Ah, Nuremberg. The city I was never supposed to go to.
But damn, am I glad I did!
I spent the three hour train ride from Berlin standing – because of the impending strike, the train was crazy packed. I didn’t mind, though – I enjoyed watching the beautiful German landscape pass by the windows of the train.
I immediately loved Nuremberg.
The train station was in an absolutely gorgeous building, and only a brief walk away from the hotel I booked last minute. The hotel itself was stunning: Le Méridien Grand Hotel Nuremberg.
When I arrived to check in, there were two groups of fellow American tourists ahead of me and behind me, however, they were pretty insufferable people. They were giving the guy at the check-in desk a hard time, complaining that their rooms were too hot and they were way too small. Welcome to Germany, baby. European hotel rooms are notoriously smaller than American hotel rooms, and I guarantee you that these tourists just had no idea how to cool down their rooms.
I decided that the check-in guy needed some extra kindness after dealing with those rude people, so I was extra kind and also spoke to him entirely in German.
When I entered my hotel room, I was shocked. It was absolutely huge! Aside from the incredible room I stayed in at Versailles, it was easily the largest hotel room I’ve stayed at in Europe. I also noticed that he upgraded my suite to an “Elite” status!
I had a little giggle to myself – not only was it super satisfying and funny that he upgraded me purely after being kind to him after his encounter with a set of rude Americans, it felt like everything was magically falling into place. And that energy continued through my time in the city.
After taking in my new space, I set out on the town, ready to explore.
The first stop was St. Lorenz Church, which immediately brought me back to Strasbourg. In fact, it appears that there are similarly lovely Christmas Markets right in the square outside of St. Lorenz Church during the holiday season. It sounds like such a lovely time!
I snuck a brief glimpse indoors – it was a quiet space constructed out of gorgeous old architecture.
I was absolutely transfixed by the buildings and canals in Old Town – I love a good building on a bridge.
I also encountered this cute little guy several times – he was just as happy to be in Nuremberg as I was!
I was told Trödelstuben was the place to eat in Nuremberg, but when I went, they were complete full, so if you’re interested in checking them out, you may want to consider reserving a table in advance.
My favorite building that I came across was this cute little structure over the river. This is another space where the magic continued.
After cruising around the city for awhile, I began to grow hungrier, and found out that this building actually included a restaurant: Restaurant Heilig-Geist-Spital. I cannot recommend this restaurant to you enough.
First, they have their original door posted outside the building, which was incredible to see!
When I walked in, I was determined to utilize my German, so I fully committed! I asked the waiter if they had a free table, and he said yes, leading me to a table in the corner of the restaurant, marked with a “reserved” plaque. My inner social anxiety came out – I began wondering who the table was reserved for, if there was a miscommunication and the waiter thought I was someone who had reserved this table.
But on the flip side, my social anxiety also prevented me from asking my waiter about it, so I sat down.
I was maintaining a conversation with my waiter and feeling proud of myself, when he gestured to my left and said a rapid string of words I didn’t recognize, so I laughed and said “Danke!” It felt like a safe bet.
I proceeded to not look to my left, and instead read my menu. After awhile, I looked up and realized there was a pane of glass separating me from the rest of the restaurant, with a picture of the building etched into it.
I thought that was odd, so I finally looked to my left and realized that I was sitting over the middle of the river, with a view out my window right onto the river and the beautiful bridge across the way.
Which is what my waiter had been trying to tell me. Nice.
Germany: 2, Ana: 0.
I got super hyped – I wasn’t supposed to be in Nuremberg, and I stumbled upon this restaurant, and it all ended up coming together for the perfect day, ending with the perfect meal at the perfect table.
The restaurant itself was gorgeous, and I had fun people-watching and German-wine-enjoying.
The restaurant is even etched into the wine glasses.
I had sausage and potatoes, which were so damn good.
And, lucky for me, it was SPARGELZEIT. I put that in all caps because that’s the energy it deserves.
Spargelzeit, or asparagus season, was taking up some major space in the German marketing industry while I was there. Every restaurant and their mom were tauting their asparagus and talking about asparagus season. I was quite perplexed by how popular it was, but the asparagus here was delicious, so I was beginning to understand the hype.
After an excellent, dreamy dinner, I decided to make the most of my remaining hours of daylight and walk around the city.
I stopped at the Schöner Brunnen, a lovely Gothic fountain.
As I walked, I saw a German firefighter taking a selfie. For some reason, my gut instinct was to look behind me and see if there was a building burning behind me. As if the firefighter would be taking a selfie in front of a fire instead of putting it out. Then I realized he was holding an ice cream cone, and wanted to capture a little photo of himself with his cone.
It made me laugh because it was super adorable, and as I walked, I felt drawn to getting a cone of my own! I walked back to where I saw him, and discovered an ice cream shop full of fireman. Fireman-approved ice cream is my favorite kind of ice cream, so I got in line and ordered Mozart ice cream, which was a delicious, chocolate pistachio flavor that I became obsessed with.
The firefighters all gathered in a cute little circle on the bridge, and were laughing and eating their ice cream. It was so fucking cute.
As I walked, I stopped to appreciate the beautiful architecture. What a cool little structure on the side of this building!
I loved the way the streets looked in Old Town – it also felt like an extremely safe place to wander.
After a nice evening stroll, I retreated to my hotel. The next morning, I woke up bright and early to explore more of the city before I had to leave for my next destination.
I started by walking around the Handwerkerhof Market, which was still closed by the time I was walking around.
While the shops weren’t open, I was able to walk through the space, so I took a look at some of the offerings.
It was an extremely cute marketplace, and I ended up returning later when things were open, however, nothing caught my eye enough to stop in and make a purchase!
There were a few leather-working shops that were interesting. I love a leather-bound journal, so I did feel the temptation to buy one, but I stayed strong and decided against it.
Another item on my list was to get a Bavarian pretzel, and I was told that Brezen Kolb was the place to go.
I got a delightfully salty pretzel and walked around the city, which was super quiet early in the morning.
I began walking up a large hill in the city, stopping to take in the view behind me.
At the top of the hill was the Imperial Castle of Nuremberg, which was on my list to visit that morning.
The walk up was lovely, and they even had blooming flowers along a path leading to the castle.
There was virtually no one around this early, and it was quite special to feel like I had the castle to myself. I wondered how bustling this space would have been a few hundred years ago.
I loved the view from the path leading to the castle.
Look at that tower!
Situated at the top of the hill, the castle offered beautiful views of the city below.
One section of the castle included the Nuremberg Panorama, which was fun spot to soak in the sights.
Everything was blooming, which added to the lovely lines of the Bavarian architecture here.
I particularly liked this little building.
And check out this cool door! It was phenomenal seeing this thing up-close-and-in-person. It was absolutely solid. I can’t imagine what could break through this thing. Incredible to see something so long-lasting right in front of you. Think of all the hands that have opened this door – or tried!
This was a cute section, as well. The former stables were in the building to the right, which was difficult to imagine, as this section was so drastically sloped.
I also loved the view of these buildings through the archway here.
When the museum in the castle opened, I purchased my ticket right away. The tour begins in this room, which is where the King would have once seen his subjects.
More great views from the windows in this room!
The door into the castle was beautifully painted.
The door led directly into a chapel, which I can’t lie, creeped me out.
There was something about the statues in here – they were like creepy stop-motion dolls. I did not like them and could not bring myself to photograph them. Sorry. They were definitely haunted.
I very quickly left this room, and found another lovely door I liked. Particularly because it helped me escape the haunted church doll statues.
The next series of spaces had some beautifully preserved paintings on the wall.
Maybe it’s only bits and pieces, but it gives you such a beautiful idea of what this space one would have been.
It’s truly hard to believe that these would have lasted this long, even with preservation efforts.
The next set of rooms included gorgeous artifacts, like this chalice.
And more paintings – check out this ceiling!
This room had a photo to show visitors what the ceiling and space would have once looked like.
The the crown jewel – a crown!
This bad boy was extremely shiny, and looked extremely heavy.
Past this section of the museum, there was a large display of armor.
It was really cool to see miscellaneous bits and pieces of armor, as well as the complete sets.
The differences between the designs from different periods was fascinating – look at the hips on this guy!
They also had a lot of weapons on display, which were awesome to check out.
The details on this hilt were stunning – imagine doing all of this by hand.
It wasn’t just swords and armor for humans, either.
Have to keep the horses protected, too!
His tiny little ear shields made me want to cry.
I’m always fascinated by the views outside of windows, and the castle had some great ones.
You could also see into the former moat around the palace, where they now use the space for archery practice. So, so cool.
The tour ended in the courtyard in which it began, which was lovely, so I stopped to take a little break and get my bearings.
The courtyard was devoid of visitors so early, and it was actually quite a peaceful place to sit for awhile.
I wanted to visit the top of one of the towers, but it wasn’t quite open, so I sat here, enjoying the fresh air, until it did.
And it was worth it – I made a beeline to the tower when it opened, and check. out. these. stairs!!
This is the coolest set of stairs I’ve ever seen in my whole life. Is this a joke? This is so cool!
I climbed to the top to see the most beautiful views of Nuremberg yet.
Stunning.
I ran into one person here, who happened to be a university professor from Minnesota. Such a small world.
At this point, I was hungry and thirsty, so I decided to stop into the cafe in the castle for an apfelschorle and Nuremberg’s notorious Elisenlebkuchen.
This cookie is a Nuremberg specialty, very similar to a gingerbread cookie, except approximately one thousand times better. I’m not a big gingerbread fan, but I felt like I had to try the cookie since it’s such a renowned treat in Nuremberg, and I was so pleasantly surprised. This was a perfect, perfect cookie. It was soft, chewy, spicy, and had the perfect nutty texture. It was also covered in a semi-hardened powdered sugar coating.
I ended up buying a pack of these and mailing them back to my family, as I knew my dad would love them.
Family-owned since the year 1859. How about that.
The last thing on my list was to try the Nuremberg rotbier, or red beer.
I was told Hausbrauerei Altstadthof was the place to go for this. It’s brewed in the historic rock passages in old town, which are medieval rock-cut cellars that are up to four stories deep.
The brewery was closed that day, but they had a little shop that I was able to buy a bottle from. You can drink outside of establishments in Germany, so while it felt wrong to walk while drinking, I did.
Here are a few of the lovely buildings I came across!
I couldn’t get enough of how lovely the buildings were here.
Check out the awesome packaging on this bottle, as well.
I also walked through the main market, which was selling asparagus (of course), and a variety of fruits and vegetables alongside food trucks.
And with that, my time in Nuremberg was up. I was sad to be leaving, but so happy to have visited and made such magical memories. Until next time, Nuremberg.
Stay tuned for a fairytale visit to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
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