Day 48: Day Trip to Nuernberg (8/29/2010)

I got up at 8am today for our family day trip to Nuernberg. Davin stayed home because he didn’t want to get up so early, and is still recovering from his surgery. There was some talk about maybe taking the train, but in the end we took Dad’s car. Jonathan was in a terrible mood this morning because he really did not want to go either.


We made it to Nuernberg in about 40 minutes, and parked the car at the Hauptbahnhof parking lot. There I saw an amusing poster at Mc Donalds for a Nurn Burger. This was Nuernberger sausages and mustard in a hamburger bun. The picture actually looked pretty delicious, but if I wanted bratwurst I have no idea why I would buy it from Mc Donalds instead of from a real bratwurst stand!


A short walk through the city brought us to the German National Museum. There we saw the special Mythos Burg (Castle Myths) exhibit. I only learned three interesting things from the exhibit: 1) Squires often chose to remain squires because it was too expensive to become full-fledged knights (had to buy own horse and equipment); 2) jousting tournaments were almost never held at castles, but were more commonly held in city centers; and 3) before and after eating dinner at a castle feast there was a ceremony of hand washing (with higher ranked persons pouring the water for the lesser ranked neighbor, my step mom explained this ritual is full of Christian symbolism). Everything else in the exhibit I either already knew or was just obvious. I did enjoy reading the biographies about the most famous knights in history: Richard the Lionheart, The Robber Baron, The Last Knight, and the Knight Errant.

For lunch we went to a nice German restaurant where I tried the Schweinebraten with Kloese (tender fried pork loin covered in gravy with a potato ball) for lunch. I decided to change things up by not getting a schnitzel this time! :p And my food was delicious so it was a good decision. :) Yummy!


After lunch, Dad wanted to get dessert. We got ice cream cones from a Gelateria. I had a chocolate one of course! Then we looked at the steeple that was made to go on the Nuernberger Dom but was too heavy in the end. There I spun the golden ring (on link in the fence is made of gold) and made my usual wish. :) Then we wandered back to the car. On the way, Baerbel stepped into another cathedral. It took awhile to get her back out again... Meanwhile, I was amused by the fountain of leaking women... I think they all need to see a Doctor about this particular problem.


Then we returned home. We arrived around 5pm. Then I played Mass Effect 2 for awhile. Later, Davin, Jona and I played Borderlands together. Around 9pm, Dad called Grandpa Hugo in Maine and we all talked to him. He seems to be doing fine. He just turned 97 at the end of July!!

Then Dad made two huge plates of nachos (which did not taste that good at all!). Then we kids went back to our computer dungeon and played more Borderlands. I wrapped up the day with a little more Mass Effect, and went to bed late around 2am.