German Christmas Tour: Day 7 - Nuremberg (2/2)

Out of bed this morning for an 8am breakfast in the hotel. Man how I love a German cold meat and brotchen spread. German coffee? not so much! but I'll take what I can get. Bellies full, we headed out to get more of a look at old town, heading in the general direction of the castle.

Just behind the weiss turm, which is itself just around the coner from the hotel, we found the famous 1984 sculpture by Jürgen Weber inspired by the poem 'Bitter-sweet married life' by Hans Sachs. The Ehekarussell (Marriage Merry-Go-Round) depicts the various ups a downs that can befall a couple during their life, and is at the same time comic and profound.

The Ehekarussell (Marriage Merry-Go-Round)

Continuing on down towards the (Pegnitz) river, we explored the set of bridges that criss-cross the waterway at the centre of old town. Of particular interest was the covered Henkersteg (hang man's bridge) leading to the hangman's residence on an island in the centre of the stream. Some amazing views were had of the various towers and residences built close to the water's edge, and all without any tour groups to get in our way (or our photos!).

Bridges and buildings of the Pegnitz river.

Crossing the river for the final time, we made our way back up to St Sebaldus church, through Albert Durer platz and thence along Bergstrasse to Tiergärtnertor Square at the base of castle hill. More picturesque half-timbered houses were glimpsed along the way, culminating in Albert Dürer's house on the square. All quite lovely, if not quite serene, now that the tour groups had started to make an appearance.

Tiergärtnertor Square

Still, we made time to admire the amazing sculpture dedicated to the work of Albert Dürer - the Düre-Hase - which shows a huge Hare (with a few smaller ones) bursting out of a crate and squashing a human trappen underneath. Really amazing work.

The Düre-Hase sculpture

  Albert Dürer's house

Feeling the need for coffee before we started the next part of our day, we descended back down Bergstrasse to a quaint cafe (Café Maulbeere) that Eb assured us was a jazz cafe. It was playing Whitney Houston when we arrived, much to the chargrin of all :). The quality of the coffee (fresh milk!) more than made up for the lack of Jazz however and we spent a few quiet minutes recharging our batteries.

Yummy coffee at Café Maulbeere

From coffee to beer! No sooner was the coffee drunk than we joined an organised tour of the rock-cut beer cellars that honeycomb the higher areas of old town (like castle hill). Absolutely essential for the production of the cities red beer in the middle ages, and again for saving the population during the second world war, the cellars were amazing to visit and I couldnt recommend the tour more.

Rock-cut beer cellars under Nuremberg

The all-important gerkin chute

We ended our tour at the Altstadthof brewery right there on Bergstrasse (being the main user of the cellars for beer production these days). We were shown their whiskey still, as well as the maturation barrels. Not that interesting for me, for I was now gagging to taste the Altstadthof Rot bier in all it's various forms!

Whiskey distillation/ barrels from rot beer.

In no time we had ensconsced ourselves in the Altstadthof Braustuble, and ordered a round of drinks. In particular Eb and I ordered a tasting set consisting of Altstadthof classic Rot Bier, the Altstadthof Hefeweizen and the Altstadthof Roter Bock. Biers 9, 10 & 11 of this trip!

Biers 9, 10 & 11 - Altstadthof Hefeweizen, Original Rot and Roter Bock

The Original Rot Bier was particularly good, and even the Bock was really, really smooth; lacking that normal 'Bock' fume you sometimes get (dare I say it - similar in smoothness to the Andechs Doppelbock!).

We complimented our beer selection with some lunch - the Nurnberger wurst with Sauerkraut making another very welcome appearance. This time Eb and I even had a side salad! Probably a good idea given our recent beer + pork diet.

More Nurnbergers! Yum!!

Bier 12 - Altstadthof Nuremberg SchwarzBier

We finished off our meal with one final bier from the brewery roster, bier #12 - Altstadthof Nuremberg SchwarzBier. Yet another sensational beer displaying the same smoothness of the Rot beer but with darker, maltier, caramal undertones. Very nice indeed!

Our bellies full, and our legs a little wobbly, we proceeded up the hill to the Nuremberg Imperial Castle. Whilst we didn't pay for admission to any tours or such, it was still an incredibly impressive structure, commanding an awesome view out over old town.

Nuremberg Imperial Castle

Descending from the lofty heights of castle hill we rejoined the literal throng of people at the main christmas market. Still as impressive as fuck, it now had maybe 10x the number of people crammed into it, making each of the American tourists I had to get stuck behind all the more rage inducing. Who told these guys about Europe anyway? To be fair, most of the throng were German weekend trippers, but hey.

We browsed a little, and gave Clau the opportunoty to sample some of the market that she'd missed the day before. I bought some more warm Lebkuchen straight out of oven, and existed in a state of bliss while it lasted. Katrina and Clau pawed over the mushroom castles (it's too complicated, ask me some other time) until several were duly purchased. 

The chaos of the christmas market on a Saturday

Having had jack of the crowds though, we decided to have a rest back at the hotel - not before I bought a take-home pack of Lebkuchen. This one was from a different supplier, so let's hope it's just as good!

After a good rest (and work on this treatise) we ventured out for an evening in the christmas-adjacent-carnival that had sprouted around the weiss turm near the hotel. We started with a round of drinks - the now infamous egg nogg, which the others couldn't stomach (basically all brandy) - and my perfectly acceptable hot chocolate.

The christmas-adjecent carnival

Like all carnivals, the quality of fare just wasn't quite there. I ordered a half metre wurst in a baguette, and spent the rest of the time valiantly trying to locate the wurst. Eb ordered some very dissapointing curry wurst and pommes. Katrina and Clau got themselves Nutella and strawberry crepes which were, by all accounts, perfectly acceptable!

Before we left the carnival, we decided to ride the ferris wheel. OMG. How did I forget how absolutely terrifying ferris wheels are? How did I forget that they stop and hang you at the top? At least I've re-affirmed my fear of being locked into unsteady, rocking high places. And seemingly Eb has inherited my fear of same. Poor bastard.