Random traffic stops, first WWII sites and recovering in quaintness

Today started off a bit rough. It was pouring rain in Heidelberg this morning, so instead of finding the castle via public transport, we decided to do a drive by to see if it was worth getting out the umbrellas. Well, Faith knew how to get there, but unfortunately it was straight up a mountain on a so called "2 lane " road. I made it about halfway before deciding that this was not improving on my ability to maintain a stress free lifestyle. From what we could see, the Schloss didn't look worth it in the rain.

After that it was autobahn to Nuremberg. That is the only time I will say I am a fan of driving in Europe. I love seeing how fast I can get the Prius to go. I hit 145km/hr today and felt like a mad woman. Instant gratification for all the stressful moments with the car.

I paid for it though when we got closer to the documentation museum in Nuremberg. They had a random police check point at which a nice, but awkward police officer asked all of us for our paper. It was awful. I had a very hard time keeping it together trying to get all of our passports, my dutch ID, the car paperwork, etc. He kept asking for my car registration, which every single piece of paper in that car is in Dutch and I had no clue which one was the registration. I think I gave him my insurance paperwork instead, but he didn't seem to notice. After about 15 minutes which included a lot of awkward questions about my ability to drive, etc, he let us go. I've never felt that ridiculously worried in my life. Again, no points for living stress free.

We made it to the documentation museum after that. I was still shaking from the shake down. The museum was really good - very informative and cleanly displayed. I thought it was as thought provoking as the museum in DC. First picture is from that site. After that, we got lunch (schnitzel sandwiches) and then headed to Zepplin field, which has to be the creepiest site I've seen in Europe, especially after seeing the museum. Next 3 pictures are of the grandstands where Hitler addressed the masses. So weird - in the first of the picture, you can see that portions of the field are paved over, others are used to football fields and the other stands have grown over with vines. It's just so odd - it feels like a place of pure evil.

After that, it was off to find the hotel in the city centre, which was mostly uneventful. The hotel has great parking just downstairs which made for a very happy Lindsay. Then we wandered the old city, seeing the train station (next picture), St Lawrence church, monuments and clock towers, ending the day with beer and brats, along with people watching. Other than the traffic stop, it was a pretty successful day!