Okay, we have been in Europe for about 33 days, amazing. We had rain on day 1 in Amsterdam but it amounted to light rain and we spent the afternoon in a green house and when we emerged the sun was shining. Used the umbrellas about 2 blocks worth. Today it was forecast from 10am to 12 noon.
Today we will do cellar tours. Nuremberg is known for its underground cellar networks that served 3 uses. A bomb shelter for resident safety, a safe location for church and other works of art to prevent any destruction during the allied bombing and for beer storage
We have learned through many of our guided tours that it was safer to drink beer than water, which is why the beer consumption was extremely high in the 1500 -1800’s. This prevented plague and other water borne diseases. Slogans were all over town to drink beer.
Back to our cellar tours. The cellars were on the north part of town so it is a little hike. We were 1/2 way there and stopped in a Tourist Information center (didn’t learn anything). When we left it started to rain (aka pour). We tried to wait it out but gave up after 15 minutes to get to the cellar location for the beer tour. By the time we got there it had stopped raining a total of 45 minutes but enough to soak us in-spite of the umbrellas. Should have borrowed one from the hotel since they were oversized. My backpack was soaked since the umbrella covered my head and body but not the pack sticking out.
Went to 2 tours of the underground cellars both interesting. Dan wasn’t sure about doing the art one although that was one he enjoyed the most. We went into the exact caves they stored all the valuable art, statues, even the stained glass windows from the church. All artifacts were returned to the original locations after they were rebuilt
Old town Nuremberg was essentially rebuilt after WWII. It took about 5 years to clear the rubble before attempting to rebuild. Builds were rebuilt according to the original look based on photos. You wouldn’t even realize except streets are not all cobblestone but brick. There are some definite new buildings those that are department or retail shops. Again high end shopping is available in Nuremberg.
On day 2 we had several morning hours to finish up seeing some of the sites. So Dan says he is over churches and museums and just wants to window shop. So we just walked a nice quiet low impact morning only a stop for pretzels. The shop we found specializes in making sandwiches out of pretzels. For me I just want a plain one with a little salt. So far our best pretzel has been from a street vendor in Berlin but I will keep looking. That and trying out ice cream. Clearly the Italians have that market cornered.
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