A three hour zip up the autobahn brought us to Nuremberg. A new city for us. We’ve always somehow skipped it as it’s never fell at the right time for a stopping point.
Have to say, we were a little bit disappointed. Although we knew it had been bombed to bits in the war, a lot of the medieval buildings still remain, but they’re interspersed with quite nondescript modern stuff. Some strange folk around and lots of homeless people in shop doorways.
We parked on the outskirts luckily, in a beautiful park near the Kongresshalle and rally ground where the Nazis held their notorious party rallies. We found it really difficult to know what we were looking at – had to have another read up about it when we got back.
The Kongresshalle looks something like the colosseum from the outside. Built to seat 50,000 but never completed – hence inside is just a mess with some kind of building work going on. There’s a modern museum at the Documentation Centre which is joined on. Somehow, we missed the rally ground which is 2km down the Grosse Strasse opposite. We’ll have to do that in the morning.
Got on a tram into the old town but couldn’t find a ticket machine or anyone to pay so that was a bargain.
In the square, they were gearing up for the world famous Christmas market with a few stalls already up and running. There was a jazzy looking fountain called the Schöner Brunnen and a few old churches. Carrying on up the hill, we reached the Kaiserburg and looked down over the roof tops of the old town.
On the way back down, Guy got himself a Kurdish haircut while I had a wander around. We then went to the tube station and decided it was too busy, so came back up and passed an hour sitting in the street with a Franconian bratwurst mit brot and glass of gluhwein.
