Welcome to Nürnberg, home of the Nazi Party

Southern Germany is, so far, my favorite part of Germany. Aside from Munich, which is beautiful and I can´t wait to go back, we stopped through Würzburg yesterday and Nürnberg today. The Residenz at Würzburg was quite interesting, definitely a monument to the unfortunate corruption in the history of the Catholic Church. The ornate decorations were incredible, especially the "white room", a room filled with intricate and delicate ornaments covering almost every surface, made by one artist completely by hand. The room had to be completed in 9 months for a special visit by the empress, so the artist worked so hard he went insane. When she finally arrived, she merely ran through the room, not even looking at his work, and it is believed that he retreated to the nearest wine inn and spent the rest of life drinking until he died, crazy and depressed. No wonder Art is the most popular major at Texas A&M. The wine cellar underneath the castle was ginormous, especially the wine casks, which could hold 1000s of liters, which, when converted from metric, equals roughly 6 to 10 American students (with enough time and effort, through a doggie-door sized hole). The wine was equally impressive, hopefully some of it will make it home for souvenirs, no promises though. Nürnberg was quite cool as well. The castle at the top of the hill had an incredible view of the city, and was quite well defended from invaders and tourists, especially by the tactic of pouring boiling pitch and "unmentionables" over the wall. The Nazi Documentation center was chock full of interesting information, but unfortunately, I was so tired, I didn´t really have the energy or attention span to take everything in, even though I was particularly interested in the transformation from depression-riddled Germany to the monstrous, evil superpower within several decades. Seeing all of the enormous rally grounds for the Nazi party was quite mind-blowing. The tour guide was talking about how people could get swept up in the propaganda and become so entrenched in the group mentality that they would do anything. The first thing that popped into my head was Midnight Yell, Aggie traditions, Aggie Football games, etc. Make no mistake, the only association I make between the two is that Texas A&M has a large, Aggie Family mentality, with many unifying traditions and events. Many a prospective student has been sold after attending an Aggie football game or Midnight Yell, where they experienced the unity and comeraderie with thousands of other people, the Aggie spirit. The evil twin of that would be the Nazi spirit, the fever that swept so many people in with the promise of belonging to something large and powerful, of being something important and having a unified purpose with your countrymen. It´s quite horrifying to see what can be accomplished when large groups of people are united together in a common cause towards evil, yet awe-inspiring when they are actually bent towards the pursuit of good, such as the response, of Aggies and everyone else, after Hurricane Katrina. Anyways, this journal kinda took off on a tangent, it´s time for more good German food and I´m hungry. Tschüss.