A weekend in Nuremberg

A long weekend in Nuremberg

I was visiting Munich for work during the Oktoberfest (yes you read it right) and had the Friday free. The initial plan was to turn this into a long weekend and stay on in Munich and make a day trip to Nuremberg. But with both me and husband getting lazy, it was only 2 weeks before my travel that we realized that we didn’t have place to stay in Munich yet. And by then the madness of Oktoberfest had almost completely descended upon the city with dearth of places to stay in and sky rocketing prices of whatever was left. That’s when we decided to spend the weekend in Nuremberg itself and boy what a treasure of an idea it turned out to be.

This was our trip itinerary

Thursday evening– Arrive in Nuremberg

Friday – Wurzburg and Rothenberg ob der Tauber

Saturday – Nuremberg and Bamberg

Sunday – travel back home

Where to stay

We stayed about 2 kms from the Nuremberg main station and about 1.5km away from the town centre. We liked the Airbnb for its location and cleanliness. There are a number of hotels just outside the city walls including bigger chains such as the Best Western, IBIS etc. Although we didn’t checkout options within the city walls I’m plentifully sure there would be many.

img_20180928_071824 — The view of an old church cemetery was the highlight of our room

Transport options

While all of the city centre can be covered on foot and is recommended to be covered on foot if you are visiting parts of Nuremberg which are outside the city centre then you will need public transport. Buy the day pass from the U bahn station for EUR 8.10 per person and this will be valid for the entire weekend if bought on a Saturday. Make sure you put in the date for the Saturday when you are buying it from the ticket machines.

Nuremberg itinerary

I have covered the itineraries for the day trips in separate blogs. Here I have covered the Nuremberg part of the trip.

Our main motivation of visiting Nuremberg were the Nuremberg trials and the Nazi grounds so that’s where we started.

Memorium Nuremberg Trials

This is where the actual trials took place and you get to see Courthouse 600 as well, the actual courthouse where the trials took place. The tickets include an audio guide which is required if you donot understand Deutsch as all the markings in the exhibition area are in Deutsch. Most often you should be able to see the Courthouse 600 unless there is a live trial going on. We didn’t enquire in advance but did get to see the courthouse but you may want to enquire if you so wish.

Take the U-bahn to Frankenstrasse to reach the Memorium and remember to exit the Ubahn station on . Its well marked. You will easily spend about 2 hours at this place.

IMG_20180929_122106(1) — The plaque at the entry of the memorial building

Documentation Centre and Nazi grounds

Take the U-bahn U1 to XX and then take bus 65 straight to the Docu Zentrum. Around the Docu Zentrum you can see the unfinished Kongreshalle which was commissioned in XX by Hitler for his party meetings and if completed would have seated 50,000 people making it twice the size of Colosseum which it looks to have been loosely modelled on. A little further ahead is the Zeppelinfeld which has now been converted into a stadium for holding rock concerts etc. Depending on how long you spend at the Document Centre, your stay here can be upto 2 hrs. We had skipped the Docu Centre and instead walked around the lake and then spend some time gaping at the Kongresshale.

img_20180929_131558 — The unfinished Kongresshalle

[wpvideo DF2u1Xbr]

Nuremberg Alstadt

I would say if you are in Nuremberg for anything other than the Nazi history, you may be slightly underwhelmed as were we. The town centre is good but I found Bamberg and Rothernberg obt to be far more interesting.

We took the walking circuit suggested at the tourist centre and echoed by our LP guide book.

Start at the Hauptmarkt and then go all the way up to the Kaiserburg. Then come down (I preferred coming down the West gate) and go all the way down to Albrecht-Durer-Haus and then cross the famous trinity of birdges – the Chain Bridge, the Max-Brucke and the Hangman’s bridge. Finally arrive at the Weisser Turm to see the controversial fountain ‘Ehekarussell’ depicting the different stages of marriage. You will also find the Jakobskirche here. You can walk further down to the National Museum and then to HandwerkerHof (but we skipped this touristy recreation of old world crafts quarter and instead hopped on a train to Bamberg. You can continue following the route up to see the Klarissenplatz and Lorenplatz and see some of the beautiful churches on your way. And finally you are where you started – at the Hauptmarkt where you can see the splendid Rathaus, Church of Our Lady and of course the weekend market. The entire walk should take a leisurely 2 hours or so.