Deutschland or bust! Nürnberg Edition

Friday, September 19 2008

Pictures of our trip to Nürnberg.

(Editors' note: this post was a joint effort. Karen is writing first so that you understand who pronouns refer to.)

We headed out on a train to Germany. We bought seat reservations as Friday travel on trains can be very busy and I wanted to assure I would have a seat for the 6 hour trip. Apparently on Czech trains it really doesn't mean too much. After multiple failed attempts of asking the conductor where our seats were (she spoke Czech and was only pointing to the cars at the front of the train), we tried to find our seats. Unfortunately we had seats number 123 and 124 and the seat numbers ended at 101. Yikes! So, after much confusion, I found us seats that didn't have the reservation signs on them and we sat there. Thank goodness, because the train really filled up as we went along. And, I must say there were a lot of angry travelers, especially of the English speaking variety. We did meet a nice guy from Sweden on our trip, who meets up with friends and each year goes to an Oktoberfest in a different town in Bavaria.

It was a nice treat going to Nuernberg. First, I was excited to visit my friends Gunnar and Iris and meet their daughter Yanina. Next it was refreshing finally to have some idea what was going on (knowing the language - or at least being able to more than get by - is awesome!)
Nuernberg public transportation is easy to navigate. We bought our tickets, validated them, and hopped on a subway towards Fuerth (next town over, but only like 5 or 6 stops - quick trip). Thanks to Gunnar sending us multiple directions/maps to his place (gotta love the German processes! woohoo!), we had an easy walk there.
They live in a super cute neighborhood, schools and playgrounds and tall brick/stone buildings. It's actually the old American army base that was there, but the buildings have been updated and re-furbished. Their apartment is beautiful - high sealings, open kitchen/living room layout, balcony overlooking the middle grassy commons, 2 bathrooms!
And, best of all, I got to see my friend from college, Gunnar, see Iris again and meet their absolutely adorable daughter Yanina.

During our stay at Gunnar and Iris's, we were fed amazing food (they prepared most of it), had great conversation and got a personal tour of Nuernberg and Fuerth.
Saturday, Sept 20, we headed out to Nuernberg for the day. Nuernberg was having a fall festival (Herbst Markt) that weekend, with vendors, food and music.
Located in the main plaza in Nuernberg is the Tugendbrunnen (Fountain of Virtues). There is a gate surrounding the fountain. Legend has it that if you spin the ring that is on one part of the gate you will have good luck. Tourists line up to reach for the golden ring. But the locals know better. There is a black ring on the other side of the fountain gate, which is the real ring that when spun will bring good luck. Needless to say, of course I spun the black ring (no line waiting for that one - suckers at the gold ring! haha!); a little luck or hopeful luck never hurt anyone! We walked along the Pegnitz river and over the Henkersteg (Hangman's Bridge).
We stopped for lunch at a hole-in-the-wall(how Gunnar/Iris described it) Italian restaurant. Good food and great dessert (panna cotta with a fresh raspberry sauce)! Yanina was so funny. She would not be bothered with eating - she would rather do laps around the big table in the other room. Good thing for Iris and Gunnar that they could split the Yanina circles in 4 instead of 2, as Maciej and I offered to take a bunch of laps. After lunch, Yanina was accompanied home with Mama Iris for a little nap-time and Gunnar took us off for some more sight-seeing. We walked up the the Nuernberg castle, which provides a beautiful view of the city.
While walking around town we stopped to buy some Nuernberg beer (Hausbrauerei Altstadthof). Luckily for us, there was a tour of the beer cellars that was about to start, so we did that as well. Unfortunately for Maciej, the tour was in German and since we already bought the beer, he had to carry 2 liters of beer along with him.(Maciej says: "They gave me a booklet with English text version of the tour and I was prepared to drink the beer if I was no longer able to carry it") The tour was interesting, but the tour guide was difficult to hear (some of which had to do with the pour acoustics underground and the large tour group). In the middle ages, people found that those who drank beer stayed strong and lived. Those who drank the water ended up sick and died (they didn't know about bacteria back in those time), so kids as young as 3 drank beer! I don't think that would go over so well in this day in age. The beer cellars were also used as bomb shelters during WWII. Apparently the bombings were so bad, that when people went back out to the streets, many of the streets were completely unrecognizable.

(Maciej taking over now since Karen decided to go sleep)

On our second day there, we all slept in (thanks Yanina for not waking up early). We walked over to a bakery and bought a variety of cakes. Lunch that day was tea and lots of cake. In the afternoon we took a ride to a nearby town, Cadolzburg. Gunnar and Iris had to visit a flooring store before they closed. Karen and I entertained Yanina while they took care of business. This involved following her around the store making sure she didn't get hurt. She found the free gummy bears pretty quick. Karen managed to keep her from eating too many by empty the little bags of all but a few pieces when Yanina wasn't looking. (Note, I'd never fall for that kind of trickery). The other neat thing about this store trip is that I got to drink some beer . I guess the owners keep beer, sausages, and snacks on hand to server to customers. I wasn't offered a sausage, but that's ok, I was still kind of full from all the cake I ate for lunch. I think I would buy a floor from these people. I see now why they offer beer.

As Karen mentioned, Gunnar and Iris took great care of us. I was amazed how relaxed and laid back they were(given they have a little child that likes to climb on everything and basically never sit still when awake). I think I finally started to unwind on this trip/vacation thanks to them.