Nurenburg

What do you know about Nurnberg?

Prior to yesterday, I would have said, "its in Germany and its where the Nurnberg trials were?!"

But now, I know and have seen so much more... we took our lovely little local tram to Hauptbahnhof, where Micah had reserved tickets on the ICE train (aka really fast train).  Val kept calling it the "Frozen" train.  Thank you, Disney.  She will forever relate any and every thing possible to that movie. :)

So here they are, in their own little seats.

What would take just over 2 hours by car, took us one hour by train, and we arrived in Nurnberg!
I end up pushing the stroller behind Micah and the girls a lot when we're "adventuring."  The scenery around us changes, but the view never gets old. :)
We strolled through Craftsmen's Courtyard (Handwerkhof)....though it looks quite old, it was actually built in 1971.  It gives off the medieval vibe pretty well, considering it never experienced one day of the Middle Ages.

We basically followed Konigstrasse (translated King's Street), the city's main street, straight through to the Imperial Castle at the other end, stopping along the way to gaze at a few sights.

One of the few we popped into was St. Lawrence Church (Lorenszkirche). The front facade is amazing.  I could stare at the details for hours and never take it all in.  But then to step inside...

Sometimes the beauty of a church (or cathedral, depending on whether or not the town had a bishop.  Nurnberg did not and therefore, this is simply a church), overwhelms me and the intricate details get overlooked.  Though some of this city was destroyed in WWII, this church was preserved.  The "tabernacle tower" below is one of those things.  This church is now Protestant, but it was previously Catholic.  This tower was a "house of sacraments" that stored the consecrated Communion wafer.  The theme of the carvings is the Passion and I can attest... not a detail is left out.  It is amazing.

(As you can see, Micah actually took these pictures.  Here I am, contemplating the intricacies with Valerie, while Elsie crunches away on her pretzels.)

The day was originally forecasted to rain, but (thank you, Lord!) the sun shone bright ALL day long.  It seemed that every trade in the city was out in the street, selling their goods... Val is thinking of Autumn already and really liked the decorated pumpkins!

This is the Holy Ghost Hospital, stretching over the river that runs East to West through the city.  The hospital was orginally founded in the 14th century!

Looking the other way down river, is Fleischbrucke-or "Meat Bridge."  It was built in 1596 and was considered the most high-tech bridge of it's time because it is single span (not supported anywhere in the middle).

In the main town square, Hauptmarkt, is this fancy fountain, literally called Beautiful Fountain.  Overwhelmingly detailed, the one we focused in on, because the girls thought it was pretty cool, was the gold ring.  Spinning the ring 3 times brings good luck...

So I helped Val spin it and then I helped Kate spin it.  Does that mean I'll have good luck too?  Because I forgot to do it by myself... oops. :)

I can't believe I didn't photograph Nurnbergers...tiny little sausages that this city is known for.  They are very tasty and we devoured ours at lunch time...and we had fun with our lunch-time pretzels too.  (By the way, anytime in Bavaria is pretzel time!)

After lunch, we finished the trek across town and uphill to Kaiserburg - the castle!  In the Middle Ages, Emperors stayed here when they were in town and one man who worked here also showed the girls where the princesses stayed.  He told them they'd sit by the huge fireplace and spin on their loom.  Kate was like, "Huh? What's that?"  We have a lot to learn about what real princesses used to do for fun...and it wasn't freeze the ground and have an ice skating party in the palace courtyard!

After looking at this tower, Val asked if Repuzel was up there because she could see a face in one of the windows! :)

View from the Castle overlooking the city...

And inside the castle..

Huge, heavy wood doors still hang between each room.  Though the girls tried, they couldn't open the doors themselves!

The castle's church...

Just one of the rooms...the green object in the corner is one of the many fancy fireplaces!

The castle housed an amazing collection of amour and weapons.  Even Elsie thought it was pretty cool!

Once back outside again, the girls had ONE thing on their mind.  GELATO.  Yum.

We sat by a fountain in the down the street a ways and gazed back at the castle on the hill...

Then we headed towards a tram and headed out of the city center to some Nazi sites.  Nurnberg was Hitler's favorite place for a really big party.  And this was one of the first things we heard/smelled/saw when we got off the tram.  A fair.  Seriously?  Here we are, trying to wrap our minds around a gruesome, but real part of history and people are having a party.  Games, rides, cotton candy, the works.  But then it hit me.  These people have moved on.  The past is in the past.  Though they recognize the truth of what happened, they cannot and will not live there any longer.

Literally, right next to the fair rides, is this building - Congress Hall.  Inside is the Nazi Documentation Center, a museum of sorts to help understand how and why it all happened.

The other site we walked around and sat on the steps of was the Rally Grounds, specifically, Zeppelin Field.  These grounds help up to 250,000 people at a time, where Hitler and his crew would celebrate Nazi culture and power.  For 6 years, the rallies were held here annually.  It was here, in 1935 that the Nazis came up with their first laws defining Jews as second-class citizens.  Those laws became known as the Nurnberg Laws.

After such a heavy site to behold and before we got on the ICE train, the girls needed a little run-around.  We found this fun fountain.  They not only entertained themselves, but several others while they ran back and forth, splashing and goofing around in the water.

Here's Val, after a long day of travel and adventure...with her beloved "Frozen" ICE train.

We had a fabulous day out visiting this city.  At the end of our adventures, we always ask the girls their favorite parts.  Inevitably, it includes the train ride and the treat.  Not that super cool old church or that brick tower in the castle, or even the waitress wearing the Dirndl.  Not the fact that we are in GERMANY.  Oh no.  It's the train.  It's the ice cream.  What more could a kid want?   :)