Nuremberg

We took the express bus from Prague to Nuremberg using DB Bahn, the German transportation system. This is by far the fastest way due to the location of the train lines. The bus ride was about 3.5 hours long, and when it wasn’t snowing, it was a beautiful drive. 

We arrived in Nuremberg at 3:30 in the afternoon. Our hotel (Intercity Hotel) was very close to the train station, about a four minute walk. It was a little expensive, but the location was convenient and since we had a short time there, we decided it was worth it. We walked into old town, which was less than five minutes from our hotel. Nuremberg is a large city, but the old town section of the city sits within the old medieval city walls and is easily explored on foot. We wandered around stopping to eat at a café and have a beer. We strolled around the rest of the night. It was a little warmer than it had been in Prague, so while we were still very cold, it was bearable to be outside and walking around. We ended up spending about an hour at a Starbucks because it was the only place that was advertising Wi-Fi (we missed the abundance and convenience of Wi-Fi hotspots in Prague). We needed to use the internet to book our hotel in Frankfurt and Hurricane Sandy had just hit the greater New York area throughout Monday night and Tuesday morning. We wanted to read about the impact of the storm.

A picture from our night stroll through Nuremberg.

One of the many beautiful churches

After leaving there, we were very indecisive about dinner again. We ended up eating at a restaurant called Maredo, which we later found out is a chain since they are all over Frankfurt as well. Dinner was good. We had fajitas because we were feeling a little vegetable deprived. Though we knew Germany would be much more expensive than the Czech Republic, it was still a little shocking in comparison. We spent more on that dinner than we had on most complete days in Prague. 

The check-out time at the hotel the next day was noon, and our train to Frankfurt departed at 1 pm, so we decided to get up early and enjoy Nuremberg in the daylight before leaving. We left the hotel around 9 am and walked around Nuremberg all morning. It was sunny, by far the most sun we’d seen on the trip and a little warmer, too. Nuremberg is full of charming buildings and remarkably beautiful churches. It was a really enjoyable morning. 

A view from a portion of the wall leading up to the castle

The castle grounds

Looking back up at the castle

We walked up to the castle which was on the other side of old town and up a hill. It was beautiful up there. We didn’t have time to do a tour, but it looked like it would have been fun to do. We made our way back to the hotel stopping to buy some of the lebkuchen (gingerbread cookies) for which Nuremberg is famous. (They were delicious).

We bought the cookies from a booth in one of the many outdoor markets.