Germany Day 14 – Travel day to Nuremberg

I think everyone was quite glad to have an easy morning coming up, though it was an earlier start. I have to say I wasn’t really looking forward to be breakfast. Eating at this hostel hasn’t been a pleasant experience. It’s hustle and bustle to get your food, then noisy and crowded where you eat it.
We had a coach trip to the train station, which took a bit of time due to morning city traffic. We then assembled all our luggage on the platform before we went off to get some food supplies for the train.
At 9.50am we boarded the ICE train for the 5 hour trip to Nuremberg.

We were seated with Amy & Harriet and had a table so we were reasonably comfortable. We wanted to buy something from the lady that came through with a cart but she made no eye contact and didn’t stop, so I assume she didn’t actually want to sell anyone anything.

Luckily between the four of us we had enough supplies and we really enjoyed these choc chip cookies we’d bought at the station.

As we left the bigger cities behind we got to see some the gorgeous countryside that I much prefer. I spent my time catching up on blogs and then actually reading on my kindle for the first time this trip (though it was little hard with conversations and distractions all around).

For lunch we had the curried egg & salad wraps we’d bought earlier (Amy & Harriet went to the dining carriage). The wraps were REALLY good.

Finally around 3pm we arrived in Nuremberg.

It took the teachers a little while to work out how to get to the hostel but eventually we got there.

As usual there was more time waiting while we got checked in and rooms were all allocated.

This was a much nicer place than the one in Berlin (even though it’s the same franchise). Our room was slightly bigger.

After dropping off our luggage we headed into the main part of town. Lots of lovely buildings (made to look old), but the general business of a larger city.

There was more waiting as some of the German homestay kids were coming to meet the group. Eventually the teachers decided to let the kids who didn’t have kids coming to head out. Luckily as we only had 1.5 hours to explore the town. Amy joined us, along with 2 boys (the kids had to be in groups of 3) and we headed UP the hill to the castle.

It was quite the walk up but it was worth it to say we made it to the castle wall.

And there was a nice view as a reward.

It looked like a lovely castle and it would have been good to have time to explore it further.

We then headed back down into town. Kevin really wanted to see/learn more about the Nazi’s and the Nuremberg trials but when we asked at information we discovered we’d have to catch a train to get to that area. And we only had an hour left. Instead we did a bit of shopping and had some ice cream.

I tried to some orange ice cream but didn’t like it (so gave it to Amy).

We did buy some delicious homemade cookies that we got to sample.

And some delicious cheese that a lady was most insistent that we sample. It was really good and we would have bought some if we’d had access to a fridge.
I did get another ice-cream. Chocolate this time :-).

Then it was time to meet up again and head back to the hotel for dinner. My feet were REALLY sore today so I was glad to get off them. Dining here is a much nicer experience than Berlin. The staff are friendly, it’s quieter, you help yourself to ALL the food (in a room 3-4 times the size) and sit in nice, bright, roomy dining hall. Which even has a little play area for little kids.

Dinner was pretty much the same though. Fish for the others. Potato bake, rice and salad for me.

There was also choc mouse but knowing it would be an instant powdered mix I don’t want to eat it. Kevin said it was pretty good. After dinner I went to help Amy repack her bag (the others were meeting back up with their German homestay friends). I then played on my laptop and read for a bit before going to sleep around 10pm.

Tomorrow : A long bus ride to a salt mine, then on to Salzburg.