Tag: Travel couple

Nuremberg 🇩🇪

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We had a few hours left to kill in Frankfurt before heading to Nuremberg, so we went back through skid row and to the love lock bridge across the river. Although nowhere near as impressive as the one in Cologne, it’s still worth visiting to see the skyline and the pretty Autumn colours on the other side. We grabbed a much quicker breakfast in one of their coffee shops – Mark thought his bagel was delicious, but I thought it tasted like sweaty armpits 🤢

Onto the train and the dodgy characters continued. I’m all for doing whatever to make yourself feel fabulous, but when you look like Pete Burns and Katie Price’s love child I really feel it’s time to stop… Behind us there was a big arguement going on. I would love to know what it was about because I’m a nosey cow but unfortunately it was all in a different language (definitely not German) I did however understand the part where he called her a stupid bitch 😬

No picture of Pete.. so here we are supporting a local German business 😬

We arrived in Nuremberg and instantly fell in love with the place. No more dodgy characters for a start! We dropped our cases off at the hotel and headed out to find the markets. Turns out we hadn’t researched the dates as thoroughly as we thought, and the markets actually started the following day! There is so much to see and do in Nuremberg that it didn’t matter, and we would still get to see them the following morning when they opened.

One of the very few streets starting the markets early!

Nuremberg is such a pretty place and just what you would expect a Bavarian town to look like. It’s famous for it’s imperial castle, half timbered houses, cobblestoned squares and bridges. We walked up the giant hill to the castle and were really lucky to pretty much have the whole place to ourselves. There’s some gorgeous views up there and a great place to watch the sunset. It was here that we had our first taste of Lebkuchen – the German spiced treat traditionally eaten at Christmas. We also found a German bar selling beer tasters, which Mark loved (and I hated because beer is foul 🤣) but they also sold wine so all was good!

On our walk to another watering hole we grabbed another snack – Mandeln. Crunchy, warm, sweet nuts.. what more could you want! We fell into yet another Irish bar because it looked like it had good atmosphere. It was here that we met a group of blokes, one of whom lives in Birmingham.. and even knows a paramedic Mark used to work with. The conversation with him was beyond fascinating, but certainly not suitable for the blog 🤣 we also got chatting to an American who shared our views of Frankfurt. Trying to explain the difference between Birmingham and the Black Country was particularly challenging and he was incredibly animated about the whole thing!

What we’ve seen of Nuremberg so far has been great as its such a charming place – we cannot wait to explore again in the morning.

Frankfurt 🇩🇪

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We started our final morning in Cologne with our usual.. a big breakfast! We found what promises to be one of the best breakfast/brunch places in town, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. We went for the conservatory option as inside was heaving, with blankets and heaters for warmth. Obviously our heater was broken 🤣 but we still enjoyed the vibe of the place.

Getting to Frankfurt was as usual, a nightmare. The ticket machines were broken, the ones that were working made absolutely no sense (even when put into English) and then the train we had planned to get from the main station got cancelled. This meant finding another train to hop onto to get to the station on the other side of the river, which would give us a direct train to Frankfurt.

Obligatory train self.. with compulsory masks 😷

This is now potentially an unpopular opinion….. but we really didn’t think much of Frankfurt, and it certainly isn’t a place we would rush back to. This could be partly down to where our hotel was located, which we’ve since found out is the worst place to stay 🤣 coming out the train station we were surrounded by groups of gangs, and the whole area was basically like being in skid row. We were keen to get exploring ASAP as we only had an hour of daylight left, so made a dash for the hotel, dodging the dodgy looking people. A nice bonus was that we had been given a room upgrade, which included a giant glass box in the middle of the room with the shower in it.

The walk to the river was another interesting one, as not only did the huge amount of homelessness continue, but so did the sex shops and brothels. On every corner was a building offering ‘girls girls girls’ and the whole area just felt incredibly seedy and uncomfortable. When we finally got out of this part of town we were able to enjoy the surroundings a bit more. It is totally different to the previous 2 cities due to the modern buildings and towering skyscrapers. The walk along the river was also a very pleasant one and you can really appreciate the scale of the buildings from here.

To the main event of Frankfurt and the reason we came – the market! We’ve both frequented its twin market in Birmingham over the years, but is this one better? On the whole, yes! It is located in the historical market square of Römerberg meaning it had a lovely backdrop, and stalls in a big giant circle, rather than in a line down a long street. We were treated to a brass band who played on top of the church in the square, something that only occurs on a Wednesday and Sunday. One thing it was lacking (not that we would participate as we are both terrible!) is an ice skating rink.

Food tonight was chips covered in mayo, Ketchup and onions, and Currywurst, washed down with more Glühwein and beer. It then started raining so we found shelter next to a cheese fondue stand, also selling Glühwein. The previous couple had walked away leaving their empty glasses and empty cheese fondue.. they were either rich or had no concept of handing things in to get your deposit back. We ordered our own Glühwein and waited to see if they would realise and return. They did not… you snooze you lose! So that was €16 back to us 🤷🏼‍♀️

Mark is a fan of a good Brewdog, so he was delighted to find out that Frankfurt has a Brewdog pub. We settled down and ordered his favourite – a Hazy Jane. Obviously this was out of stock! So he settled for an Elvis Juice instead, and a few local beers they recommended. As we hadn’t eaten enough already, we ordered some wings as a late night snack. Unfortunately they forgot to put the order through, and when we chased the order, the kitchen had closed. No fear! There was a Rewe to Go (basically a Tesco Express) over the road, so we popped in for a sarnie. There were a few dodgy characters who were definitely on the rob, but the staff were clearly used to this and they followed them like a hawk (I initially thought it was us they were following so was getting ready to kick off 🤣)

The walk back to the hotel was also an interesting one. To quote one website – “around the station, drug dealers can be found. Avoid drunken, strange-looking or aggressive people, particularly at night”. Mark has seen many sights on his night shifts around Birmingham, but he has never seen anything like that before! To think we had planned to stay here for a few days.. thank god for covid!