Christmas Market Tour 2022 - Nuremberg 2
The first thing we did on the second day in Nuremberg was getting in a taxi to a place for breakfast. Café Mainheim was J's pick because they were supposed to offer hot breakfast. We arrived at the cafe a little before their opening time. We were the first customer of the day.
The interior was pretty simple and kinda cold. At least my green tea was hot and tasty. J's cappuccino was made with a kind of vegan milk, which the waitress recommended him but I don't know what it was exactly. I forgot to ask him how it was while I didn't hear any complain.
I ordered something that seemed like a porridge according to the description on the menu. Just in case I confirmed with the waitress that it would be a porridge. Well, what came to me wasn't really what I expected. Dried oatmeal was in the bowl along with almond slices, apple slices and apple sauce. Warm milk was served separately. I poured the milk in the bowl and mixed all. I would call it muesli. I enjoyed it anyway. J's omelette with feta (and something else?) looked nice. He must have been happy with the hot breakfast.
Then we visited the Deutsche Bahn Museum, the oldest railway museum in Germany. This is the place you can see the largest collection of historic vehicles in the country. I didn't know anything about German railway. It was a good chance to have a quick look at more than 200 years of its history.
Next we visited the Germanisches National Museum, or the National Museum of German Art and Culture. The museum's collections contain more than 1.3 million objects, which makes it to be the largest museum of cultural history in German-speaking countries.
We walked around Prior and Early History rooms as well as Middle Age rooms.
Some structures of a 14th century Carthusian monastery were integrated into the museum complex, in which the late Middle Age collections were neatly displayed.
We also saw Weapon, Hunting and Gardening, Baroque Craftsmanship, Music Instrument, Folk Culture, and Clothing from 1700 collections, and then walked out the museum. There were many collections we didn't see, including 19th and 20th century arts. We didn't want to spend the whole day in the museum. We save those for the next time.
The weather was improved. It got slightly warmer and the snow was almost melted. We wandered in the old town for a while and headed to the main Christmas market. Hallo again, Lorenzkirche!
Luckily we passed by a pastry shop that I was interested in. Founded by Jens Brockerhof who was inspired by the very famous French pastry chef', Pierre Hermé's perfect sweet craftsmanship, Tafelzier is probably the most sophisticated French-style pastry shop in the town. We bought some macarons and chocolates.
Before going to the Christmas market, we went to Weißgerbergasse. It was supposed to be one of the most beautiful streets in the town, with colorful half-timbered historical houses. Honestly it was disappointing. We have seen much more picturesque streets with medieval half-timbered houses in other places.
Hallo again, St. Sebald!
We were back to the Christmas market. There were already so many people in the afternoon.
Ah, I must have missed the original parts of the fountain when we were in the Germanisches National Museum. It must have been somewhere in the Middle Age rooms.
We enjoyed the fruit bread that we had the day before. We bought a bigger piece to take home. We also bought some Lebkuhen made by a bakery called Wild and two flavors (rum raisin and eggnog) of marzipan.
We snacked stir-fried mushrooms and deep-fried mushrooms. They were fine. In fact J still didn't have a taste for sausages, which surprised me.
On the other hand J had a cup of Glühwein. The cute cup came home with us to join his cup collections.
I was interested in Frikadelle, also known as Boulette, German style meatballs, but they could be very salty for me. I skipped it this time.
Instead we shared a bag of candied almonds, or Gebrannte Mandeln. They are a classic German Christmas market staple and there were some vendors selling the sweet nuts in the market. Those simply candies roasted almonds were beyond my expectation. They were really good! The almonds were slightly warm and lightly spiced with cinnamon. I couldn't stop munching them.
We almost forgot to see the inside of Frauenkirche. When we popped in, an organist was playing the pipe organ. Perhaps a rehearsal for the Christmas? We had a seat and listened to the music for a while. The peaceful space filled with organ sounds solely in the church made a huge contrast with the outside, where was packed with people eating and drinking.
It was getting dark again. We briefly enjoyed the pretty Christmas lights in the market and stopped by at a cafe nearby before going back to the hotel. The cheesecake that J ordered was so big! On the way to the hotel, we looked for a store or cafe to buy a bottle of water. It was somehow difficult and we almost gave up. The place we finally found was a mustard specialty store! J was happy with his new local mustard to try and I felt secure with a bottle of water.
We left Nuremberg in the early morning of the next day. It was rainy and we didn't visit any other Christmas market on the way back home. That's ok because we can make a tour 2023. I hope!
