We decided in Prague to rent a car and do some driving around Europe. We wanted the flexibility to avoid the rain. Our other thought was to rent an apartment for a month and just stay put, but we couldn’t agree as to where. So, off to Germany where the car rentals are much cheaper than other countries.
We were pleasantly surprised by Nürnberg. It is a cute town, the pedestrian old town center is a full-fledged semi-upscale shopping district. And it provided us with a mini-Octoberfest, the Altstadtfest. It had 1.2 million visitors over the course of two weeks, but it seemed very mellow. We were there for the opening ceremony and the tapping of the kegs. We ate Nürnberg sausages (”drei im weckla” == “three in a bun”), tried out a few of the beers (which mostly tasted just like you would think a German beer should), had a Schweinhaxen (aka., pork knuckle or ham hock), ate the bread dumplings, ate the sauerkraut, and drew the line at a cold meat/rye bread, onion and butter platter that we mistakenly ordered.
This last platter of food was an epic event at the outdoor beer hall table, on the first night of the festival. We thought we were getting a mixed order of sausages to share, but found that ‘roasted’ was not one of the adjectives in the German menu, after the order arrived. We were served what looked like a huge pile of cold raw, pink pork sausages on a huge wooden platter, with raw onions, pickles, butter and rye bread arranged around them. We asked our German neighbors if the sausage was supposed to be cooked or not, and they were not sure, that wasn’t something they would ever order. So, we sat there for a bit staring at the platter and considered what to do while we finished a mug of (oh, why can’t they use more hops?!) German beer. We finally just called for our bill and decided to roll the dice on another food establishment that evening. The waiter gave us much grief for not giving the raw mushy pork looking sausage a try, so that we were thoroughly uncomfortable and the focus of much attention by the time we parted ways with him. Ah, pork, how can it be served so wrong?!
(Can you actually eat raw pork?) I just looked for raw German sausages in the wiki, and came up with a few different options, with the probable one being Mettwurst:
Mettwurst is a strongly flavoured German sausage made from raw minced pork, which is preserved by curing and smoking. The southern German variety is soft and similar to Teewurst… Mettwurst can be cooked or fried or spread on rye bread with onions and eaten raw.
Gads.
As for sightseeing, Derrell’s mom worked as a translator at the Nürnberg trials, so we headed over to the trial room to check it out. The trial room has been downsized, and it is still in use as a courtroom, so it basically looked like a standard old courtroom, if you ignore the hidden elevator built into the wood paneling that connects this court room to the attached prison complex…
The more interesting aspect of the room tour was the age of the people that showed up for the tour, most of the group would have been in their teens or twenties when the trials were happening. That had an impact on me, along with the black and white photos on the wall showing the town in complete ruins.
We also took in the German National Museum, and overdosed on the museum after viewing one too many ancient religious objects, we should have known that six hours was too long to wander a museum without lunch. Just before the museum, we saw the beginning of a bike race in the town, everyone looking healthy, awake in the early morning and ready to go. So, we got to enjoy a good dose of athletic vibe while we watched the start of the race, complete with loudspeaker announcements and pacing/repair cars following the racers.
Finally, one of the best afternoons consisted in taking a walk around one of the town’s lakes, Großer Dutzendteich, near the Nazi staging grounds and Documentation Center (in the former Nazi Congress Hall, designed by Albert Speer and modeled after a Roman Colosseum). We enjoyed the fine autumn weather, ducks and, well, not-so-much, the old men racing toy speedboats making an unqualified high-pitched motorized racket that overwhelmed some of the lake’s solitude. Ah, but I digress, the walk was wonderful, nature was showing some great Autumn colors.
