Travel Log - Nuremberg, Germany

I hope you guys aren't sick of my travel posts yet but this is a great way for me to remember what all we did (since I took my travel journal with me but didn't write in it once!) - if you're bored just give me a couple more days and I'll get back to making stuff to share with you :)

Palace of Justice

original old medieval city walls

The river cruise portion of the trip ended today in Nuremberg, Germany. There is so so much history to see and visit here - in addition to the Palace of Justice (with a prison attached) where they held the Nuremberg Trials (putting the Nazi war criminals on trial), the Nazi Party rally grounds, the massive Congress Hall (built to look like the Roman Colosseum), and the Imperial Palace, there's also tons of sculptures, toy stores, crafts, watchtowers, beautiful buildings and flowers, stores, outdoor markets...endless. Half of us did the Nuremberg City Tour and the other half went on an optional tour that focused on World War 11 and the Nazi Regime - I did the City Tour which touched on everything and Dave did the WW2 tour and we were both happy with our day and the guides. The city tour had a bit of riding in the bus but sometimes that's the only way to see everything - after touring around by bus we did quite a bit of walking around town which was great. Word of caution if anyone goes on this trip or visits these beautiful old world cities - wear comfie flat shoes! The cobblestones will get ya...just sayin... I trip walking on regular ol' sidewalks so you can imagine how graceful I was on the cobblestones haha!

Congress Hall

tower at the Nuremberg Castle - when the castle 

was attacked the princess or queen (maybe all 

the women? all the royal women? good grief I should 

pay more attention) went into the tower thru a small 

opening in the middle - you can make out a spot in 

the center where the bricks are different, that's where 

 the opening was for them to enter then the bricks
would be put back in place to protect them.
they stayed in there until the castle was back
under control. 

After our city tour we had free time to explore the city on our own - I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing but there really isn't much "free time" on this trip if you choose to do one of the tours. This is a bad thing if you want to shop or eat your way around the cities, but it's a good thing if you're my husband who kept asking how I planned to get all my new treasures home...;)

couldn't pass by this gorgeous produce stand - look at these beautiful tomatoes!

Al, Cathy and I did a little shopping - the highlight for me was the Lebkuchen store, I did go a little crazy in there. Lebkuchen is like gingerbread and the store we found was full of all different kinds, shapes, sizes, tins, packages...how to choose? I love gingerbread (and pfeffernusse - a spiced cookie... and spekulatius which reminds me of those Archway windmill cookies my mom used to buy - see why I went crazy, so many things I love in this store!). Click here to see the store we went in - beware, they have online ordering! After shopping we were starving (not! I was so full this entire trip from all the great food but did that stop me? nope) so decided to have a "snack" of sausages, potato salad, bread, and wine before getting back on the ship!

here's something we learned - the restaurants all put a basket of rolls, breads, and pretzels
on your table and then at the end of the meal ask how many you ate! Here in the US we
just pig out on all the bread basket goodies and usually ask for more without thinking twice -
there you pay for how many you eat. And if you want butter that's extra too - good to know!

last night on board - had to have dance floor selfies with our new friends :)

This is Rad - barkeeper/dancer extraordinaire :). He kept making fun of me
for ordering my drinks with "a bunch of ice"

Bye for now to the river cruise, our new friends, and the great staff on board - we had such a good time! Tomorrow it's off to finish our vacation in Prague (we go 4 hours by bus - sigh)...more to follow.