals. I found this all very interesting and am sorry if I’m boring you with details.
After seeing the musical instruments we moved on to some things that we unfortunately couldn’t take pictures of because of the dim lighting. We saw a clothing exhibit and an exhibit on old German architecture which were both pretty cool.
Lunch After the German National museum we moved
on to some lunch. We stopped in the area at a really fun looking Mexican restaurant. It’s nice to eat things that re-set the palate every once in a while. Mexican and Chinese both tend to be similar any where in the world which allows one to reset and appreciate the food of the region you’re in.
The waitress was nice and talked to us for a little while after we ate. She had lived in Australia for a couple of months and was therefore able to give us some advice. It’s always nice when someone takes the time to share with us.
The Sensory Museum Leave it to Kel to find the most random museum ever; the sensory museum. This museum is located in an old part of the city walls and is six stories of cool perception activities. The floors go from smell & taste, vision, touch, and then a blend of senses. Each of these floors had three to six cool experiments that you could participate in and it turned out to be a real blast.
My favorite experiments:
The balance wall: You stand in front of a wall with
alternating black and white vertical stripes. The person standing in front of the wall stands on one foot while his/her partner moves the wall either left or right. With the wall moving it is nearly impossible to stay standing upright. Tons of fun!
The basketball shootout: You shoot a ball through a hoop until you get good at it. Then you put goggles on which shifts your vision to the left. While you have the goggles on you have to shoot the ball through the hoop until you get it in three times. Once you’ve made the ball in three times you take off the goggles and try to shoot again. It’s crazy, your mind adjusts to the shift in perspective so that when the goggles are off you miss every shot because you throw the ball to the right. Wild!
The Taste Experiment: They give you four pieces of paper that each have a taste type in them (sour, bitter, sweet, salty) at the beginning of the museum which you use during one of the first experiments. You put the papers one by one in your mouth until you taste them and move them around your tongue
to feel where you are most sensitive to each type of taste.
Stuttering Experiment: First you hold up these speaker tubes over your ears so that you can only hear what comes out of them. While holding the tubes over your ears, you read a poem into a microphone. While reading, the tubes reproduce your voice at a serious delay which really messes with your mind. This makes it nearly impossible to keep talking without stuttering. Kel and I were both able to read without stuttering but you basically have to ignore anything you hear.
After the museum we headed back to the hotel, where we are currently resting for dinner. Hope everyone is doing as well as we are!!
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Bruce / Daddy
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Mike and Kel, It sounds like Germany is becoming a favorite for you guys. Glad to hear that you have a king size bed. It must feel good. The basketball shoot with the goggles on at The Sensory Museum sounds like fun. I would like to provide such goggles for my opponents the next time I play basketball. Quip for the day: What word do they use in Italy for the American word blog? Bologna =) Mike, in no way am I hinting that your blogs are full of boloney.