Nürnberg

Nürnberg Bahnhof

A tower visible just outside the train station

On my way back from Berlin I stopped at Nürnberg. Unfortunately, I had quite some difficulty with my train connections both due to some mistakes of my own and also some confusion on the part of the company providing the trains. Hence, I basically spent one afternoon and evening in Nürnberg. It was an enjoyable time, however, and the late Autumn sunset on the old city was quite impressive. Indeed, as soon as I stepped out of the train station (pictured above) and looked back at the building, I knew I was somewhere with great history and an impressive landscape. Looking forward, then, I could immediately see the inner sanctum of the old city, surrounded by a moat and with turrets and walls all around. For someone who grew up playing out elaborate stories, with toys or without, about castles, knights, and medieval times, this was like a fairytale come to life. What followed was a tour through the city mostly at random. I did remark that in many of these cities that I visited, the main downtown "old city" attractions do not recognize that there are, in fact, large parts of these cities that are modern, as well. Nonetheless, here in the old city I had much less guidance than I have in other cities. I knew a few places I wanted to visit (this was carried out entirely by foot). But largely just wandered.

Nürnberg Castle

One such destination was the Nürnberg castle, of course, beautifully painted in orange by the season and the setting sun. There were several constituent parts of the castle complex, all high up at the highest part of town. While I could not go inside, just walking from place to place and imagining what life would have been like when these were truly residences with a defensive purpose was amazing.

I also was not bereft of a cathedral to visit, but like most other things, because of the day of the week, time of the year, time of day, and short time I was there, I did not stop inside (in fact I did not stop in anywhere in Nürnberg). Nonetheless, the outside of the cathedral was beautiful and I appreciated seeing that aspect of this very old place, also. It's such an important piece of European history to learn about religion as well as politics, as books like The Pillars of the Earth have demonstrated.

One of the wonderful things about being in Nürnberg was to see the way the city's markets functioned. There were seemingly three arms of this. One was the standard market culture, selling normal items such as fruits and vegetables. Another was the Christmas market culture that was there due to the time of the year. While these markets were of course similar in sentiment and in wares to the markets in Vienna, they had a different feel to the, which was interesting to observe. Finally, there is the year round market in the center of the old city that sells wares made in old styles of craftsmanship. It was there that I had a wonderful conversation with a woman in a pewter store in both German and English and also where I picked up a hand-blown glass ornament. These markets reminded me of an earlier, "simpler" time (ignoring the philosophical debate about nostalgia) that is in some ways seen throughout Europe compared with the United States, but perhaps especially here in Nürnberg.

Just walking through Nürnberg's streets

Finally, since, as I mentioned, I had wonderful experiences walking around, I will add some photos of random things I happened upon. Among these things was the opera house, which was not particularly interesting from the outside, but which was fun to think about and the season for which was posted on the door.

The beautiful water that runs through the city

More pretty water

The opera house - almost in a Spanish style, seemingly