My Vacation: Nuremberg
Part eight in a series on my journey through Europe to retrace my Great-Grandmother’s 1914 travel diary on the centennial of its writing
On her way from Berlin to Munich, my Great-Grandmother stopped off in Nuremberg for several hours to explore the city’s famous medieval center. Because I took a different route to Munich than Daisy, I didn't have the same opportunity.
Originally I didn't think much of it because she wrote little of the visit in her diary, but as I read more of her second diary — what she called her “Fact Book” — I found a significant entry on her time in the town, and felt compelled to see it for myself.
So during my last full day in Munich I hopped on the first train for Nuremberg and made it there by mid-morning.
As I left the train station I felt a bit disappointed.
Bland architecture, all of seemingly recent construction, surrounded the exit. And as I wandered further, looking for a place to eat some food and get my bearings, I couldn't find a single place that looked locally owned. Ultimately I settled on some nondescript chain-owned bakery and ate a disappointingly mushy ham and cheese croissant sandwich.
As I searched for some of the places Daisy had visited I learned that on January 2nd, 1945 Allied bombers destroyed 90 percent of the medieval city-center, and as I read more about the destruction endured during WWII, I began to fear that I had wasted my time coming to Nuremberg. In her entry, Daisy describes going to “the castle” which I assumed meant the Imperial Castle of Nuremberg so I set off in that direction.
Google Maps took me straight back to the main train station, through its center to the opposite exit, and out into what felt like an entirely different city. The buildings were older, coated with bricks coarse to the touch and divided by cobblestone streets. I knew most of it must have been reconstructions of what Daisy saw, but I was excited nonetheless.
Here are Daisy’s words on her first sight of the city:
July 15
On our way to Munich from Dresden we stopped for several hours at Nuremberg. We found Nuremberg delightful and quaint and we wished for a longer stay. The tower and the walls and the moat were seen just across from the station before we took our cars. Nuremberg is from the Medieval Times. It dates to 11th Century and the Medieval tone is still retained.
We went first to the castle standing on a hill and overlooking the whole city. Emperor Conrad II# founded it. In the castle is the tower where the collection of the torture implements are kept. One might easily find material here for any thrilling blood chilling# tale. The horrors of the palace cannot be forgotten. I have a picture of the Eiserne Jungfrau. This iron maiden stands in a dark room of the tower. It has been brought up from a darkroom of the torture chamber. The doors have iron spikes in them and the prisoner is put in here with face toward the door. There are spikes for the eyes, chest and then many spikes. The doors are slowly closed and when the cries of the prisoner can be heard no more the doors are opened and the victim is dropped through a trap door, cut to pieces by fine knives and thrown into the river. This is one of the horrors. Chains, knives, thumb screws, spiked cradles, axes, branding irons, and cells all tell the same horrible stories. But we came away and looked over Nurnburg. The view was wonderful. The quaint tiled roofed houses, some swayed back, but all showing the medieval structure.
On my walk to the castle, I passed through the city center, and saw the same marketplace Daisy describes later in her entry. Dozens of tables drew paths through the square with their awnings striped red and white. Men and women sold flowers and fresh vegetables as a pair of children chased each other.
As I left the square I passed Nuremberg’s famous Schöner Brunnen Fountain. Heinrich Beheim finished the fountain in 1396, and adorned it with 40 brass figures. Some of Daisy’s favorites were Charlemagne, Joshua and David, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, and Hector of the Trojan War.
There’s a gold ring on the fence surrounding the fountain and legend has it that if you spin the ring you’ll have good luck. I’m not much for superstition, but I spun the ring a few times anyway. As I finished the third turn a local German woman started laughing at me, and I paced away embarrassed.
From the Schöner Brunnen Fountain I made my way to the Nuremberg Castle. The historic structure sits on a hill above the city and provides an incredible panoramic view of the city. I toured the main castle, but unfortunately the ‘torture tour’ Daisy wrote about wasn’t around anymore. The tower she wrote about still stood though, so I walked to it after the castle tour.
The tower rises high above the city, sitting 100 feet up on the peak of a hill. Its wooden steps spiral around the inside, and they creaked as I climbed. The stairs stole my breath, but the view at the top captured my gaze with a blue sky bordered by the terra cotta colored roofs of Nuremberg.
I found a seat and started transcribing the portion of Daisy’s Nuremberg entry that detailed her time at the castle tower. I didn't make it past three sentences before something she wrote made me stop.
We climbed the big tower, still apart of the castle. Up, up, up we went and paid our ten phinnings# at the top. The view from here gave us command of the country round. We wrote our names in the book.
When I reached the last line my eyes darted around the tower. I didn't see the guest book, so I stood up and searched the other side of the tower, but couldn't find anything that resembled what she had described.
I stuffed my laptop back into my bag and bounded down the spiraling stairs two at a time. A man at the bottom directed me to the Castle’s information desk where a British docent adopted my excitement and combed through the Castle’s records, searching for the book Daisy mentioned.
Unfortunately we came up empty. According to the docent World War Two had scattered many of the castle records, and it was likely the signature book hadn’t survived the war. I didn't have long before my train back to Munich arrived, so I thanked the docent for his help and left the castle.
At the advice of Colin Trabold, a more seasoned German traveler, I stopped off at the Altstadthof brewery on my walk back and had their signature beer ‘sampling.’
Their idea of a sample size was about twice as big as mine, so I slept well on the train ride to Munich.
