On Friday I started my journey to Nuremberg to visit Andrea's parents. I left the house at 9 in the morning, trudged through the snow to the station, caught my train to St. Gallen, rode a different train for 3 hours to Munich, then rode a high speed bullet train for an hour to Nuremberg, and finally a regional train for about 10 minutes to Schwabach, and made it at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Needless to say it was a long journey. When I arrived I found Oma Karin and Opa Hans Peter, and they had made plans to go to the opening of the world famous Christkindlesmarkt. So we jumped in the car and drove to a different station closer to their house and then rode the train back to Nuremberg. My first impression of the old town was quite nice as the Christmas decorations were all lit up and there was lots of buzzing going around. We made our way to the center where the Christkind would come and make her speech and went into a cafe to wait until it was time. While there we had some waffles and hot chocolate, mostly just wasting an hour by staying in the warmth. At 5:30 it was time for the Christkind to come out and we crowded out on the balcony with a bunch of other people in the cold. First all the lights were turned off and then a children's choir sang a carol and all the lights were lit back up and focused on the spot on the balcony of the church where the Christkind would appear. A man made a short little speech and then she appeared (though we couldn't see her very well, she was blocked by a tree. I managed to make out one of her wings). She said a traditional poem that I was told was in old middle german and they didn't understand very well themselves. Then another carol was sung (or perhaps it was right before, I've forgotten now), and then it was all over after about 10 minutes. I can't say it was anything particularly special, but it was interesting to see the tradition. After that we headed back on the train and back to their home. Karin gave me a bit of a tour of their house and then we had dinner of Raclette though in "Karin" style with different cheeses and german sausage.
So the video is dark at the beginning because there were no lights, and it's sideways, sorry
You can't actually see the Christkind, but you can hear her speech.
On Saturday I went with Karin back to Nuremberg where she showed me around the old town. I don't remember the name of most of the places but the town is quite interesting and is very old from medieval times with the original fortified wall surrounding the city, moat and all. I believe a lot of the town was destroyed in WWII, but it has been restored and has a lot of it's former character. We saw several churches, but the one we went in was very impressive with extremely high ceilings and all of stone. I found it interesting that it was a protestant church instead of the traditional catholic one, seeing as it was completed in 1360, long before the reformation. Anyway, like I said there were several churches, but the highlight was the castle. There is a tower that we walked to the top of that had a very nice view of the city. Afterwards we went into a restaurant that serves traditional Nuremberg sausages. They are quite small and I got a plate with 8 and some potato salad. I have to admit I liked the potato salad more than the sausages, but that potato salad was insanely good, and I don't usually even eat potato salad if that tells you anything. Then we went to the market. First we explored the international market that had booths from the sister cities of Nuremberg. Atlanta is one of the sister cities and they had all this american candy there. I was like, oooh, skittles! I didn't buy any though, but it was nice to see it again. Then we browsed the regular market. There are lots and lots of booths with very interesting and nicely made Christmas decorations, as well as sweets and sausages. I bought some traditional lebkuchen and also some nice little ornaments to take home. Then Karin and I had some gluehwein and I got to keep the mug as a souvenir. I will also admit that it seemed kinda strong and I felt perhaps a bit tipsy afterwards, but it definitely warms the insides. I also bought the normal postcards and guidebook souvenirs as well. Then we headed back to their home and for dinner Karin made orange glazed duck that was very tasty. Hans Peter's younger brother Wolfgang also joined us later in the evening. Their sister's husband died on Friday morning and so they had to leave this morning to drive to France to attend the funeral.
Opera House
Way of Human Rights. Each column is written in a different language
Impressive church
Outside of impressive church (St. Lorenz's)
Castle and tower
View of the city
View of the rest of the castle
Castle and tower again
Church where the Christkind held her speech in front of the market
Karin and I
With the gluehwein
very pretty fountain
Me turning the ring and making a wish
This morning of course Hans Peter and his brother had to leave and so Karin showed me around their little town of Schwabach. It's quite small and quaint, also with many old buildings that have been restored. The town was famous in old days for making gold leaf. We saw a small little building with a diorama of the process. The make the gold sheet, then cut it into squares and put each piece into a page of a leather book. Then the worker beats it very specifically with different sized hammers to make it thinner. They take the pieces out again and because they have spread cut them again and then put them in a smaller book and repeat the process. At the end the leaf is about a hundreth of a milimeter. Quite impressive. Then we went and ate lunch in a nice Italian restaurant and also had a hot chocolate and then I had to get on the train again about 2:30 and finally arrived back at about 9. So now I'm tired and am going to bed. Goodnight!
Schwabach
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