Saturday, 8 July 2006
Cloudy this morning--hence the sudden change of plan, by postponing Salzburg until Sunday. The slow train left from Munich at about 7:40 and arrived in Nürnberg 2.5 hours later.
Walking along the Königstr., I found that the street was just like a typical one in a German town centre: cobbled roads, a huge crowd of pedestrians, and a forest of shops or stalls. First off, the St. Lorenz Church. Then I followed the main street and crossed a quite beautiful bridge: beneath it, a peaceful stream; to its right, an ancient hospital; on it, sellers and shoppers. The road led to the Hauptmarkt on the other side, a city-square-like market with an interesting artwork (Schoner Brunnen) on its NW corner.
Some walk to the left stood the very impressive St. Sebaldus Church--in it, white columns rose like trees in a forest. Keeping left, after a while I came to the Weinstadel--nothing fancy. A short walk brought me to the west gate of Nürnberg--filled with beautiful houses. It was at this point that I realized that the whole old town area was still fenced off with walls and gates (though I don't know how much actually did survive the WWII bombing and were not reconstructions--probably not much at all).
Climbing up a hill, I came to a garden on top of a terrace. The symmetry of the garden was more than just visually appealing; it had a kind of perfection only found in well-drawn circles, and it overlooked the west side of Nürnberg. Once again, for some reason, I entered the castle (Kaiserburg) by the back door. Having toured the north side of the castle, I finally came to the castle buildings themselves. These really did have some special qualities to it--that made me really want to believe that they were of medieval origin. The castle offered an outstanding view of Nürnberg--red walls with protruding green towers (= churches).
I had trouble heading back, as I was trying very hard to find a stall that sold Nürnberg's roasted sausage for lunch. Eventually I did find one, with great effort. Then, heading south through another street, I came to the Germanisches National-museum. Lining beside it were columns about human rights around the globe. Coming out of the museum area, I came to the south wall, and beyond it, the Opernhaus. The train station was just a little walk away to the east.
Several hours later, when I was heading back from Bayreuth, I needed to wait in Nürnberg for about 25 minutes for a train connection. I took the opportunity to visit the Handwerkerhof, just next to the train station. This was a neat little quarter filled with speciality workshops and eateries.