Our final stop on our Christmas market tour was Nuremberg, Germany. We spent 4 full nights there (although we did switch hotels), which was a really nice change of pace. Nuremberg had a really great Christmas market, but to be honest, there was so much more to see and do that we only spent a limited amount of time at the market. We mostly kept to within the beautiful, old walled city. Perhaps old is not the right word- Nuremberg was heavily bombed during WWII and most of the real old walled city was destroyed, so it is probably more accurate to say that we spent most of our time in the beautiful, relatively new walled city modeled after the ancient walled city. Either way, it was very cool. We climbed up to the top of the walled city where we had sweeping views of the entire walled section and beyond. In what we have come to believe is typical German style, there was a giant, full, lit up Christmas tree gleaming in the center of the viewing area. It is our ardent belief that any available space is given a Christmas tree in Germany. We have seen them just about everywhere, from the tops of construction cranes to precarious precipices at the tops of apartment complexes. Its pretty awesome and we have really enjoyed how beautifully and festively decorated all the cities we have visited have been!
We also visited the documents museum which documents the Nazi’s rise to power and Nuremberg role in the third reich. We were shocked to learn that they had built extensive parade grounds and an amphitheater that was capable of holding thousands of people in the city. Most of it was destroyed during the war, but we were able to walk out and see what remains of the amphitheater (which was mostly intact) and were blown away by the sheer size of it. Nuremberg played a large role in the Nazis rise to power, which was why the Nuremberg trials were held there. It was a fascinating museum, Hitler was a very shrewd, calculating and diabolical man and learning about his calculated rise to power and subsequent war mongering was both interesting and horrifying.
We ventured out to tour the Christmas markets a bit more on Christmas eve and found many of the stalls empty or packing up their wares, finished for the season. Mostly, it was the food stands that were still open. It was a little sad to see the markets closing up, we have really enjoyed the festive atmosphere and were sad to see it end. On our walk back to our hotel we noticed that it wasn’t just the market closing up, it was just about everything! The shops, grocery stores and restaurants were all closing up shop for Christmas. We wandered around a bit more then headed back into out hotel. We had only been back long enough to eat lunch and for Nick to shower when all of a sudden a monstrously blare came roaring out of the alarm above the bed in our room. Startled, we looked at each other- what was that noise? Why was it so obnoxious and what should we be doing about it. The blaring stopped and a voice came on, telling us what to do in German. Still puzzled, we figured it was some sort of fire alarm and starting putting all of our winter clothes back on so we could exit the building. The voice then switched to English and warned us to exit the building immediately and that it was a fire alarm. Then the blaring started up again. We walked down to the lobby and the lady at reception smiled at us and assured us that there was no fire, the fire department was on the way to turn off the alarm but we didn’t have to worry. We stuck around in the lobby (ready to run out the doors should she be wrong and there was actually a fire!) and watched the show. First, the police arrived. It was only two of them and after a preliminary check and chatting with the lady at reception, they ended up leaning against the counter and hanging out. Next, two firetrucks and an ambulance showed up. Most of the firefighters came in sans helmet and most of there gear, but two walked up to the doorway (never coming in) in full on firefighting gear, gas masks included. I bet they were at least warm standing outside in their gear. It seemed to take a long time to get the alarm turned off, and even after it was turned off, the fire fighters and police hung around for a while. We went back up to our room which faces the street. We watched out the window for a few minutes to see what happened, but the only exciting thing was someone came out of the Dunkin Donuts next door to our hotel with a box full of donuts and gave it to the firefighters. It was a very entertaining night.
Our Christmas eve dinner was doners at the only open place we could afford- a Turkish restaurant near our hotel. It was actually pretty crowded, although seemingly with tourists. Fortunately, we love doners and enjoyed our Christmas eve dinner immensely. We stopped at a nearby pub to have a pint of Christmas eve beer and stumbled across the weirdest pub ever. It was very small, full of locals and seemed to be some sort of time warp- everyone in the place looked straight out of the 80’s. From the tightly coiled, teased hair and bangs to the neon blue eye shadow, it was so 80’s. We were the youngest people in there by at least 15 years and the soberest people by at least 4 shots. We found the whole thing very amusing, but didn’t stay for long, instead we went home at watched Elf.
Nuremberg was a wonderful place to spend Christmas, although we definitely missed spending time with family.
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