Three really big Churches

On the last two days of the excursion we went to see the three largest Cathedrals in Germany. The first stop was the Aachen  Cathedral. It is the church that Carlaman built part of . It later had two more sections added to it. The church still holds the bones of Carlaman.

Next we went to the Cologne Cathedral. It is the Largest Gothic Cathedral in Germany and one of the largest ever built. You are able to climb one of the towers in the cathedral which is 533 steps high.

On our way back to Berlin we stopped at the Magdeburg Cathedral. It was the last of the three big churches. There was alot of work going on in the outside and in the inside they were setting up for a big Chior concert that  was going to be on TV. We weren't able to see much of the church because of this. The art work inside the church was grand and amazing though. The big thing that does draws people to the church is that it holds the tomb of the Emperor Otto. 

A village, a castle and Stuttgart

The first stop of the day was at the Fuggerei township. It was build in the early 1500s or so and was for the poor the city to have some where to live. To live there you had to be Catholic and only earn so much a year. The rent for one of the apartments or houses was only about .88 cents a year. Even today that is only about the amount you still pay to live there.

Next we drove for a while and then saw the Hohenzollern Castle. It is still the castle for the Prussian Royal family. The castle itself was rebuilt three different times over the years. The last time in the 1800s. They still host guest and the crown prince of the family still comes, visits and stays there sometimes.  It is huge and we were able to go into one of the cellars which, expanded and goes pretty far underground.

We stopped for the night in Stuttgart and went to the  Mercedes Benz Museum while we were there. It showed the history if the cars and how they developed and got better over the years. The museum also had  a section showing the racing history of Mercedes Benz and all the different trophies they had won of the years.

Munich

In Munich we started the day off by going to the Dachau Concentration Camp. The camp was originality for political prisoners and Russian POWs. It was opened in 1993 and was liberated in April of 1945 by US troops.  Later in the war more Jews and other people were shipped to the camp for work. Once you became too weak to work anymore or couldn't work period, they were shipped to other camps. The camp itself has become mostly a memorial site with a small museum in the old work house. Most things have been rebuilt so you can see how everything once stood. There is also four different churches on the grounds. The old gas chamber and crematories are still standing.

The last thing we did for the day was go to the BMW Welt and the 1972 Olympic Village. The welt was pretty cool and had lots of different BMW cars and bikes for you to look at. The outside had a mirrored cone in the front and the building was designed by Coop Himmelblau. At the Welt they had stunt motorcycle

show and a small BMW car you could ride in or take pictures in. The Olympic Village is huge itself. It was designed by Frei Otto and Gunter Behnisch. The buildings all have mirrored/glass tents over them. One the way back to the hotel we stopped at a church that was very different from any of the others we have seen so far. It was a glass cube on the outside with purple like stain glass that had nails in different patterns. The inside was a wooden cube where the services are held. 

Nuremberg

Nuremberg was amazing. The city still has its medieval center with the old churches, parts of the old city wall and a castle at the top.  While in the old part of the city we visited three different churches. Each one was  grand it its own way. They were all built around the 1500s. After seeing the churches we walked up the hill to see the old castle and had a great view of most of the city.

After see the old part of the city we headed over to the Nazi Rally grounds. The only part still there  today is the main building what was designed to look like a Roman Colosseum and the grand stands on the Zeplian field. The rest of the grounds were either never finished, never built or have been torn down since the end of WWII. Albert Spear designed the rally grounds and was also the head architect for Hitler. We were able to go to the stands on the main field and see where Hitler once  stood and gave his speeches.  Once we were done there we headed off to Munich.