This was an impressive display of large and small farm buildings, mostly done in the "Swedish" style, with high, thatched roofs. We learned that the basic walls of many of these old buildings still stand, but the roofs have been made more rectangular and converted to red tile. At Windsheim, the tallest of these buildings was found as a five-story farm house, before it was deconstructed and rebuilt in it's original form. Naturally, we thought about how much THAT must have cost!

After our bit of old history, we went to the Ausstellung( "display?") building, where we were told there was an exhibition of old "Krippen" or creches. This turned out to be on the second floor of the Ausstellung and, on the ground floor,the exhibition was decidedly less cheerful. It told the story of Polish temporary workers in the 1930's and 1940's. This part of Frankonia had used imported labor on the local farms, first as paid seasonal workers and later, under the Third Reich, as forced labor. The somber side of the story is obvious, but the good side may be that the story is being told at all.

After all this preparation; the detour from our basic trip, the cold walk to and from the Middle Ages, and the glimpse of more recent difficult lives, the crech display was disappointing. This old bas-relief was the most interesting piece, but the rest of the displays seemed like most remnants of grandmother's attics: quaint, but not remarkable.