Day 9, Sunday, July 23
We spent the morning of Sunday, July 23, cruising through the Main-Danube Canal. This canal connects the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea with the Black Sea. The Viking Magni docked in Nuremberg in the early afternoon, and we enjoyed a 4-hour sightseeing tour of this historic city.
As far back as 1,200 years ago, visionary Frankish Emperor Charlemagne contemplated connecting the Rhine, Main, and Danube Rivers so ships could travel the length of Europe. His dream came to life in 1992 with the completion of an ingenious 106-mile canal that cuts through the rolling hills of north central Bavaria. The Main-Danube canal employs 16 stair-step river locks to accommodate the changes in elevation.
It requires thousands of gallons of water flowing very fast to operate a lock. The multibank reservoir system is pictured here in a satellite photo and from the lock as we were going through it. This an ingenious way to fulfil this need and conserve water in the process of operating the lock.
In this photo, our longship was entering the Eibach lock at the higher water level.
From the photo below, you can see that the water had drained from the lock and the gate had just opened so we were getting ready to exit the lock at the lower level of the river ahead. This was a drop of 64 feet (19.5 meters). It is quite an amazing procedure, and we enjoyed watching how quickly it worked. This photo was taken just 20 minutes after the preceding one.
The origins of Nuremberg go back about 1,000 years to when the first fortress was built here by Emperor Henry III. Its site at the intersection of several important trade routes led to the rapid growth of the town below the castle’s walls. The medieval city is still surrounded by 13th-century walls, with many gates and watchtowers fully intact.
View of modern Nuremberg from the Castle Nuremberg
Old Nuremberg
Cobblestone streets
When Richard Wagner composed his opera, “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg,” in 1868, his choice of subject reflected Nuremberg’s key position as a symbol of German culture and history. For Wagner and many others in the Romantic period, the birthplace of Germany’s most famous Renaissance artist, Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), epitomized a golden era that was seeming gone forever.
The house where Durer was born (above) is typical of the predominant half-timbered style of the period.
We hadn’t realized until we arrived in Europe that our timing was during the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, when Nuremburg became an important center of this movement. Martin Luther said that Nuremberg is "Germany's eye and ear." With 21 printing houses, Nuremberg was the media capital of Luther’s time. Its no wonder that, through printed pamphlets and broadsheets, the ideas of the Reformation became so wide spread.
Unfortunately for the city, the same symbolism that had attracted Wagner also fascinated Hitler’s Nazi party, which considered Nuremberg to be the ideal venue for its annual rallies. This partly explains the fact that 75% of the old city was reduced to rubble by Allied bombing during World War II.
When the city was rebuilt, as many as possible of the original stones were reused. We learned that in a wall like this, the stones that had holes near the center were the original ones. In medieval times, rods were inserted into the holes drilled on opposite sides of the stones and used to carry the stones into place. Modern technology used cranes to move the new stones and didn’t require holes to be drilled.
The stones with holes are from the 12th century, those without are current.
This is the dramatic St. Sebaldas Church, dating from the 12th century.
We were there on Sunday afternoon, and the market square was busy with tourists and locals enjoying various libations and a band playing under the shell. In the background, the historic clock tower on the 14th Century Church of Our Lady was added in 1509 and has a glockenspiel featuring the seven Imperial Electors filing past the Emperor.
One shop that Daisy couldn’t pass up featured “Original Nurnberger Elisen Lebkuchen.” As I mentioned on a previous post, these German cookies are made with molasses or honey, spices, and nuts. At Daisy’s home, the shortened name for them was “Lepp Cookies,” and they are a Christmas tradition.
Lebkuchen translates as “Cake of Life.” It is a sweet and spicy treat once prized for its medicinal properties. This was a frequent late night snack we had offered to us on the ship.
We took a mid-afternoon beer break with our friend Debbie Thurman at the sidewalk restaurant of the Bratwurst Roslein, which advertised having been in business since 1431. We each tried a different variety of the local beer, and enjoyed a snack consisting of 3 fried “finger-sized” brats served on a small bun, with spicy mustard. Normally there are 6 of this sausages on two buns, but Daisy and Debbie split one serving so each had 3. I decided to go for a larger Brat which they called the “City” sausage and was served with what seemed like half a jar of horseradish.
A striking feature of the market square is the Schoner Brunnen (Beautiful Fountain), a filigree, spire-like construction over 55 feet tall, that has 40 figures incorporated into the lavish ornamental stonework. It was originally made about 1390 but replaced about a century ago. It is one of the most famous examples of German renaissance ironwork surviving to this day.
An iron enclosure surrounds and protects the beautiful fountain within. The fountain was originally built in the 14th century and tthe gates and grille work were made in 1587.
A tradition related to the fountain is that the fence around it contains a gold ring, and if you turn the ring around exactly three times, you will have good luck. Naturally, we couldn’t pass up this opportunity!
Besides its Roman, medieval, and 14th-15th century history, Nuremberg was also the city that was the location of the Nazi Party's Nuremberg rallies and where the laws stripping Jews of their citizenship were passed. At the end of the war, there was symbolic value in making it the place of Nazi demise by holding the Nuremberg Trails in which German officials involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity were brought before an international tribunal.
Dinner onboard that evening was different in that we decided to dine in the Aquavite Terrace, which is a level above the dining room. It is a more casual setting with often lighter offerings than the dining room.
The three amigo travelers (Daisy, Debbie and I) thought that a snack of Caesar salad, shrimp, and salmon would be a great end to the several bratwurst offerings we had that day.
I’ll close this post about our day of fun and learning in Nuremberg with dessert! On the ship that evening, Daisy concluded her dinner with Black Forest Cherry Cake (Schwarzwald Kirsch Kuchen)!
We ended the evening by listening to three young musicians who were masters of the violin, contrabass, and guitar. They played traditional Jewish songs and Romany music composed by legendary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.
This was a relaxing way to to wind down from a busy day of touring. The next day we would get to do it again (smile).
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