Rhine journey: a serene river voyage sparks some suprising reflections on Germany's history.

It was a crisp afternoon in late September 2003, and we'd again left our ship to travel inland by bus to Nuremberg--birthplace of Albrecht Durer, setting of Wagner's Die Meistersinger, rallying ground for Adolf Hitler. On a busy street near the city walls, we stopped in front of an opulent stone building. Our guide informed us in her thickly accented English that, yes, this was the site of the trials in which nearly a dozen Nazi leaders had been condemned to death and others sentenced to life in prison. The building's upper windows and tiled roof glittered softly in the sun, but it was hard to see much else, because a gas station festooned with red, white and blue flags ...