A sweet Christmas destination

Nuremberg

We leave Varese in the morning around 5. About 600 km of road and many things to see await us. We head toward Chiasso - Bellinzona, the S. Bernardino pass and then in the direction of Nuremberg. The roads, although all passable, are not always fast; therefore, we arrive in Nuremberg around noon.

Nuremberg is a large city, so access to the old town is complicated. Luckily the directions sent to us by the hotel are precise and we have no difficulty reaching the hotel (Burg hotel), right in the old town, at the foot of the castle.

The accommodations for this trip, as is our habit, were booked by e-mail after careful analysis of the relevant websites, found through the various search engines (Google).

After getting our room in this old but functional hotel, parking the car in the affiliated public car park, we begin visiting the city.

We first visit the little market located in the main square and the adjacent streets. We decide to have lunch by tasting here and there the delicacies offered by the numerous stalls of typical products, and so: Nuremberg white sausages, potato fritters with jam, brezen (a salted bread with a typical shape) and some sweets of which there is an embarrassment of choice.

For the rest, the little market offers very many stalls of wooden toys, typical of the place since it is well known that Nuremberg is the "toy city." There is even an interesting toy museum located in a beautiful building in the old town.

While visiting the market we realize that, perhaps, the December 8th long weekend is not the most suitable period for this type of trip, since the streets are crowded with a river of people and it is hard to see anything. We also realize that most of the visitors are Italians, organized more than anything into large and unwieldy groups.

We then move on to visit a quieter area but, in my opinion, the most fascinating and romantic in the city, namely the river that crosses the centre, with its beautiful bridges, among which the covered wooden bridge stands out for its importance. Here the view is evocative: palaces and houses with wooden trim overlooking the water, weeping willows and above all the old hospital resting on the river.

We then climb the castle hill, or rather the "Burg," and visit the large courtyard and the tower with a panoramic view over the city.

Fortunately the temperature, on these particular days, is not excessively cold; exactly the same as in northern Italy but perhaps it is not always like this... This way we can linger in the streets of the centre before returning to the hotel. Here we treat ourselves to a dip in the indoor pool, but the water is too cold and so we warm up a bit in the sauna.

When we go out looking for a restaurant for dinner, we realize we have made the mistake of not booking, and so we struggle to find a table. However we are lucky and, in a central little square, we find a large beer hall with traditional German cuisine, with available seats. We eat roast pork shank, typical of the area. The prices are low; with the introduction of the Euro, by now, the prices of the countries with a single currency have become uniform and there are no big surprises when the bill comes.

After dinner, one last pass by the little market for a sweet. We opt for a waffer: a hot grid-patterned wafer, caramelized on the surface, eaten with melted chocolate, ice cream, cream, or even all of these things together.

Another "must" of the Christmas markets in every city of northern Europe is mulled wine in the typical ceramic cup, with the name of the place and the year of the market's edition, to collect. The mulled wine is not exactly like ours; it is perhaps lighter and enriched with other aromas. This time we savour a cherry flavour. The peculiar thing is that, if you do not want to keep the cup, you can return it, once emptied of its contents, and part of the price paid will be refunded to you.

ROTHENBURG OB DER TAUBER

After an abundant German-style breakfast, with a large savoury component made up of cold cuts and cheeses but without denying ourselves the sweet part of it, we set off for nearby Rothenburg.

We arrive ahead of the crowds of numerous tourists.

The town presents itself as a charming and colourful medieval town, surrounded by walls and turrets, as if it were one large castle. It is also possible to walk along all the wall walkways.

Here you breathe the air of another time: horse-drawn carriages for transporting tourists travel along the cobbled streets of the centre; Christmas decorations abound and further enrich an already decorated town; the colourful half-timbered houses, the ornamental wrought-iron signs of the numerous shops, already constitute a perennial decoration.

Sign of a baker in the shape of a Brezen

We find without difficulty our accommodation, consisting of a typical and inexpensive "gasthof" (small inn) located above a small restaurant. Here the prices of the accommodations are low: with a total of 50 EURO we can choose among numerous lodgings, with breakfast included. Booking, however, is mandatory, and ours, made back in September, was already... some places were fully booked!

In Rothenburg there is no large market, apart from a few stalls near the town hall, but the main attraction are the beautiful little shops of gift items, decorations and toys. There are very many of them and all well furnished.

We especially point out the "Kathe Wohlfahrt" chain, consisting of 5/6 large themed shops, in the area around the town hall square (the all-mushroom shop, the crystal shop and the great Christmas village which we will describe later).

We go in search of some souvenirs to bring to our loved ones.

We are particularly attracted by the little illuminated ceramic houses (Licht hauser) which we collect and of which entire shops are dedicated (we especially point out the "Leyk" houses, but there are also ones from other brands).

Another typical product of Rothenburg are the fantastic "Rothenburg snowballs": attractive sweet balls, about 10 cm in diameter, in various flavours, all to be devoured.

The dough is somewhat reminiscent of our Carnival chiacchiere but enriched with chocolate, marzipan, coconut and other ingredients.

They also exist in gift packaging, even individually, to give as souvenirs, and so we do. Among other things, they keep for weeks.

You should know that Rothenburg is very popular in Japan as a mandatory stop proposed in every tour of Europe, and therefore the presence of Japanese is predominant (followed by Italians). Indeed the signs, brochures and so on are written in two languages: German and Japanese.

At the first light of evening Rothenburg is beautiful. The many lights turn on and give the town a magical appearance, like a Christmas postcard. In the town hall square, the heart of the town, bands play Christmas songs and everyone walks around loaded with gift packages: too beautiful!

We decide to have dinner in the restaurant of our gasthof; the dinner is of average quality but, right afterwards, we decide to go to a particular café-patisserie, richly decorated, where they serve cakes about 8 cm tall.

A few night photos and then back to the room.

ROTHENBURG AND BACK

Unfortunately it is the last day; we leave early to get ahead of the tourist buses and to finally manage to visit the Kathe Wohlfahrt shop "The Christmas Village," which we were unable to enter yesterday because of the long waiting line.

It is a very large shop inside which a real Christmas village is reproduced: each little house is an exhibition stand (there is a similar place in Bussolengo-VR, twinned with the Rothenburg shop).

You immediately recognize the K. Wohlfahrt shop by the vintage car, loaded with gifts, parked in front of its entrance.

Here we find the best items of all and the prices are also quite affordable.

Moreover, the evocative display invites you to buy.

On the upper floor of the shop there is also the "Christmas Museum" with period Christmas decorations and items. For more information:

This was the last stop of our trip and around 11 we set off again for the return to Italy. At 5 we are home without problems.

One piece of advice: avoid stops at service areas in Swiss territory. Here the prices are mind-boggling. If you really must, limit yourself to the chocolate bars available in the most varied flavours.

Dani and Max to learn more, visit our website:

texts by Daniela photos by Max