Rick's Roadshow: Nuremberg~Bavaria, Germany

My final day in Bavaria. I worked all day until late afternoon. After two and a half days of being at the Interzoo the trade show, I decided to call it a wrap. So it was off to the old city to explore more of Nuremberg. I had an interesting experience on the train: three older Russians sat down next to me and started chatting with each other in their language. The old man sputtered something to me in Russian, which of course I did not understand so I smiled and said "Do you speak English?" he frowned, having no idea what I had said. He then turned and offered me a piece of candy. I declined initially but they were insistent so I accepted and ate the candy, which made them all smile, as they hungrily ate their own pieces of the sweet. I decided to bridge the gap a bit and used my BlackBerry to Google "Basic phrases in Russian". FInally the search results came back, and suddenly the train arrived at my destination. I quickly stood up, looked at my BlackBerry Google result and said to the three old Russians: "Spasiba" (pointing to my mouth, as I was still eating the candy). I glanced at my Blackberry screen again and managed to say: "Do svidaniya, Schast'ya i zdorov'ya!" All of which means "Thank you, Goodbye, I wish you happiness and health". A smile came over the faces of the three old Russians and they waved merrily to me as I exited the train. It was a fun experience, I was grateful for the magic of the Internet! Once I reached the old city again I went exploring and took a few more photos. I hope you enjoy these final views of Nuremberg.

above: Nuremberg is situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal. It affords charming views of the city.

above: this photo is actually from Friday but I felt it belonged more in today's post, as it was taken on another area at the river. It's tough to see but the building behnd me had fresh flowers in window boxes along the entire length of the building.

Nuremberg Castle

above: I walked up the hill to the massive Nuremberg Castle, which was built as early at 1000. Until 1571, all of the Kaisers and kings from the Roman Empire lived in this castle at some point.
The Hauptmarkt Square

above: The Frauenkirche (Church of our lady) has a wonderful clockworks movement. Just under the face of the clock, there is a mechanical statue of the Kaiser, who moves out when the clock strikes noon. above right: the Hauptmarkt square, with a farmers market type variety of stalls.

Performers on the Hauptmarkt

above: this man was my favorite, he was playing accordion and had his dog on his shoulder the entire time. The dog earned him a donation of 2 Euros from me..

above: a clown and an old German Witch from the Forest. She was playing the flute. I gave the witch 2 Euros as well.

above: The ‘Schöner brunnen’ (which means beautiful fountain). It was built back in 1385 and is the focal point of the square.

The Hauptmarkt has a huge number of fresh vegetables and food stalls. Above left: a cheese stall and above right: meat and sausages.

above left: Many of the stands were selling white asparagus, which are in season at the moment and are being served on every menu in town. above right- I thought these red eggs were interesting, not sure why.

Well that's all from Germany. Sunday morning I fly back to London where I'll be in town for a few days on business and a few days of personal time off, so I'll have plenty more to share. Thanks so much for stopping by, Rick's Roadshow continues...

-Rick Rockhill