Tales of Two Cities

Postcard du Jour - Nuremberg Part II - Bavaria

Sunday was Klaus' birthday and another absolutely gorgeous day.  Our sightseeing took us much further afield than it had on Saturday, giving us a chance to see more of Bavaria.

First stop was Berching, a picture postcard walled town located on the Main-Danube Canal about 40 kilometers from Nuremberg.  The beautiful, brightly colored buildings with clean, crisp lines lining tidy streets are characteristic of Bavaria.

After our stroll through Berching, our drive took us through the Altmühl valley, a beautiful, undeveloped, recreation area through which the canal runs.  Klaus explained that the Main-Danube Canal was built roughly 20 years ago to permit continuous river traffic on a 2,200 mile waterway from the Black Sea to the North Sea.  The canal itself winds for 106 miles through rural Bavaria from Bamberg on the River Main (a tributary of the Rhine), to Kelheim, a picturesque village on the Danube that was to be our next stop.  Read more about the canal here.  

After a scenic drive of some 100 kilometers, we arrived at a dock in Kelheim (seen in the photo on the right) where we would board a 600 passenger boat to take us on a 40 minute cruise upriver to the Weltenburg Abbey, a former monastery that houses the oldest brewery in the world established in a monastery.  Almost everyone was headed where we were:  to the outdoor restaurant that offers local sausages and Weltenburg beer. And everyone was a lot of people!

Apparently, a good part of the Bavarian population had decided that having lunch at the Weltenburg Abbey was the way to spend a splendid Sunday afternoon in late September.  Our boat, the Maximilian II (see photo), arrived in Kelheim full of tourists returning from the Abbey then proceeded to take on hundreds for the return trip, including us. All ages were represented:  infants in strollers and on their father's shoulders, dogs, children, teens, couples, multi generational families, folks in walkers and wheel chairs -  all joining us in enjoying the cruise and - we hoped - lunch.  The photo on the right shows the crowds boarding the boat.

The trip up the Danube was delightful.  We sat on the top deck enjoying a cup of coffee as the spectacular scenery slid by.  The most notable landmark was Liberation Hall high on a hill overlooking Kelheim.  A hiking and biking path ran along one bank and the river itself was populated by kayaks and canoes.  At various points, stony beaches harbored relaxing boaters and offered hikers a chance to wade in the blue waters of the Danube.As we approached the Abbey, we watched rock climbers inch upwards toward the top of towering boulders.

Disembarking, we walked past a long, long line of people waiting to board boats for the return to Kelheim.  There were at least two boatloads of people standing in the hot sun.  Uh oh, we thought.  Getting back will not be easy.  Or quick.  The thought of lunch, however, drove worries from our minds -- until we entered the courtyard of the abbey and found that the place was mobbed. With no system for getting a table, it was everyone for him/herself.  Marlene worked a miracle and we ended up enjoying our local sausages and local beer indoors. 

After lunch (it was now approaching 4 o'clock in the afternoon), we strolled back along the river to get in line for the return trip.  We didn't make the first boat, but, because of the unprecedented crowds that day, the boat operators increased the number of boats shuttling people back and forth to Kelheim and we were soon on our way.  The return trip was much shorter since we were moving with the current, but we had enough time to enjoy the beautiful scenery. The afternoon light on the impressively high cliffs and the trees just beginning to show some fall color was gorgeous.

Our day was made complete with a birthday dinner for Klaus at an Italian restaurant near their home.  The Loske's son, Tom, was there as were their good friends and neighbors who graciously struggled with English throughout the evening to accommodate the fact that we speak no German.  It was a perfect end to what had been a beautiful, educational, stimulating day spent with good friends.  It is hard to imagine asking for more.

Postcard du Jour - Nuremberg Part I - The Old City

Pleasantly exhausted, our heads spinning from fascinating sightseeing experiences in perfect blue-sky weather, happy to have spent three days with our good friends of more than 30 years, Klaus and Marlene, we returned to Paris from Nuremberg on Monday September 25. 

Klaus and Marlene live in Wendelstein, a pretty village outside of Nuremberg made up of 5 or 6 (I think) smaller villages.  One of the pleasures of our visit was the opportunity to get a feel for the everyday life of our friends whom we see so seldom.  The first night, we joined them for dinner at their regular Friday night haunt, a local Greek restaurant. A delicious meal was accompanied by stories of the wedding of the proprietor's daughter that Klaus and Marlene had attended in Greece last summer.  Friends sitting at a nearby table who had also been to the wedding shared photographs.  Although we speak almost no German, the relaxed friendliness of the group made the language barrier seem unimportant.

On Saturday, after a leisurely, scrumptious, breakfast, it was off to visit the walled city of Nuremberg.  Saturday was market day and the entire area was bustling with activity.  We spent about 4 hours wandering through the streets of the old city, breaking only for a lunch featuring Nuremberg sausages (yum!), and for coffee.   The photo on on the left shows the market in the square in front of the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) built by Emperor Karl IV in the 1350's to replace a synagogue destroyed in the pogrom of 1349.  The square is also home to the Schœner Brunnen (beautiful fountain) erected in 1385-96 in the form reminiscent of a Gothic church spire.

Perhaps the most startling "attractions" we saw were two modern sculptures.  One was a bronze rabbit located near the Albrecht Dürer house.  This is definitely not your friendly, fluffy bunny rabbit.  While, at first glance, you might think that the sculpture is based on one of Dürer's bunny engravings, a closer look discloses that a more warped artistic mind is at work. My favorite part of this totally strange piece is the human foot pinned down by one of the rabbit's claws.  It puts one's imagination into high gear!

More unsettling was an elaborate sculpture arranged around a huge iguana spouting water.  The elaborate creation, called the Marriage Carousel, dates from 1984 and, not surprisingly, caused a lot of controversy at the time it was constructed. Why an iguana?  I haven't a clue, but the figures surrounding it, including a skeletal man strangling a skeletal woman (one assumes that this is the last phase in the cycle of marriage), struck me as cynical in the extreme.  

Dinner Saturday evening was at another neighborhood restaurant that provided good food and a pretty setting in which to recap the day's activities and catch up on events in the lives of our respective families.  Then it was off to bed.  We had a long day of sightseeing ahead.

To be continued.