Our first and only stop of any length of time today was in Nuremberg or more correctly Nürnberg to explore the old town – another walled city.
Originally Nuremberg's city wall had a length of five kilometres and five gates. From the 13th to the 16th century the wall was continuously strengthened and is one of the reasons why the city withstood all attacks during this time. Nearly four kilometres of the wall are still standing. We walked quite a bit of it and at one stage (near the castle) we actually walk on it. This wall, being much newer than many of the walls we have visited is in very good condition.
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| A glimpse of the castle from the wall |
The castle dominates the north-western corner of Nuremberg's old town. Most of the current building was built in 1495 and is today used as a youth hostel. Part of the castle, the five-cornered tower, was constructed before 1050 and is the oldest building of the castle and city.
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| The Pegnitz River |
Throughout the old town, there are many old buildings that survived the war, some sandstone, others timber-framed. In Untere Kraemersgasse there are 16 timber houses in a tiny courtyard that are now arty/crafty shops.
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| The 'Good Luck" ring at the 'Beautiful Fountain' |
We called at the Toy Museum but ended up not going in as we felt we did not have the time to do it justice.
There are lots of impressive fountains (the Schöner Brunnen- or Beautiful Fountain and the Ehekarussell or Marriage Merry-Go-Round fountain) and churches and the area along the Pegnitz River is particularly picturesque.
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| Untere Kraemersgasse |
Had lunch before we hit the road for the often very slow trip (despite being on the autobahn) to Koblenz. In some places road works held us up, in others, like skirting around Frankfurt it was just bumper to bumper traffic.
Booked into an Etap tonight and walked down the road to an Asian style buffet restaurant for dinner – quite adequate.
Tomorrow we visit the Lupp family in Essen. Larissa and her friend Marsha stayed with us as Couchsurfers a couple of years ago and Larissa’s mum, Eva, has kindly invited us to visit while we are here. Phoned Eva tonight to make final arrangements.
