Day Eight – Nuremburg

On day eight I got up early with Thore and while he went off to work I headed into town in search of an internet Cafe where I could catch up of the happenings of the world and try to write up some of these blogs that were rapidly piling up! I found a pretty cheap internet cafe long my way into town although it would open for another hour or so I instead continued walking in until I found a bakery, bought a croissant and a coffee (I was getting pretty good with my broken German, for this part of the day at least) and then walked through the old town again, looking for a Saturn (German Best Buy) to see if they would have any cheaper memory cards for my camera that I could purchase.

It took a bit of searching but eventually I found the shop. It had begun to rain, so I was pretty happy to lurk around the store for a while and be out of the worst of the rainstorm (it rains a lot in Germany, btw).While I had high hopes that Germany would have better prices than back home on technological items, I was sadly mistaken. On all of the items that I chose to compare (going from memory) I found that everything was about the same price as back home, but in Euros. So much for getting cheap memory! In contrast though, I did find a bin full of 8 gig SD memory cards for shirt pocket cameras that were only 4.99 a piece! Eventually though I was bored of the shop and went back out into the rain to try to see some more of the town that we hadn’t gone to with Rebekah the previous day.

I found it to be a particularly interesting experience, walking though the old town. I say this because while the old parts of town in every city I had been in previously were the sole domain of shutter happy tourists (myself included) old Nuremburg was actually a fully functioning commercial area. Most of the people on the streets were in fact just ordinary citizens going about their business, they just happened to be working in buildings that were really old.

My wandering in the rain continued for some time and eventually led me back to the internet cafe I had pegged earlier (Via GPS) and I sat down and enjoyed two hours of the ‘net for two Euros.I managed to rip off one or two blogs (heh, blogging about blogging). My stomach started growling though by the end and I figured I should head back to let Alex know the plan that I had come up with earlier in the morning with Thore for the afternoon.

On the way back I stopped in at a Subway restaurant to grab some food (which was really quite expensive, and they only let you have one topping! Thus my sub consisted of Meatballs, Cheese and Lettuce) and as I was enjoying my rather simple lunch I saw Alex walking by on the street. I poked my head out of the shop and yelled to Alex and after she found the source of the shouting she came in and joined me. I let her in on the plans to meet Thore by a large Nazi museum after he finished work and then she and I set off in opposite directions – Her to check out more of the city and myself to head back to the flat.

Back in the apartment, Rebekah had to head out so she leant me had laptop and I looked up some of the possible places that we could go next on the EuroRail trains. After a bit of time Alex was back and it was time to go meet Thore out by the museum. Having looked up the trams that went out there earlier Alex and I were able to catch the right one pretty easily from right outside of the flat.

Arriving at the Museum, called the Duetzenriech, we waited for Thore to show up on his bike. He was a bit late getting out of work, and unfortunately because the museum was closing shortly we didn’t have enough time to go in. However, the location was situated on a large set of grounds that were pleasant to explore in the afternoon sun.

The campus, in true Hitler fashion, was grandiose in all measures. Used as a place to have massive party rallies and gatherings and had parade grounds, camping areas, a large manmade lake, a mock roman coliseum and a Zeppelin field to boot.

Walking around the sprawling grounds took well over an hour. One of the more interesting parts was the grandstands that were located on what is now the front stretch of the Nuremburg Racing Ring. Not to be confused with the very famous Nurnberg ring (where fast cars are tested and Formula 1 cars race), this race course is used for touring car championships. It was really odd, standing at the pulpit of the grandstand though, looking out over the parade grounds and into the Zeppelin fields. It was hard to imagine two hundred thousand people listening to you, women fawning over just the sight of you as if you were one of the beetles, and men waiting eagerly to go to war to fulfil your dreams. Even the brightest of sunny days can become spooky.

After finishing our walk about the grounds Alex and I caught the tram and Thore rode his bike back to the flat. Knowing that we would have arrived first Alex and I went up to the supermarket to grab some dinner. Alex, unsurprisingly went for a salad and I, also unsurprisingly, went for some German sausages and beer for Thore and I.

Back at the flat we cooked up our dinner, finished our beers and then went out into the old town to find a bar that Thore promised would have the very famous Banana-Weissen (he had been building it up for a couple days by now). Just like how we have desert ice wine in Canada, the Germans have desert beer. Essentially it is made up of a sweet weisse beer with a tin of banana juice poured in on top.Oh man, this is some seriously good beer. Not the kind you could have all day mind you, but for one serving it was amazing. If you are even in southern Germany, this is an absolute must. Seriously good beer.

We watched a bit or the Tour de France highlights while there too, and when the program was done the bar was closing down. We walked the long way home and headed to bed pretty quickly thereafter. Another splendid day in what was becoming my favourite country outside of Canada.