Nuremberg

My first train to Nuremberg arrived early for a nice change. Also welcome was my accommodation on board. Being poor I had booked the cheapest seats available. On the train to Düsseldorf, this meant a non-reclining chair in a compartment with two snoring Austrians who had accidentally boarded the wrong train. This time around, though, it was a reclining chair not unlike those employed by dentist, although infinitely more comfortable. My ride lasted five and a half hours, with my train arriving early at Karlsruhe where I had my first connection. My second train lasted a brief 45 minutes, from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart, and my third train two hours from Stuttgart to Nuremberg.
Thus I arrived at Nuremberg at 8:15 this morning (this being, again, the 29th of September), not as tired as I had thought I would be. I hung out in the Nuremberg train station for another two hours before depositing my luggage in a locker and starting my tour.
While Münster had, temperature-wise, ranged from brisk to annoyingly cold, Nuremberg was freezing. I remember seeing frost on the fields as I headed towards Nuremberg on my train, and the weather did not abate once I reached the city.
Nuremberg itself is not especially large, but all of the things that I wanted two see were located within five minutes’ walk of each other. This meant that I spend about 3 hours total seeing and photographing things and about 2 hours sitting on benches and reading. Still, the things that I saw were all excellent, considering the condition in which the city left World War II.. Like Münster, Nuremberg had been pretty badly savaged during the war, and most of the Altstadt was obliterated. However, everything that had been destroyed was rebuilt as it had been before, and there is still a great number of structures on the city’s periphery that survived the bombings. These include the city’s walls, which mostly encircle it, and the Imperial Castle, which is located at the northernmost edge of the Altstadt.
I walked first through the southern half of the city, passing by some of Nuremberg’s famous fountains, such as the Fountain of Virtue and the Carousel of Married Life Fountain. This last is too crazy for words, but I took plenty of pictures so you all can see exactly how strange it was. I crossed the Pegnitz by means of the Executioner’s Way, a covered bridge which lead to an island in the river. This same island used to be the residing-place of the city’s executioner, who by virtue of his employment was deemed unfit to live with the rest of the citizenry.
I crossed the river again to come to the Beethoven Monument, and then took a winding path that followed the city walls. The path eventually lead me to the Imperial Castle by way of Albrecht Dürer’s house. The castle was quite imposing, built from local sandstone. In places, the walls had simply been carved out of the cliffs, interrupting the regular geometry of the wall-blocks with their organic flow. I went up and into the castle courtyard before turning back and walking down the hill toward the Hauptmarkt. The Hauptmarkt is a massive gathering-place for any kind of small business which can occupy tents. I saw everything from paprika to beer steins to vacuum cleaners on sale there. The Hauptmarkt is bordered on the west by the Frauenkirche and on the north by the Sebalduskirche. The Sebalduskirche was very nearly demolished by Allied bombers, but was totally reconstructed within ten years of its destruction. Today the church, like the Paulusdom in Münster, has part of Coventry Cathedral enshrined within; in this case a cross forged from some of the nails used in the construction of the cathedral.
I ended my tour of Nuremberg by crossing the Museumsbrücke before heading back to the train station. My train arrives in two hours now, and I’m looking forward to sleeping in a bed again. Classes start on the 7th of October, and I’m glad of a chance to rest and recover before I tackle the challenge of college in German.

Catch you all on the flip side.

-JA