Day 05 - Nuremberg, Augsburg

Greetings from soggy Germany!! Today began with a bus trip from Coburg to Nürnberg where we met our local guide, Christoff, for a quick walk through town. Approximately ninety percent of Nürnberg was destroyed during World War 2, however, there are many things to learn here. During ancient times, two watchmen were on duty at each of the more than 170 towers along the city walls, one for the daytime and one for the night.  However, they were not looking for enemies, but watching for fires and would sound the alarm for folks to bring their buckets of water to help put the fires out if any were seen.  There are lots of cellars and tunnels underneath the streets where the residents stored their beer.  These cellars and tunnels also saved almost 20,000 lives during World War 2, as they also served as air raid shelters.  We were given time to shop a little at the market in town (which will become the christkindlesmarkt in a few short weeks) and grab some brats and ginger spice cakes for lunch before riding by the site of the Nürnberg trials on our way out of town toward our stop for the afternoon, Augsburg.

This afternoon we had time to walk around both the Augsburg Cathedral and St. Anne’s Church.  We learned that the difference between a church and a cathedral is that cathedral is Latin for the word chair, so an Archbishop would be at a cathedral (to sit in the chair).  In Bavaria unlike other places the Catholics and Protestants got along. We were asked to think about what a reunification between the Catholic Church and Protestant Church might look like…we think this might be a far fetched idea, however, at one time no one would have thought a unified Germany was possible.

We enjoyed a traditional German dinner tonight as the rain stopped hopefully for the remainder of our trip.  Everyone loved the Turkey Stroganoff, Spaetzle and Apple Strudel.  It was really, really yummy!!!

Today we walked six miles.  Tomorrow we visit Dachau on our way to Munich for the next two overnights.