Took an early morning train to Nuremberg and quickly dropped our bags at the hotel. We were off to tour the Nuremberg Castle. This castle was originally built in medieval times, but much of it was destroyed by air raids during WWII. The castle was subsequently rebuilt to its original design. There is a museum inside the castle containing many suites of armor and weapons used during the middle ages. While we were there, the museum also had an exhibit on Bavarian gold.
The most interesting part of the tour is the deep well. In the middle ages, protecting the water supply from poisoning was at the top of almost every rulers list. This castle’s deep well was protected inside a guarded building. While getting a tour of the deep well the guide was explaining things in German and also asked if there was anyone that didn’t speak German. I raised my hand, but none of the other English speakers did. It was then that I realized, the guide had asked that question in German. Yes, everyone got a good laugh out of that one. The deep well demonstration was fascinating. The shaft is almost 50 meters deep. The demonstration starts with dropping water into it and then waiting about 5 seconds to hear it hit the water below. Then the guide sends lighted candles down to the water level and they seem to disappear as you can’t see the light anymore. The candles stay lit as the limestone rock is porous and allows air through.
The Sinwell tower was the only part of the castle to come out relatively unscathed during WWII. The tower provided an excellent view of the city and pictures from both before and after the war are on display. The pictures show the great devastation the city experienced during the war.
After the castle, we stopped at a beer garden to try the Nuremberg sausage. Their sausages are quite small and thin, similar to a breakfast sausage link. It is said the sausage had to be small enough to fit through a keyhole as prisoners were fed by their families back in the middle ages.
The other interesting tour we did was a tour of the rock cut cellars. These cellars were originally built for the making and storing of beer. The tour is done once a day in English. If you’re like us and didn’t make it to that one, you can go on the German one with the audio guide. These cellars were also used as bomb shelters and are the reason so many Nuremberg citizens survived the war.
The Nuremberg war trials were also held here, but we didn’t have time to visit the courthouse or the museum.
