[travel] Europe 2009 - Friday 8 May - Monday 11 May

oshlo.blogspot.com - As I mentioned in the previous journal, I was headed for Nürnberg, Germany, on Friday, 8 May, by train from the Czech Republic where I’d been visiting my photo friends.

The train ride was pleasant and noneventful, thank goodness. I didn’t get as much writing done on the train this trip because of my new gadget, the iPodTouch. I spent lots of time listening to music and podcasts, especially stories from Moth.com, P.R.I. and other cool sites. It really cut into my writing, though, so I’ll have to rethink my iPod time for the next trip!

Upon my arrival in Nürnberg, or Nuremberg for you Americans, I began the search for my hotel that I’d booked through Expedia a few days before. I had no problem! It was only a few steps from the train station, a neighborhood that, generally, means seedy characters and ratty accommodations. But the area around the train station here was not like other cities like Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

Nürnberg’s train station is just across the street from the Old Town, which I wanted to visit, and it has a great underground walkway to Old Town that keeps you out of the mad traffic above. Plus it’s not too threatening at night like some other places I’ve been.

Nürnberg’s train station:

My accommodations, the Hotel Marienbad, were located on Eilgutstrasse, which translates into “Express Mail Street” - maybe there was a post office there or something. Anyway, this place was great! I found it with no problem just about 100 yards from the side door on the train station. The directions I’d been given by Expedia were spot on, and they were expecting me. The girl behind the desk spoke excellent English, as did all the other staff I spoke to that weekend. The room was spacious and light, with a big bed, desk and TV. There were even two channels in English! I also had a private bathroom, always a treat, even if it was the size of an airplane bathroom with a tiny shower tacked on. It was all I needed!

I’d visited Nürnberg before. My first memory of it was in December 1987 when my then-new husband was introducing me to Germany. I’d just arrived a week or so before - my very first trip to Europe! - and we visited Nürnberg’s Christmas market, one of the most famous of Christmas markets.

I can still remember how bone-cold it was and how the gluhwein (mulled wine) warmed us as we strolled through several squares crowded with stalls displaying goodies and ornaments. I had my first Lebkuchen then, Nürnberg’s famous gingerbread Christmas cookie, and I can still hear the chestnut vendor singing out, “Heissen Maroni - Heissen Maroni!” as we passed.

I’ve been back two or three times since, but it was always with someone, so I wanted to go back and poke around by myself. Plus my Czech friends, who always have so much for me to do, had just worn me out!

Nürnberg, a Bavarian city about an hour by train from Bamberg where my German friends live, dates from 1050 became an important trade center between Italy and Northern Europe under the rule of the Prussian Hohenzollern family early on. It was the center of the German Renaissance in the 15^th and 16^th Centuries. It weathered the Reformation and the Thirty Years’ War then became an important industrial center in the 19^th Century.

Nürnberg’s Old Town Wall:

Gate into the Old Town Handwerkerhof, a section of little shops selling traditional German items such as wooden puppets, dirndls, and wurst. Although I was able to see it during my visit, it was closed the day I took this photo:

Medieval towers on the Old Town Wall and just inside it:

The stone structure on the left in this photo is the base of the taller tower in the previous photo. The umbrella in the center of the shot is in front of an Irish pub where, in earlier days, I downed many an Amaretto shot with Guiness chasers while singing Irish drinking songs!

The first pocket watches, known as Nürnberg eggs were invented there, and it was the site of the first German railroad. The Nazis used Nürnberg as an important center and much of their artillery and war machines were produced there. And of course, everyone has heard of the Nuremberg Trials in which the Nazi leaders were tried and convicted of war crimes.

It was heavily bombed during WWII, but the huge Old Town section has been rebuilt to its Medieval glory and the rest of the city is an important industrial center today.

I was a little disappointed that I’d landed in Nürnberg during one of their semi-annual flea markets, or Trempelmarkt, Germany’s largest. Therefore, the Old Town was wall to wall with tables of everything you can think of, crap to treasure to produce to you name it. Plus it was mobbed with people. I had intended to get some good shots of the cathedral and some people-watching photos, but it was just too crowded and frantic. I got a few shots but decided to save that project for Sunday after it was over.

I got these shots, though, which might give you an idea of what it was like:

You may know that the artist Albrecht Dürer, Germany’s most famous artist, is from Nürnberg, and I got the shot below of his house. He lived during the Renaissance and one of his most famous paintings is Adam and Eve. Though there were many paintings of Adam and Eve before his in 1507, his was the first to depict them as very real people with realistic human bodies. In addition, as with all of Dürer’s work, it is very photo-realistic as well.

At the summit of the highest point in Nürnberg, and just behind Dürer’s house, is the huge Imperial Castle. Though I didn’t go in, I certainly climbed up the steep stairs and found a most beautiful garden there!

Poking about the castle grounds was relaxing and peaceful. There were huge shade trees and many, many gardens with benches. There weren’t so many people around and it was a great break. On my way down from the hill on the other side of the castle, I witnessed a group of tux-clad men chatting just outside an arched gate. I hung around a little to see what they were up to, and presently a bride and her bridesmaids emerged from the gate and they all got into large black German cars and drove away as a small but tearful group waved them goodbye.

Then, back to reality, I wandered through the flea market again, making my way back to the hotel. On the way, I saw this car:

Yes, it says what you think it does on the side. I’d seen this model of car in Liberec before and later tracked it down on the web. It’s actually a Smart car made by Mercedes - you Americans have seen the abbreviated model that looks rather like a large roller skate. This is their roadster that I don’t think they sell in the States. The writing on the side is an ad for a nightclub, I believe. I hope so, anyway!

This next photo is a picture of white asparagus, or Spargel, as the Germans call it. It is the same variety as green asparagus, but it is grown under a mound of sand and compost that prevents it from getting any sun, thus the lack of green color. I’ve seen many fields of rows of Spargel mounds with (usually) women bent over them during harvest. Spargel is available only in the spring and whole markets and festivals are devoted to it in certain locales. I had two meals of it while in Nürnberg because it was in season and all the restaurants were featuring it.

I had never seen it in America before this year; however, I actually was able to purchase some in Florida this Fall at a SuperTarget store! It was great because I am working on a German travel/recipe book and was able to test the recipe I had written down at my friend Hilde’s this trip.

After my first night at the wonderful Hotel Marienbad, I came down to breakfast. I said hello to the cherubic red-haired desk clerk and stepped into the dining room. It was mostly deserted so I chose a table by the window that had three place settings on it. The desk clerk, who was also doubling as the dining room attendant, had followed me in and said, “Yes, it’s ok, you can sit there,” and proceeded to move the other two place settings off my table.

It was then I realized I’d breached European etiquette. I remembered too late that hotels set up the tables according to who has paid for breakfast along with their room and how many are in the traveling party. So, I’d inadvertently sat at a table they’d set up for a party of three. My table, set for one, was on the other side of the room. You’re supposed to look for a table set for the number of people in your party and sit there. I’d forgotten that. Fortunately, Europeans are aware that Americans don’t usually know this and make allowances such as my hostess did that day.

I polled my hostess about where might be a good café to sit and write since I was far behind where I wanted to be in my journal. I wanted to avoid the flea market crowd and catch up a little. She recommended Literaturhaus Café that was only a couple of blocks inside the Old Town walls.

The day was bright, warm and sunny and I enjoyed the short walk to the café. It was a huge place and the side facing the street was fitted with sliding glass doors that they had opened so that the inside tables could enjoy the weather just like the outer patio tables. I sat just inside the open doors because all the smokers were outside and had a great people-watching position as I wrote. I must have been there four hours or more, enjoying the coffee, the weather and the quiet time.

At one point these two men, dressed almost alike, took up a position at a table in front of me. I couldn’t help getting a couple of shots of them as they watched the people passing by:

As I wrote, I noticed many people coming into and out of a store just opposite the café. It was such a diverse group, from retirees to dreadlocked hikers, that I wondered what it was all about. Turns out that the place was a book shop associated with the Neues Museum (New Museum) in the square just beyond.

This shop had, I’m not kidding you, EVERY art book known to man! Bookshelves lined the walls from floor to ceiling with rows and rows of shelves in between. Anything you could imagine in the way of art history, artist biographies, architecture, painting, drawing, comics, stained glass, sculpting, eras, fads, movements, trends, disciplines - you name it, it was there in many languages. Oh, my! I spent another couple of hours just reading titles and perusing the stacks in there. What a treat! I’ve never seen anything like it. I could have spent a million dollars in there!

The next day was Sunday. It was Mother’s Day and I was out early doing some more photos. First stop was the impressive opera house just down the street:

This picture I’d shot on Saturday of a lost shoe that had been placed on the base of a column of the St. Lorenz cathedral set the stage for a series of photos I ended up doing on Sunday:

Because the flea marketers had packed up their tables and goods and hauled them away the night before, I found a somewhat disturbing trail of lost doll shoes on Sunday, all within a specific area:

I treated myself to my favorite of all German foods that day: schnitzel. I love the stuff! I know, it’s pork and it’s breaded and it’s fried, and it comes with fries, but MAN! I never eat it at home, so I pretty much scarf it up when I’m in Europe. I found a great restaurant upstairs overlooking one of the squares where I could watch families all dressed up after church bring their mothers, carrying roses, for a nice Mother’s Day lunch. Of course I ordered the Spargel side dish.

As I was enjoying my meal, I realized that the restaurant I was in was a place that my husband and I used to come to back in the day. I’d wondered if I could find it before I arrived in Nürnberg and here I was sitting in it! Amazing how your subconscious works for you without your realizing it!

From the window there I watched people in the square gather around a highly ornate and gilded fountain surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. They climbed up, one by one, to touch something I could see gleaming in the sunshine and most times get their pictures taken doing so. I couldn’t see what they were touching, though, so after lunch I went down for a closer look.

The fountain is called Schöner Brunnen which means “beautiful fountain.” And so it is. The fountain dates from the late 1300’s, and the ornate gates and fencing were made in 1587 by a locksmith. Holes have been bored in the iron bars of the fence so that, when it was assembled, all the pieces interlock. It’s quite a piece of engineering. The present ornate top, or crown, was added in 1823 and was also designed by a locksmith.

The thing that people were climbing up to was a brass ring that is incorporated into the ironwork. It’s part of the structure, but it can be turned freely. The legend goes that if you turn it three times you will have good luck. Well, I’m all for that, so up I climbed!

After lunch I wandered around a little more and got myself an ice cream cone. They serve gelato-like ice cream in Germany and it’s SO good! Then I returned to my room and did some more writing. Then I watched a Czech film on my computer that Jana had given me. It’s called Samotari, which means Loners. It was a quirky film, as are most Czech movies, and I enjoyed it. It was more modern than the ones I’d seen before.

That’s about it for my time in beautiful Nürnberg . The next day I hopped a train back to Bamberg where my German friends Adi and Hilde were waiting for me. Stay tuned for my tour of Bamberg!

other source : http://solopos.com, http://komnatachista.blogspot.com, http://okezone.com

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