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July 13, 2007
We headed to Nuremberg on the first train that we could catch Friday morning. This is the city where both Mike’s Grandma and Mike’s Mom were born in, and where various family members still live. We were able to get into Nuremberg so that we had 5 hours to explore the city before we had to head to Mike’s second cousin’s house.
The old city is very beautiful and even has the old city walls. Nuremberg was heavily bombed during the last World War, so I am pretty sure that it has been all rebuilt, but it’s still pretty. The first thing that we went to was the Handwerkerhof. It is a small part of the old city that still retains the old timber houses which hold small shops. There are all sorts of hand made products there to look at along with a few traditional German restaurants. It was wonderful to poke around there for a bit.
We then started walking down towards the castle, which is on the other side of the old city from the Handwerkerhof. We passed by many beautiful churches, and the incredible old market with its gorgeous fountain before Mike realized that he was really hungry. We stopped at the Bratwursthaus for real Nuremberg Bratwursts. We had heard about the bratwursts for a while from family members, so we had to try them. There about the size of breakfast sausages, and they are tasty. And since we were having bratwurst we had to have a beer… the Nuremberg Tucker beer was quite nice. To round off our Nuremberg food experience, we went and both Lebkuckens for dessert. They are a particular type of cookie that Mike’s mom usually orders around Christmas time that are made in Nuremberg. They’re okay, but they have a ginger cookie taste (which I do not like) and an almost cake like consistency. Mike usually eats most of them. No different this time with them really fresh either. But its all part of the experience and we were able to buy them from the original store. Quite exciting.
Then it was to the Frauenkirche. The artwork over the doorway was amazing. The inside was very pretty (as was the outside) with gorgeous stained glass windows, sculptures, old frescos, etc. There were some interesting modern religious paintings hanging around the church that I wouldn’t normally associate with a church that old, but they seemed to fit in with the old stuff quite well.
After we had had our fill of cookies, and the Frauenkirche, we headed over to the castle. We got there and it was swarming with police. It seemed quite odd, but we weren’t being stopped from entering, so we pressed on. But when we went to go up into the main courtyard, where were lots of men in nice suits and more police. We decided just to turn around and head back tomorrow. Hopefully then we won’t be bared from entering.
We then just wandered around the castle end of the old city. The house were Albrecht Durer, the German painter, was born is over on this end of the city. Also on this side of town was… the Aldstadthof Hausbrauerei (Old City House Brewery). We decided that we definitely need another beer before we went to meet “the family” as we were pretty sure that this particular family member did not drink. So we got a pint to spilt of reminded us of the real ales from Scotland. It was spectacular. A must see for anyone that enjoys beer. They sold their beer really cheaply (and in large quantities), but as it was day 1 of a 3 day trip and we had to lug our stuff everyday, we passed it up.
And after a beer, there is no better place to go than church. Which is exactly what we did. Kirche St Sebaldus was spectacular. It is the oldest church of Nuremberg (has been re-built since World War II) and was amazing. There was a four person singing group rehearsing up at the altar and they were wonderful. We even got a short video of them singing. Its shaky, but at least they can be heard. If I knew how to upload videos, I would. But I have no clue. (Any help would be appreciated!) The rest of the church was quite beautiful, but it was all the more so with the wonderful music that was filling the church.
Next we stopped by the Rathhaus – the town hall. It is a fairly large town hall, that has been expanded many a time. We thought we were touring the actual town hall, but after our tickets were bought and we started looking at the signs a bit more closely, we found out that the main room of the town hall is only open once or twice a month. We were touring the dungeons. It was actually a really interesting tour. There was a deaf couple on the tour so the guide spoke very clearly and used her hands a lot to point to things and explain how things worked. It was great and I was able to pick up a lot of what was going on (it was all in German.) We were able to see jail cells, torture devices, how “questioning” worked, and even the jail keepers quarters. It was quite interesting.
By the end of the tour it was nearly 3:30pm and time for us to start heading over to Hildegard’s.
She is Mike’s second cousin and Mike’s Grandma’s God Daughter. She speaks very little English, but my German comprehension has gotten lots better, I just cannot speak it all that well.
We got to her apartment at about 4pm and were eating a huge meal by 4:15pm. Turkey breast – German style, bratwurst, German potato salad, AND tomato-cucumber salad. It was a ton of food and as we were sitting down to eat she told Mike that she doesn’t like it when people come over to eat and “eat like birds.” It’s a lot of work to cook all that food, and she finds it offensive when its not all gone. Great. I don’t normally eat huge meals, but I did my best. I think both Mike and I ate more than we do on Thanksgiving and Christmas combined all before 5:30pm. It was rough, but we did it and no one was offended.
Then more family came over. All German speakers. For the most part I was able to understand what was going on, but Hildegard is really into alternative medicine. Most of those conversations had to be translated later for me by Mike. She talks so fast and so much that there was no translating while the conversation was happening. Such is life though. I would have nothing to add to the conversation anyway. After a while of visiting with family, we had more food. This time satziki (sp?) sauce. (Its like the stuff that they put on Gyros.) This time I really though I would be sick. It was good, but I was definitely not ready to eat more. Thankfully, no more food was thrown our way… until breakfast the next morning.
We headed to Nuremberg on the first train that we could catch Friday morning. This is the city where both Mike’s Grandma and Mike’s Mom were born in, and where various family members still live. We were able to get into Nuremberg so that we had 5 hours to explore the city before we had to head to Mike’s second cousin’s house.
The old city is very beautiful and even has the old city walls. Nuremberg was heavily bombed during the last World War, so I am pretty sure that it has been all rebuilt, but it’s still pretty. The first thing that we went to was the Handwerkerhof. It is a small part of the old city that still retains the old timber houses which hold small shops. There are all sorts of hand made products there to look at along with a few traditional German restaurants. It was wonderful to poke around there for a bit.
We then started walking down towards the castle, which is on the other side of the old city from the Handwerkerhof. We passed by many beautiful churches, and the incredible old market with its gorgeous fountain before Mike realized that he was really hungry. We stopped at the Bratwursthaus for real Nuremberg Bratwursts. We had heard about the bratwursts for a while from family members, so we had to try them. There about the size of breakfast sausages, and they are tasty. And since we were having bratwurst we had to have a beer… the Nuremberg Tucker beer was quite nice. To round off our Nuremberg food experience, we went and both Lebkuckens for dessert. They are a particular type of cookie that Mike’s mom usually orders around Christmas time that are made in Nuremberg. They’re okay, but they have a ginger cookie taste (which I do not like) and an almost cake like consistency. Mike usually eats most of them. No different this time with them really fresh either. But its all part of the experience and we were able to buy them from the original store. Quite exciting.
Then it was to the Frauenkirche. The artwork over the doorway was amazing. The inside was very pretty (as was the outside) with gorgeous stained glass windows, sculptures, old frescos, etc. There were some interesting modern religious paintings hanging around the church that I wouldn’t normally associate with a church that old, but they seemed to fit in with the old stuff quite well.
After we had had our fill of cookies, and the Frauenkirche, we headed over to the castle. We got there and it was swarming with police. It seemed quite odd, but we weren’t being stopped from entering, so we pressed on. But when we went to go up into the main courtyard, where were lots of men in nice suits and more police. We decided just to turn around and head back tomorrow. Hopefully then we won’t be bared from entering.
We then just wandered around the castle end of the old city. The house were Albrecht Durer, the German painter, was born is over on this end of the city. Also on this side of town was… the Aldstadthof Hausbrauerei (Old City House Brewery). We decided that we definitely need another beer before we went to meet “the family” as we were pretty sure that this particular family member did not drink. So we got a pint to spilt of reminded us of the real ales from Scotland. It was spectacular. A must see for anyone that enjoys beer. They sold their beer really cheaply (and in large quantities), but as it was day 1 of a 3 day trip and we had to lug our stuff everyday, we passed it up.
And after a beer, there is no better place to go than church. Which is exactly what we did. Kirche St Sebaldus was spectacular. It is the oldest church of Nuremberg (has been re-built since World War II) and was amazing. There was a four person singing group rehearsing up at the altar and they were wonderful. We even got a short video of them singing. Its shaky, but at least they can be heard. If I knew how to upload videos, I would. But I have no clue. (Any help would be appreciated!) The rest of the church was quite beautiful, but it was all the more so with the wonderful music that was filling the church.
Next we stopped by the Rathhaus – the town hall. It is a fairly large town hall, that has been expanded many a time. We thought we were touring the actual town hall, but after our tickets were bought and we started looking at the signs a bit more closely, we found out that the main room of the town hall is only open once or twice a month. We were touring the dungeons. It was actually a really interesting tour. There was a deaf couple on the tour so the guide spoke very clearly and used her hands a lot to point to things and explain how things worked. It was great and I was able to pick up a lot of what was going on (it was all in German.) We were able to see jail cells, torture devices, how “questioning” worked, and even the jail keepers quarters. It was quite interesting.
By the end of the tour it was nearly 3:30pm and time for us to start heading over to Hildegard’s.
She is Mike’s second cousin and Mike’s Grandma’s God Daughter. She speaks very little English, but my German comprehension has gotten lots better, I just cannot speak it all that well.
We got to her apartment at about 4pm and were eating a huge meal by 4:15pm. Turkey breast – German style, bratwurst, German potato salad, AND tomato-cucumber salad. It was a ton of food and as we were sitting down to eat she told Mike that she doesn’t like it when people come over to eat and “eat like birds.” It’s a lot of work to cook all that food, and she finds it offensive when its not all gone. Great. I don’t normally eat huge meals, but I did my best. I think both Mike and I ate more than we do on Thanksgiving and Christmas combined all before 5:30pm. It was rough, but we did it and no one was offended.
Then more family came over. All German speakers. For the most part I was able to understand what was going on, but Hildegard is really into alternative medicine. Most of those conversations had to be translated later for me by Mike. She talks so fast and so much that there was no translating while the conversation was happening. Such is life though. I would have nothing to add to the conversation anyway. After a while of visiting with family, we had more food. This time satziki (sp?) sauce. (Its like the stuff that they put on Gyros.) This time I really though I would be sick. It was good, but I was definitely not ready to eat more. Thankfully, no more food was thrown our way… until breakfast the next morning.
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