Andy's Germany Adventure: Day 9 (b)

Tuesday, 18 January 2011.

Nearly 2000 km (1250 miles) on the clock.

After a brief visit to Bayreuth, I continued to my final destination for today: Nuremberg.

"Oh no, not another mediaeval town!" you may say. Well so it is, but the first unique feature that struck me about Nuremberg is that the whole fortified city wall is in place, repaired or rebuilt. The second thing is that while the town retains a large number of mediaeval buildings (probably rebuilt since 1945), at least 50% of the houses are new, but designed in a way that fits in with the old. I imagine it is a very pleasant place to live.

In the middle ages, Nuremberg was a major centre for trade between Italy and Germany, and from Eastern to Western Europe. It was therefore an excellent place for Albrecht Dürer to set up his woodcut, engraving and printing business in 1509. His house is still there and was the main object of my visit. Alas, no photography is allowed inside, so you'll have to ask Google for pictures.

They've gone rather over the top on 'touristifying' the house as a museum: people dressed up as servants and the ghost of Dürer's wife Agnes doing the audio guide. Good on acting, but poor for useful information. Nevertheless, I liked the workshop - laid out to show how Dürer and his staff used it, the kitchen where paint was made, a convincing reproduction of his printing press and the place where they packed the works into barrels and loaded the wagons for transport. They have also recently installed a display of some of his best-known prints, so the EUR 5.50 entrance fee is justified.

I rounded off the day with a meal in a "typically Frankish" restaurant. Typically regional fare turns out to be hearty and delicious: a soup with liver dumpling and noodles followed by a shank(?) of pork (slow cooked but with crackling, how do they do that?), served with a different (huge) kind of white dumpling called Kloβ.

Heading further South tomorrow. Watch this blog to see where I go!