CENTRAL EUROPE BLOG May 7th, 2026 - NUREMBERG

 

5/7/26– Koblenz is complete and with that the wine tasting, but never fear as there’s more adventures to come. We wake up around 9am (well before the noon checkout time but we're anxious to get on the road), and set our driving course for Nuremberg.

The drive is a long 3.5 hours as the rain comes down periodically in sheets and the traffic stalls several times for construction. The cool thing is driving on the autobahn. For some parts the speed limit went as high as 120 km/hr, but there's stretches where the speed limit goes away and you’re free to drive as fast as you want. I take full advantage going as much as 173 km/hr. Needless to say we make it to Nuremberg thirty minutes earlier than expected, around 1:15pm.

As instructed by the hotel (PrivatHotel Nuremberg), we park in a nearby lot and once we check in find out that we didn’t need to pay at the kiosk for the two days of parking (35 Euros) and could’ve received a discount through them directly. Would’ve only saved a few Euro but we’re good with it.

After a brief rest in the room, we put on our layers and set ourselves for whatever chilly weather is to come, and come at us it does with around 50 degrees and sprinkles of rain. How is this May?

        

We stop at Bratwurstdose Nurnberg, a small outdoor eatery, and get the brat sandwich. Literally, the best cooked brat I’ve had. We then walk over to St Lorenz church, which is quite tall. The inside is very dated with not much renovation done as we’ve seen with others, but has a charm of its own. It also was badly damaged in the war and restored over the years to follow.

Our journey continues to Nuremburg Castle as the rain finally stops, but the pathway up begins. First it’s the cobblestone walkway up to the castle from street level. Then, after buying tickets, it’s the spiral staircase to get to the top of the tower. The view, however, is very rewarding.

Next up is the Palace museum that takes us through several rooms showing anything from battle armor to large foyers with a view. Weirdly, the workers in every room seem to stare at everyone as they look around, like we’re all going to steal something. Um, everything is locked up.

The tour for the last section starts at 4pm and already I’m not feeling the vibe with several smokers hovering over the entrance and a large Japanese tour group mingling in. We're ushered into a small room with a well as we all jostle for position to be able to look down into it. During the presentation, the guide drops water down in and counts six seconds before you can hear the echo splashing down. That’s a very deep well. He spoke mostly in German so couldn’t understand anything said, but we get the gist.

        

The walk back to our hotel is quite a long one, but broken up with a stopover at a supermarket and then to Schnitzery Nurnberg. The sandwich we get is so large that I can’t even finish half of it, but it is quite good.

Tomorrow is another chance to sleep in. Hopefully the skies are bluer but I’m not putting much stock into that notion.