Nurnberg

Train from Frankfurt to Nurnberg, nice comfy seat with table & window seats to see the view. Arrived in Nurnberg early evening and hotel was just across road - just as well as it was very icy - luckily there was a subway which took us under the road and came up closer to the hotel. Really have to take care when walking as the snow gets really slippery when it is compacted. The trick is to step on the fresh snow when you can as there is more grip.

Nurnberg is a very pretty city - the old town still has a city wall and large round turrets on each corner of the town. Many beautiful old buildings, churches and at the other end of town up on a hill is Nurnberg Castle. We didn't stay long at the hotel after booking in - we wanted to something of the town - so off we went to explore. The town looked a picture with snow everywhere and christmas lights and decorations all over.

The next day we spent a bit of time walking through the town and the city museum which was very informative - I didn't really know much about Nuremberg so it was very ineresting seeing the change that had occurred in the town over the years throughout the Nazi era and before and after. There were models of the town showing the effects of the massive damage caused by bombing during the war and the reconstruction that took place afterwards. We headed further up the icy hill - taking great care not to slip and walked around the Castle - we didn't go inside though. We were due to meet Warwick at the railway station at about 5pm.

We collected Warwick and checked him into the hotel....Then we headed back to town and to the Christmas markets. We soon came across one of their market places - a pretty sight with lots of wooden stalls decorated up with christmas fare - selling yummy lebkuchen and special small nurnberg sausages, lovely wafers filled with marshmallow lots of gingerbread and of course Gluhwein of many flavours.My favourite Gluhwein is the Cherry (Kirschwein) yum yum - some stalls add rum to their mix which makes it extra yummy and very warming - but you can't have more than two or you will be totally "rum numbed" We came across one stall which had a large number of people hanging around - discovered the stall was making an old traditional recipe - they poured heated rum through sugar and added it to the gluhwein mix making for a very yummy rummy mixture.

It was lovely wandering around while the snow fell and groups of musicians played christmas carols. We headed back and came across a Kinder market - a christmas market set up for the children with bright merry go rounds and "gluhwein" without alcohol.