Gutentag von Nuremberg

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Gutentag von Nurnberg

Day three in Nurnberg saw us having breakfast with Martin and Gisela and being exposed to some very strange names for food as we know it back home. What we call croissants at home are called ‘bambergers’. Bambergers are pronounced ‘bumburgers’ which of course I found, with my warped sense of humour, to be very amusing. Bumburgers and red currant jam for brekkie was a big hit. Martin and Gisela very kindly chose to take us into the old part of the city of Nurnberg to show us around and help us learn about where they live.
Very briefly, Nurnberg is a medieval city, which started being built about 1050 and is what we would call, a walled city. The city walls would have to be about 40 metres thick and about the same in height. Inside the city walls, modern life goes on as usual but walking around the city you try and imagine what life was like almost 1000 years ago.

Tragically the city suffered terrible devastation during the 2nd world war as it was deemed to be an important military target for allied bombers and much of the city was destroyed. Thankfully the German people chose to restore the city as best they could to it’s pre war condition. Time for history lesson No 1, courtesy of wikipedia. We went into a church called St. Sebaldus Church which is a medieval church which takes its name from Sebaldus, a 8th century hermit and missionary and patron saint of Nuremberg. The construction of the building began in the 1230s. The church achieved parish church status in 1255 and was completed by 1273-75. The church suffered serious damage during World War II and was subsequently reconstructed. Some of the old interior did survive, including the Shrine of St. Sebaldus, works by Veit Stoss and the stained glass windows. To see the photographs taken after the bombings had finished to what has been achieved is simply incredible.

We also went into a very important church in the centre of the city called St Lorenz. Inside this church hang statues of the Angel Gabriel talking to Mary, telling her that she was soon to have a child called Jesus. The interesting part of the statues is that above Gabriel and Mary is a statue said to be one of the very few in the world that represents God. For those whose knowledge of religion and history is better than mine (with respect that wouldn’t be too hard) I apologise for any errors in my understanding of what I saw and what I have been told.
Moving on from our religious moments, we continued to walk around the city and over bridges that form the network of roads and pathways. Nurnberg is a very busy city with a lot of people and cars moving about. It has a very large shopping centre made up of pedestrian malls and streets.

At noon the Lunar face clock tower puts on a special performance with the figurines moving around the King and being touched by his sceptre. This draws the usual crowd of punters and today was no exception with scores of Japanese school children armed with phone cameras catching all the action. I thought the photo of the Japanese taking photos was very apt!!. There is also a very old fountain in the town square that has a brass ring attached to it, well two of them actually. It is supposed to bring good luck if you can turn the ring three times and make a wish. There were queues of people lining up to do this and Martin discreetly told us that they were using the wrong one. The locals use the correct one which was on the other side of the fountain. The one being turned by the visitors of the city is very shiny and bright whereas the ‘real’ one is still very, very dark. We all made our wishes and I think in hindsight, some of those wishes may have come true.

We had lunch at an italian restaurant that was absolutely brilliant in the way it cooks and serves food. You walk in, are handed a card like a credit card and then go to the various sections of the restaurant that either cook pasta, salads, pizza, coffee or drinks. The girls had pasta and you have an extensive selection of pasta’s and sauces and then the chefs prepare it right in front of you while you wait. The concept is totally brilliant and one that would be a huge hit in Oz, so long as you had the customer base to support it.
The girls wanted to go shopping so Martin very wisely and me very unwisely chose to go home to catch up on some chores and naps. We went to every toy store in Nuremberg looking for a very special Bratz doll collection for Layni, unfortunately without success. Nikki has been looking for a particular type of soccer pants for some time that are long pants with padding she wanted for her soccer goalie position. She was far more successful and came away with just what she wanted. Gisela very kindly offered to take us out of the old city to another very large toy store some distance away and happy to say the trip was worth it, well for Layni anyway and she was able to find her Bratz doll and skidoo, bonus for us was that it was half the price that she had seen it at other stores for. Thank you Gisela!!!

We also had the opportunity to meet some of Gisela and Martin’s friends, Carmen and Thomas who live in an apartment in the old city of Nuremberg with their daughters Julia and Nina. We stopped by and had some coffee with Carmen and the girls. Julia and Nina and they are 15 and 12 and both speak very good English so it was great for Nikki and Layni to be able to spend some time talking to people of their age. It was especially nice for the girls to meet as they are all joining us at Gisela and Martin’s place for dinner on Friday evening
On the way back home we stopped at a little square not far from Gisela and Martin’s home where an Easter display had been made. They call these displays Easter egg fountains and they are made from empty egg shells which have been hand painted. There are hundreds and hundreds of eggs on display, all out in the open, exposed to the elements and the passing public. I am sorry to say that such a display would not last a night in Oz but these fountains last weeks over here before being deliberately dismantled. The work that goes into these things is amazing and the girls, and us, thought they were brilliant. The Easter tradition in Europe is incredibly strong with Easter displays everywhere and the great thing about it, is that it has very little, if any commercialisation to it like we, very unfortunately, suffer at home.

We got home in time to have a beer and then head off to a Greek Restaurant, just to be different, and Martin and Gisela very generously paid for us and we enjoyed some very well cooked Greek lamb and other delicacies. We spent the rest of the night at home sampling some grappa and catching up.

On Friday, we enjoyed some more bumburgers and got ready to head off to another medieval town called Rothenberg ob der Tauber. This town has very special memories for Deb and I as we camped here many years ago when we crossed Germany on our bikes. We fell in love with the town back then and were really looking forward to revisiting our past. We have had the luxury of being chauffeured around by Gisela in her beautiful BMW MX5 and Martin in his BMW 5 Series sedan. Gisela was getting a new car today so she could not join us and Martin took us out for the day. We stopped at a town called Ansbach which is the site of a large US Army contingent which has been there since the end of the war. It too is another medieval town with incredibly old and beautiful buildings, squares and churches. We had a wander around there and then headed for Rothenberg o. d. Tauber. Rothenberg is the only completely walled town in Germany and to me is one of the best examples of medieval architecture and history to be found. Courtesy of wikipedia, history lesson number 2 follows;
In 1274, Rothenberg became a Free Imperial City and at the time one of the 20 largest cities of the Holy Roman Empire. The population was around 5,500 people within the city walls and another 14,000 in the 150 square miles of surrounding territory.

In October 1631 during the Thirty Years' War, Catholic Count Tilly wanted to quarter his 40,000 troops in Protestant Lutheran Rothenburg. Rather than allow entrance, the town defended itself and intended to withstand a siege. However, Tilly's troops quickly defeated Rothenburg, losing only 300 soldiers. After the winter they left the town poor and nearly empty, and in 1634, the Black Plague killed many more. Without any money or power, Rothenburg stopped growing and preserved its 17th century state.
Since 1803 the town has been a part of Bavaria. Romanticism artists of the 1880s rediscovered Rothenburg, bringing tourism to the town. Laws were created to prevent major changes to the town.

In March 1945 in World War II, Nazi soldiers were stationed in Rothenburg defending it. On March 31, bombs were dropped over Rothenburg by 16 planes killing 39 people and destroying 306 houses, six public buildings, nine watchtowers, and over 2,000 feet (610 m) of the wall. The U.S Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy knew about the historic importance and beauty of Rothenburg, so he ordered US Army General Jacob L. Devers not use artillery in taking Rothenburg. American troops occupied the town on April 17, 1945, and in November 1948 McCloy was named Honorable Protectorate of Rothenburg.

I think it is fair to say that Deb and I consider Rothenburg to be one of our favourite places in Germany. The old town is quite small compared to places like Nurnberg but it is just brilliant to wander around the streets and then take in the views of the Tauber valley, above which the town sits. A couple of speciality bakers here also make a sweet which translates into snowballs and they are only made and sold in Rothenberg. They are a bit like a biscuit pastry that has various coatings and of course the girls, both big and small, had to sample. One of the great things about today was the weather; we were bathed in warm sunshine and clear skies and after the cold weather we have been experiencing it was nothing short of sensational. Rothenberg also has one of the biggest Christmas decoration stores in the world and although it looks rather small from the outside, the shop seems to go on forever inside. It is filled with the most amazing Christmas decorations you could ever possibly imagine. It is open all year round and is a major attraction for the city. You would really have to be the Christmas Grouch not to appreciate the incredible array of decorations. You would also have to be a multi to be able to afford one of every decoration that is made and displayed for sale, the prices are not what you would call cheap but they are certainly unique.

Our trip home was via the many autobahns that criss cross the country and it was a bit of an exhilarating trip back home with speed limits completely different to what we experience at home. The girls were intrigued in the back seat watching the speedo get up to 200 km/h! I am a bit gob smacked at the number of autobahns that cover the country and the amount of traffic that seems to be on them all at any given time. There are huge numbers of semi trailers and as the boarders of Europe are essentially completely open, massive numbers of trucks go across Europe 24 hours a day. Many of them seem to be from the Eastern European countries.

Carmen and Thomas and the girls came over for dinner and Birgit called in for a birthday drink. We had a fantastic night sitting down and talking to them and the girls got on like a house on fire and they played away till after midnight. Carmen had prepared some platters of different types of smoked fish and sauces which were just great and Gisela prepared her famous chilli con carne. The hours literally flew by and toward the end of the night, Gisela cranked up some John Williamson music which she and Martin love. Gisela does one of the best renditions of his song, ‘Boogie with ya baby” and if cracked everyone up. Maybe it was the half dozen grappa’s we had that made it sound even better. Thomas and Martin are somewhat connoisseurs of grappa and Thomas alone has about 20 different varieties. Have not really drunk much grappa before so I couldn’t tell the difference between grappa and a well cellared bottle of metho!! Email addresses were exchanged and promises made to keep in touch and I think it is a fair bet that we will see Thomas, Carmen and the girls again, we really hope so, they are a great family.

This morning we head for railway station to catch a train to Cologne where we stay for a night before we catch our flights down to Dubrovnik and what I believe might be 19 ‘C temperatures, whoo hooo!!!!! Catch up in Croatia ok.

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Photos

Inside the City walls
the 'tunnel' is actually through the city walls which shows just how incredibly thick the walls are.

The executioners bridge
The soon to be decapitated prisoners of the city had to walk across this bridge from the prison to face the axe

Click, click, click, click
Ahhh So

Making a wish
I think Layni may have been making a wish that had something to do with Bratz dolls!

Carmen and Thomas's apartment
Fourth set of windows from the bottom

Furby
One for Mikala Addendorf!

Looks like wishes do come true
Layni and her new Bratz collection