Segway Segue

Vicki has long wanted to ride a Segway, but was usually discouraged by the cost and the warning she received in Nice, a few years ago, that Segways are not good for people with bad knees. They were having an exposition on alternative transportation in the Nuremburg main square, Segway demonstration rides were free, and her new knee seems up to anything. So, in the following amazing sequence, Vicki rides the Segway.

Suiting up

Ground school: you put your left foot here...

Ground school continued: here is go, here is stop, here is left,
here is right...

Taxiing out to the runway

Throttle back, full flaps...

Aloft!

Soaring!

Fancy maneuvers

Flying high

On final approach for landing

"Congratulations on a perfect two point landing...would you
like to buy a Segway?"

Nuremburg

After our pleasant evening and day in Nordlingen, we drove on to Nuremburg, another Bavarian city we had somehow never gotten around to. Nuremburg of course is famous, and infamous. On the main trade route to Italy in the middle ages, it became an important center and was often the host of the Imperial Diet and the Holy Roman Emperor. Culturally it was the home of poet and musician Hans Sachs, immortalized in Wagner's Mastersingers of Nuremburg. With Durer, it became the center of the German Renaissance. It was also the heart of Germany's soul, according to Hitler. The Nazis held rallies there in the 1920's and 30's, immortalized, so to speak, in Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will. The antisemitic Nuremburg Laws were promulgated there is 1935. During WWII, it was pulverized, both from the air and on the ground. Reportedly, 90% of the old city was destroyed in an hour during one particularly effective combined British/American air strike in early 1945. What hadn't been destroyed from the air was destroyed on the ground in house-to-house fighting between the Germans and the US 3rd Infantry. The heart of Germany's soul was, by no accident, the site of the Nuremburg Trials, in which dozens of surviving Nazi political and war leaders were prosecuted, imprisoned, or executed. Today it is an apparently thriving regional center, with half a million residents, and many more in the surrounding area. Although we might have been interested in any of the matters recounted above, our main interest in Nuremburg was the German National Museum, and its new special exhibit, "The Early Durer." Oh yes, we stayed overnight in another free municipal stellplatz, in a park in the near suburbs. Not one of the nicest, however.

Old entrance to the GHM

Present-day entrance; it is the largest museum in the German-
speaking world; comparable in size and scope to the V&A

Our interest, as I said, was the special Durer exhibit; the line
waiting to get in, after buying tickets, can run up to two
hours; the exhibit was the largest and best special exhibit of
art I have seen; it was nearly elbow to elbow throughout;
dozens of Durer's early works and those of his teachers and
contemporaries; photos were not permitted, nor even
possible given the throng; we lingered a couple hours, had
lunch, then continued the rest of the day in a few of the
GHM's regular collections, paintings, musical instruments,
household stuff, religious art, etc.; one could spend a week
there...maybe next time

We spent the rest of the daylight hours strolling the old
city and taking in a few more of the Durer high-lights; here,
Vicki demonstrates proper form in consuming a pizza slice
served German-style in a neat little envelope

Main downtown church

River Pegnitz

Scores of beautiful "old" buildings

Durer statue

Durer medallion

Durer house

Main square, Schonbrunn (beautiful fountain), and another
major downtown church

Nordlingen

We stayed in Ulm another day, an "administrative" day, as we have come to call them, and then drove on to Nordlingen (mit der umlaut, to be added later), a town we had never heard of, but which sounded interesting. Interesting for two reasons: it is one of only three remaining completely walled cities in Germany and is itself nearly circular in shape; and it lies nearly at the center of the Ries meteorite crater, 25 km in diameter, 15 million years old, but whose sides still are clearly visible. A city with two walls.

Map of Nordlingen at the very nice and free municipal stellplatz

Many streets of beautiful old buildings

Another half-timbered heaven

Main square; note the Romantic Road sign--in Japanese

Antique irons in the window of a dry cleaners/laundry

Walking the old city walls

Sometimes looking into the town

Sometimes into peoples' back yards

Sometimes looking into the parks, playgrounds, or miniature golf courses that
now occupy the moat

Here you can see the curvature of the wall and one of several gate towers

Nordlingen also has a church and a tower; and, fresh from my
victory at the Ulm Munster, I had to try another, much shorter
tower

Inside the tower, its most interesting feature, an intact human wheel

Also the bells, which went off just as I approached them at noon

Looking out over Nordlingen, in the distance you can see the Ries crater walls

And Vicki in the square below, checking email at the Mack
cafe

Ulm: Ascent of the Munster Spire

As interesting as it is on the inside, the Munster's surpassing feature is its 528 foot high spire, tallest in the world. You can climb its 768 steps for a mere 2 euros, and, of course, I had to do it.

Postcard view of the Munster and its spire

Ground view

Most of the 768 steps look pretty much like this

Looking out at the twin towers

More than life-sized gargoyles en route

Interior view heading into the final tower; talk about flying
buttresses!

At the top, looking down to the roof and twin towers

Ulm below; note the Ikea in the mid-distance

The Danube

Old city

Descent view

Upper reaches of the spire; I am not sure where you finally get to, but it was high
enough for me

Ulm: The Munster

Ulm is the birthplace of Einstein and the home of the Museum of Bread Culture, but the main thing to see there is the Munster (mit der umlaut; sorry), Ulm's cathedral.

Even though it fronts a large square, Ulm's Munster is so
large, especially tall, that it is difficult to get a decent photo;
here's a photo of the usual bronze model of the old city

Nave

Ceiling

Chancel arch, beautifully frescoed with a
Last Judgment

Detail; Hell, of course

While everyone else is getting damned, Mary seems to
have found a good book

Just outside the arch is the tabernacle, the
highest religious carving in Germany; 85 feet;
1470

In the choir, more beautiful carving

Thus

And the usual misericordia

A few nice old windows

The organ; we stayed for the noon organ concert

More painting

Ditto

St. Edward Scissorhands

Side aisles nearly as interesting as the nave

Late medieval door hardware

Changing a lightbulb