Salzburg

Strausburg! What a great place. Beautiful towering Cathedral jettisoning surprisingly from the middle of town. Christmas markets still laden with Christmas goods and a lovely blend of German and French cultures to enjoy. The city was still decked out for Christmas not only with lights and holly, but teddy bears (for some reason). We spent only a day and a half here, but we had a delicious and surprisingly affordable French meal and toured (independently) the cathedral.

This was the delicious meal.

Nuremburg Christmas

I'm pretty sure this is Dracula's new abode.

Warning. There are a lot of pictures. But I'll keep the commentary short.
A bucket list item for me was always spending Christmas in Germany. To eat little gingerbread men, hear yodeling, eat tubes of meat and freshly baked pretzels, walk through the bedecked Christmas markets, and sip hot chocolate with steaming apple strudel. Well, we got to do all that and more. (Maybe not so much the yodeling). Now I know it's April, but you all should be used to this procrastination by now.

We didn't hear yodeling, but we did get traditional American Indian street performances....Very Christmasy

We arrived in the morning on Christmas Eve and tooled around the Christmas market (for which Nuremburg is famous) for a couple hours. The sheer number of ornaments and trinkets would have staggered an elf. Everything closed down around 2 and we were left to meander the cobbled walkways until dinner.

Baubles!

Ornaments made of wood shavings

Everyone is fascinated by the most boring Glockenspiel in the world.

More baubles.

Mom in the Hauptmarkt in front of the Frauenkirche.

After dinner we went to Christmas Eve service at St. Sebald church. We understood not a word, but were able to sing a long with some of the carols. It was nice serenely sitting in sobering surroundings (catch that alliteration? Wasn't it nice?). Encircling the altar area were photographs of Nuremburg after WWII that showed the destruction the city brought upon itself. Nuremburg was central to the Nazi regime so it was one of the cities most harshly hit, yet seeing just how much devastation occurred to the common people here was saddening. Scattered around the city are plaques and memorials to fallen soldiers. It must be hard to want to remember your fallen husbands, sons, and fathers who served in the war, but also to want so depto forget what your country did.

St. Sebald

Real candles above the pews. Very Christmasy.

This was just cool

Christmas dawned bright and chilly. We should have expected that Starbucks would be the only thing open and packed with sojourners. We stayed there three hours... It is hard being away from home on the holidays, but having mom there was a comfort. And the dinner we devoured that evening was hands down the best German food I have ever had (and I LOVE German food). We had crackled pork shoulder and dumplings, duck (?), and ... well it's been a while and I forget, but I don't forget that it was succulently delectable. (Why does this think succulently isn't a word? It totally should be).

If you're ever in Nuremburg go to this restaurant

At Alte Küch’n

Something porky with a spongy dumpling

Crackled pork shoulder

The next two days were all about seeing the sites. We went to Courtroom 600 where the Nuremburg trials took place. A red letter day for International Law and Human Rights as a higher morality than written law was recognized as supreme. We spent hours there because the displays and informationals were so interesting. Don't listen to Rick Steves, it's not dry.

The Courthouse (the courtroom is actually in the building to the right that you can't see).

Courtroom 600

We bought the museum pass so we could hop in and out without feeling the need to get our money's worth of each. We saw the toy museum (so fun!), the Castle (as you are well aware, I love castles), the City Museum, and the Rock Cellars. Now, the Rock Cellars are where they brewed their beer for centuries (I think centuries) so I thought it would be cool. After having been on the tour, I can understand why it's not even mentioned in Rick Steves' book. Being underground was kind of cool, but we pretty much just walked through empty chambers listening to an English audio guide for 3 hours. 

Underground chambers

Trains at the toy museum. Uncle Dave would love this.

The Castle was fun (as castles always are). There's a really deep well that you have to have a guide to see (for some strange reason as there's no way you could climb into it). The guide played a trick in which he used a mirror to shine light on someone (in this case he chose me as his guinea pig) then pointed the mirror down into the well to shine the light on the water. He said something about it being the virgin Mary's light and all the kids were looking at me in wonder afterwards like I had magical powers.

The Castle wall

Yeah, pretty much the same picture. But this time I'm in it.

Inside the Castle looking out at the city that popped up alongside.

Beware of those 2d Robinhoods.

Castle door

With mom by the Castle tower

We also went into most of the churches and did our best to hit up recommended eateries. The Brautwurstäusle was particularly fun. And for dinner our final night we went to der Nassauer Keller in the cellar of a medieval tower house. The food there was also heavenly. Wish I could remember what exactly we had...But the ambiance was really cool.

Micah outside the Bratwursthäusle. Be our guest.

Delicious weiswursts (spelling?)

The Germans seem to be obsessed with bottle glass (there's probably a real term for it, but it looks like the bottom of a bottle). It's really cool.

St. Lorenz church

Closest thing to licking the liberty bell

In St. Lorenz.

The altar of St. Lorenz. On the left the Sacrament House by Adam Kraft.

View from our balcony

Hauptmarkt with the vestiges of Christmas revelry

Exit from the old city

Aren't the colors just great?

Morning departure.

On December 28th we left Nuremburg for Paris. It was a wonderful Christmas adventure with my mother in a beautiful, delicious yet tragic city.

Rothenburg - Pre Christmas, Medieval Holiday

The following few posts may be out of order (we haven't quite finished up with Spain, yet I'm moving on to Christmas, which you all know is more than a month ago). Jump in your time machines an travel back with me.

Micah's signature stance.

Upon completing my quite rigorous and stressful semester abroad (ok, those adjectives are not in the least bit true) we decided to go for a relaxing vacation to Germany for Christmas with my wonderful mother. After an early morning flight we arrived in Frankfurt. We had a Eurail pass, which apparently was first class. We didn't really think that first class meant you got to sit in the first class section...so we stood with the other chumps in this packed, suitcase filled train car for an hour and half. After getting off at our transfer point, we realized that our first class tickets did indeed get us into a first class compartment. No more standing for us! But as there was a crash on the tracks we had to be rerouted to a more scenic (meaning twice as long) route. But that was all to the good as when we arrived the sun had set and the Christmas lights were out in full force illuminating the quaint, romantic, walled town to best advantage.

The houses are just so cute! And their makeshift mini Christmas tree chandeliers are funny.

Very Chrismasy

We spent that evening wandering through the Christmas markets and settling into the quaint inn Mom had booked. For dinner we took up an internet suggestion for the Bürgerkeller and were highly impressed with the German comfort food and beer for a good price. Plus the owner told funny jokes.

A really cool cemetery with tomb stones dating back to the 1600s.

 The morning greeted us with an excellent, typically German breakfast buffet. We killed time waiting for Mom's train to roll in by checking out the local cemetery (yeah I'm weird, I like cemeteries; they're so peaceful), and meeting an adorable old German woman who is featured in all of Rick Steve's guide books. She owns a little souvenir shop right next to the main square. We stumbled into Anneliese Friese' Shop (also her name) in search of a Christmas gift for my Mom and found not only that but a free map and ornament as well as 25% off. Anneliese regailed us with her stories of backpacking in the US more than 50 years ago and showed us all the Christmas cards Steves dutifully sends each year. She was so generous we had to leave before she gave away the store! But we did come back to purchase some more German made goods from her so Mom could meet her.

Yes you can buy beer at a stall and walk around with it.

After our successful gift search we met Mom on the platform with big hugs and rolled her suitcase down the cobbled streets to the inn. That night we ate again at the Bürgerkeller to great success. Then we joined Night Watchman -- another time travel trip back to the middle ages with the medieval night watchman (clad in black cape and wielding a halberd spear)-- for his entertaining tour, finishing the night off at Höll (hell) the town's oldest tavern.

The Night Watchman grabbing a nightcap with us in Hell.

Burgtor Tower. If you were caught outside after curfew you had to pay the guards to let you in a little whole in the door

Next day, after another filling breakfast of German breads, jams, meats, and cheese, we sauntered through the markets, visited the churches and the Medieval Crime Museum. The museum was almost too thorough. It had about 4 full floors of medieval torture devices, documents explaining how "justice" was meted out, and other random articles from the middle ages. Interesting from a legal perspective but also to see how far society has come. Some may argue that we aren't any different, but if you go to that museum and see the things that were done in the plain light of day with no uproar from the people you'll probably change your tune. (We actually don't have any good pics of the crazy stuff so you'll just have to check it out for yourselves).

Had to get a picture of this. This is how they settled allegations made by a woman against a man. Put him halfway into a whole. Whoever wins was telling the truth.

Micah looks like he's used to this.

St. Jakob's, the largest church in Rothenburg, was a treat. I seems stark in comparison to the ubiquitous Catholic churches of Spain and Italy, but Rick Steve's European Art History 101 (which I was able to read while studying abroad to stave off feelings of total unproductivity) helped me appreciate the art and sculptures in ways I couldn't have otherwise. This is true for all of the art we saw. Without having read that book I could not have spent the 5 hours in the Musée d'Orsay later on (Paris will be coming up soon).

The Tabernacle in St. Jakob's

Tilman Riemenschneider's truly impressive woodcarving in St. Jakob's, which Steves says is the best in all of Germany.

We also went into the most ridiculous Christmas store I have ever seen. A two story montage of all things Christmas, reaching to the level of gaudy awesome. We weren't allowed to take pictures...but I snapped one before passing the sign so technically I wasn't breaking any rules.

Inside the crazy Christmas store of the evil empire Kathe Wolfhart (well, not so evil, just encroaching on Anneliese Friese and threatening to sue Rick Steves for promoting her instead of it).

Then what else is there but to wander some more and fully soak in the medieval charm? Walking around the wall at sunset was a real treat.

The cobbled alley

In the castle gardens

Overlook of Rothenburg from the nose (the city looks like a head - castle gardens in the nose).

Outside the city walls

One of the most photographed spots in Germany. Yes we are shloogs who hopefully will get posted to the Denver Post travel section because we held up the paper.

City ramparts at sunset

Can you spot Micah?

Red roofs in the afternoon sun

Seriously, METER long hot dogs. And SOO Good.

Two and a half days in Rothenburg gave us ample time to see all the "attractions," but I could definitely spend more time ambling down its narrow alleys, drinking in Hell, and soaking in the medieval atmosphere with people I love. What can I say? I'm a medieval junky, and Rothenburg is just the ticket.