When Snow White Needs A New Grumpy . . .
Nuremberg 5/6/2019
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog on our visit to Regensburg how when we came out of the town museum that it had turned cold and rainy.
Well, today wasn’t better. In fact it was worse, with 30° at 4:30 this morning, and only up to 32 by 8:30. So everyone was scrambling, including us, for some warm coats/jackets. Everyone had looked at the average temps this time of the year and packed their clothes according, not planning for daytime temps in the 30’s.
In fact the ship sold out of their fleece jackets like the ones we got (on the left)
and had to get the much more expensive ones on the right.
Our Nuremberg walking tour was in the afternoon, so we had lunch up on the Aquavit Terrace which is kind of a light buffet, with both hot and cold dishes. One of which was listed as “Meatloaf”.
Well, it was meat, and it is in a loaf, I guess. But it AIN’T Meatloaf. It’s more like one of those Hormel canned hams. But I guess that some mushrooms and a little gravy makes it all good. Or not.
Today the Skirnir was docked right in town so we were able to step right off the ship and onto our tour buses.
Looking back at the ship we saw that the Sundeck was still configured for the upcoming low bridges.
Not only does the wheelhouse retract into the the deck when necessary, but so does the ‘BBQ Grill’ on the left side. There’s also one on the right side that’s retracted now.
I call them ‘BBQ Grills’ because that’s what they call them, because that’s what they look like. I thought that maybe the cooks use them for BBQ’ing, but actually they’re Auxiliary Control Panels.
The Skirnir has thrusters that can actually move the ship sideways. So they just pull up besides the dock and then move sideways until they’re perfectly positioned. And the Auxiliary Panels let them keep a close eye on the dockside as they’re moving.
Neat!
Our tour started out by passing by a number of the Nazi stadiums, rally grounds, and buildings, including the Federal Building where the Nuremberg Trials were held in Rm. 600. And trials are still held there today.
Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos because of the darkened and curved glass windows on the bus, so just use your imagination.
After our bus tour, we began our walking tour of the old city, including the medieval Nuremberg Castle.
I will have to admit that the Castle tour almost finished Jan and I off. The walk up to the Castle was a very steep climb, with largest cobblestones we encountered the entire trip. They were humped up about 4”, very rough, and hard to walk on. And they were wet, due to the on and off cold drizzles we were having.
By the time we were to the top our ankles were screaming for Advil, and we were both hobbling the rest of the day. And we probably wouldn’t have made it to the top with some assist from our friends.
But once we were at the top, the view out over the city was great.
Next up was a couple of very old churches, St Sebaldus, which dates from the early 1200’s.
and the Frauenkirche (Our Lady’s Church), which was consecrated in the mid-1300’s.
The clock in the tower has been ticking away since 1509.
Did I mentioned that everything over here is just OLD.
As we walked through town we passed the Albrecht-Dürer house.
Built in 1420, it was the home of Dürer, a noted Renaissance artist.
We also noticed that a number of houses had these intricate statues mounted on the corner. Not sure what the significance is, though.
We ended our guided tour at the Main Market in the center of town next to the City Hall. Our rendezvous point to meet up later to head back to the buses was the Schöner Brunnen.
A 60+ foot high Gothic spire, the fountain dates from the late-1400’s, and depicts 40 different colorful figures, ranging from leaders of the Holy Roman Empire, Church Fathers, Moses, and seven of the Apostles.
Since we were getting a little hungry, we decided to try the nearby Behringer’s Bratwursthausle, listed as the home of the original Nuremberg Bratwurst. But we didn’t know at the time how ‘original’ it was. Founded in 1313, the European Union has designated it as the ‘First Sausage in Europe’.
Now I’m not sure how the Old Sausage Kitchen in Regensburg feels about this, since they’ve been around since 900 A.D. Our guide told us that’s there’s a big rivalry between the two cities over their sausages. I guess now we know why.
Our guide told us that Nurembergers are known for being especially grumpy. In fact she said that if Snow White needed a new Grumpy, she’d come to Nuremberg. And we found this out for ourselves.
We ordered sausages with kraut and bread, and this is what we got.
Note: No kraut.
And though we asked repeatedly, in both English and my halting German, we never got it. And in fact, the more we ask, the grumpier he got.
And before you ask, no, it wasn’t just us. Others from our cruise were having the same problem. And when we tried to get our check, it got even worse. He had them all mixed up, with different tables lumped together. And the more we tried to correct him, the grumpier he got.
But finally settling up, we headed over to other side of the market square to buy some of the famous Nuremberg gingerbread. But what we got was kind of disappointing. Turns out that Nuremberg gingerbread has no ginger in it.
Or cinnamon or cloves.
In fact, it pretty much tasted like an moist oatmeal cookie. But it was tasty, anyway. How can gingerbread not have any ginger in it?
Back at the ship, we took the obligatory nap, gobbled down some more Advil, and met up for dinner.
Jan and I both repeated on our Appetizers and Entrees, with the only new dishes, our desserts.
Jan had a delicious Mango sorbet, so good she almost ordered seconds.
And I had the Blueberry Crumble, also delicious.
Tomorrow: Bamberg
dghg
