So then I went to Germany - First stop was Nuremberg

This message was started when I was in Koblenz, but I was interrupted before I finished and never got around to it till now.

For those who've been waiting I'm starting to catch up and will hopefully have some more stuff up soon.

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Hello again. I'm trying to catch up a little before I go to Pennsic tomorrow (yes, tomorrow - it hardly seems true). Okay -

So I'd been to Venice, now I had to go to Nuremberg. Caught a train to historic Verona (keeping eyes out for star-crossed lovers) and changed to a north running train to Munich (running through Austria). Travelling north from Verona I started travelling through mountains that

are the eastern extension of the Alps. With some glorious vistas like this one.

Then from Munich, I changed over to another train that took me to Nuremberg where I was met by Anna & Agilmar. We stowed my gear in a locker at the train station (on to Berlin the next day) and then headed out for a good old fashioned German dinner, via a number of important landmarks (dinner was pork shoulder with potato dumplings, lots of gravy and a very large beer (Anna please provide me with the correct German name for this meal if you could).

Before I went there, all I knew about Nuremberg was that it was the headquarters for the Nazi propaganda machine and that they held the trials there afterwards.

However, it was a very important medieval city, has lots of medieval structures still around including some wonderful fountains (including this one with a nice Pelican, doing what we know best (helping others)).

The next day I went out and looked around the town - starting with the castle at the top of the hill. Its a very impressive structure, with extra walls added in the 15th century to deal with the threat of cannons. The castle (and town) were very important within the empire of Charlemagne and then later through most of the medieval times.

It also hosts the German National Museum which I also attended (and have the book of, and I guarantee has something of interest in it for everybody). The cannon is fairly special because it is a wooden barrel (double click on the picture and have a close up look - there is a steel piece in the mouth of the gun, but this is only a few centremetres deep then it is just wooden barrel. They have a nice collection of armour and weaponry there (not huge but still nice as you can see).

The postcards from Germany (see earlier post) are all from Nuremberg.

I eventually dragged myself away and headed off to the train station, and Berlin (where Swanhild met me at her local train station - very convenient).

More on Berlin soon.

Cheers

Hanbal