Nuremburg and Rothenburg! (Second Favorite Day!)

Today was a lovely day and I was feeling better!  We woke up and went to breakfast at the hotel and left Prague around 8:30.  We drove from Prague to Nuremberg and arrived at 11:30 at the Nuremberg Courthouse where the trials after the war of the Nazi leaders were held.  It was SO interesting!  We stayed there for 2 hours and could've stayed a lot longer listening to all the exhibits.  I find WW11 history fascinating!  We then drove a little further and went to the Nazi Rally Grounds.  This place was even more intriguing!!  I didn't realize Hitler had built all of these complexes (most of them unfinished) to further his support for his cause.  We spent another couple of hours here.  Then we drove to Rothenburg-- a very cute medieval town that was built in 1294!!  (The first house was built in 980.)  We poked around all the cute little shops--most of them were not open as it was Sunday.  There were people there in period attire and it was such a cute atmosphere!  We felt like we were back in time!  Then at 8pm we went on the Night Watchman Tour done by 1 man-- the night watchman, of course!!  We learned all about the history of the town and heard some scary ghost stories and some funny stories about the city and the duties of a night watchman!  The guy was really cute and always stayed in character!  We only got to spend a little over 3 hours in this charming little town, but after the tour it was completely dark and the town had gone to bed!  We still had another hours drive to our hotel in Sinsheim.  We're staying here for 1 night as well.  Robin has us on a tight schedule and we're seeing as much as possible in the time we have!  We got to the hotel and played a game of Shanghai Rummy-- I lost again!  It was a really beautiful Sabbath day and I found myself feeling grateful to be an American where we have always had the freedoms we have and I hold them dear to my heart!  It's hard to believe what happened here in Germany!  And not too long ago, really.  It's hard to believe that men could and can be so evil to do what they did and the destruction of so much life and property.  But it happened and has happened again and again in many other countries!  The world hasn't learned it's lesson from the atrocities that were committed in this horrible conflict born of a desire for power and a hatred of Jews or anyone who didn't "fit" and the "ideal"-- whatever that was!  It was a very thought-provoking day and I'm proud to be an American and for all the Americans who lost their lives in this war.  I will forever be grateful for them... our best blood was spent on the battlegrounds of WW11!  Then after we spent our best blood we poured money into Germany and Europe after the war!  (The US spent $6 million just to get this courthouse useable for these trials!  A drop in the bucket compared to the total of what was given to rebuild!)