An early, long train ride from Berlin brought us back to Bavaria and Nuremburg by 1:30pm. We went over to the infamous Nazi parade grounds... one of the only Nazi structures left relatively intact in the country. First was a massive building built to out-do Rome's Colosseum... you can see the resemblance in the pictures below. Then to the "Zeppelin" stadium... grounds big enough to hold 200,000 spectators, where giant Nazi rallies were held and where the bulk of "The Triumph if the Will" (1934) was filmed. I didn't realize that they had left these grounds intact and was pretty... stunned and uneasy to see the same buildings that I had seen in the film (see picture below), and read about in Hilter's biography. We ascended the steps and stood on the very pulpit - the very spot - where Hitler preached his madness and converted the sane into insane. Quite unbelievable and powerful in a terribly weird way. The top of this structure once bore a huge stone swastika that the US Army blew up in a very famous piece of film footage. Police, incidentally, were everywhere, as was barbed wire fencing with narrow gaps to permit limited entry. We were watched carefully as we entered the grounds... it seems as if visitors are allowed, but not appreciated, and the "wrong" type of visitors (i.e. Nazi sympathizers) would have been quickly ejected.
From then we began a bike ride to and down the Main-Danube canal to the little town of Hipolstein, past a few locks and again, many other cyclists. Yet again, beautiful countryside, great people, and yummy food!
Nazi "Colosseum"
Nazi "Colosseum"
Zepellin field speaking pulpit
Main-Donau (Danube) canal, from midway up a lock - you can see the bike path on the right side
Outside our hotel in Hipoltstein 
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