Nuremberg is the 2nd largest (after Munich) city in Bavaria, with a population of 511,628. The city was first mentioned in 1050 and was sometimes referred to as the “unofficial capital of the Roman Empire” because the Imperial Diet and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. It gained notoriety in the 1930s/1940s when the Nazi Party chose Nuremberg as the site for its conventions and Nazi rallies. Most people know Nuremberg because the “Nuremberg Trials” held here following WWII.

In Nuremberg we had the choice of two different local walking  tours: Nuremberg and WWII or Highlights of Nuremberg. I did not think Yvonne would enjoy the WWII tour so we selected the highlights tour. We were first taken to the Nuremberg castle within the walled city. The first construction at the castle occurred around 1000, with subsequent additions made in the 12th and 13th centuries. We were not able to enter any of the buildings but did walk around the area. An interesting 15th century building houses the deep (164 feet) water well which was the only source of water for the castle.

From there we walked downhill into the old town proper where we toured the large market square and surrounding buildings.

There was a choice of returning to the ship for lunch and returning later in the afternoon for sightseeing on our own or staying in town until mid-afternoon when shuttle buses would be available to take us back to the ship. There had been considerable discussion about the Nuremberg famous bratwursts and we decided we would rather eat lunch here than on the ship so we stayed behind. The main market square was filled with vendors selling food and/or products so we simply stopped at a booth to buy a bratwurst sandwich. The bratwurst here are different than what we get in the USA. They are smaller, more like a breakfast link sausage. A sandwich consists of three of the sausages served on a round crunchy bun with or without sauerkraut. We chose the sauerkraut. It was excellent; the sausages had a milder taste than US versions, which I liked.  Once that was consumed we spotted a booth selling raclette, something we fondly remember from trips to Switzerland. Raclette is a semi-hard cow’s cheese that is melted, then slathered onto a baguette- basically a sort of cheese sandwich. We shared one and enjoyed every last bite!

 

We wandered the market square area looking at the products we did not need and slowly worked our way to the other end of the old town where we were able to catch a bus back to the ship.

At 5:30 there was another lecture, this time on the Main-Danube Canal built in the 1960s to connect the Main and Danube Rivers. In 792 Charlemagne recognized the need and tried to build a canal. It did not go far and failed. In 1836 King Ludwig I did build a canal but it proved uneconomical over time and was abandoned in the 1950s because of war damage. Finally in 1962 a new effort was undertaken and by 1992 the current canal was completed. Surprisingly today it is mostly used by river boat tourism, rather than for commercial shipping.

After dinner our Tour Director, Alina, led us in a version of “Family Feud” where our teams tried to guess what 100 people had given as answers to a series of questions. You earned the number of points equal to that number that those people gave as an answer. Let me illustrate. The question is “what item must you bring when you travel abroad”? The most likely answers given are shown in slide below. If your team gave the same answer you got that number of points. After 10 questions the team with the most points won. Again, we came in second, missing out by 4 points (the winner had 351 points, we had 347)!  We picked Celine Dion rather than Justin Bieber as a famous Canadian!  Needless to say it was a fun evening.