16th – 18th December
2015
Wonderful - But no snow !!!
We had booked a trip to the Nürnberg
Christmas Markets in central Germany several months ago, in the hope and
expectation that it would be at least cold, if not snowy – A real start to our
Christmas in Europe. Our good friends
the Skidmores had never been to these markets before either, so the four of us
were booked to fly there just for a couple of days.
Unfortunately, as everyone is now aware, El
Niño has caused Europe to be unbelievably mild this winter. We had a brief cold snap and snow fall back
at the beginning of December, but apart from that, it has been between 12 and
15 deg C most days ! While not only
confusing migratory birds who didn’t know when to head south for the winter, it
has also meant an almost total lack of snow anywhere in Europe, even in the
Alps. So we caught our flight to
Nürnberg knowing that it wouldn’t be quite as winter magical as we had
hoped, but still looking forward to a
fun couple of days in central Germany.
We arrived at our hotel at about 7 pm, and
immediately set off on the short 10 minute walk through the streets of the old
town to the central Hauptmarkt to find out what was there. The old city is a delight, with the original
walls and gates of the old city, and most of the central area a designated
pedestrian area. The central square is a mass of stalls selling sausages,
glühwein, traditional ginger bread and fruit cakes, and all possible types of
Christmas Tree decorations and other traditional German handicrafts. We wandered around for an hour or two until
the stalls started to close up for the night, had some food, glühwein and beer,
and then wandered back to our hotel and to our beds.
The next morning we headed off to look for
a traditional German breakfast – But ended up in the wrong place and were a bit
disappointed ! We then went off and
explored the Children’s Market area – Full of amazing old carousels, wooden
rides, and stalls that each had a mechanized mural above them. Just a beautiful area for children at
Christmas time.
From there we headed back into the main
market place in front of the impressive façade of the Frauenkirche, where we explored
more of the many stalls, and chewed on a few nibbles we bought along the
way. We made our way up through the old
town, past the old Rathaus (Town Hall), and St Sebaldus Church, past different
areas of the markets, including one square where all the stalls are from other
countries around the world, in a ‘Partner country” section. Slowly we had our way up the hill on the
north side, towards the Imperial Castle which overlooked the entire city.
During the Middle Ages, this castle was one
of the most important imperial palaces in the Holy Roman Empire. For centuries it stood at the heart of
European history as a residence for the Empire’s Head of State. With the chapel
built around 1200, and the remainder of the castle built over the following
years of the Middle Ages, it has tremendous historical significance, as does
the city of Nuremberg. We explored the
outside of the castle and its walls and buildings in pleasantly dry weather,
and afterwards headed down to a restaurant we had spied earlier, set in the
walls below the castle.
This restaurant turned out to be excellent
and we had a wonderful lunch of various dishes cooked in the local Bavarian style. Plus a few glasses of excellent local beer
! We then split up and wandered around
the old city at our own pace for a couple of hours.
Nürnberg was significant in the Nazi era
also, being in central Germany, and was a headquarters as well as the site of
many of the large rallies and gatherings of the time. As a consequence, the city was largely
destroyed by bombing during the war, and much of it has had to be rebuilt. Wandering through the old town, it is hard to
realize that the buildings and magnificent churches have been largely rebuilt , and it is only when
one sees old photos of what was left of the town in 1945 that one realizes the
true extent of the damage and the wonderful work that has been done to rebuild
the city in its former style. The old
walls, and famous houses like the Albrecht Durer house and the Pilatushaus in
the Tirgärtne have all been renovated to their original condition.
There are also extensive tunnels under the
city that were originally constructed to store the beer at optimum temperatures. The tunnels were extended and used for
armament storage during the war, but are now open for tours.
As the evening drew in, we continued to
explore different areas of the markets, and by the time we met up with the
Skids again at about 6 pm, we had weary
legs and were ready for a beer or two.
Many of the hostelries were booked solid, but we eventually found a
great little place up at the north end of town where we could relax and sit
down for a while. Very pleasant. As we walked back through the town, horse drawn carriages were wandering through
the streets, and it was a magical scene – If only it had been colder and white
!
On the way home we past various buskers,
had some food at a fairly basic place, and then headed back to the hotel where
we had a few nightcaps in the bar before heading up to bed.
The next morning we went to the local
railway station which is one of the old original buildings in the city, and
while there, had a coffee to start the day.
We then crossed over into the old city again, this time through the Hallertürlein gate and shopping area, until we came to the St Lorenz Church,
another one that was badly damaged during the war, but has now been
rebuilt. After a quick look inside here,
we headed on back to the central market where we had promised ourselves a local
hamburger at one of the stalls before we had to head to the airport for our
flight back to London.
These hamburgers were delicious, so juicy
and tasty, and we sheltered under a walkway with them as the rain started to
come down. Once we had finallt finished
them, we needed a beer before we left, so we stopped at a bar beside the river
for one before we headed back to our hotel, and then on to the airport.
Our return flight was via Düsseldorf where
we had time between flights to have some supper at the excellent restaurant
they have in the airport, and we finally made it back to John and Di’s home
just in time to fall in to bed exhausted.
An excellent couple of days with some great
friends in a wonderful old city. Shame
it wasn’t more wintery, but this winter just isn’t going to be like that ! 2
days was just the right length of time
and we now had a few days to prepare for Christmas !!
Rest of the photos are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0393NurnbergChristmasMarketsGermany?authkey=Gv1sRgCNmCr6ic8NuEQQ
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