Nuremberg / Regensburg, Germany ... Dec 1 - 2, 2006

We left early Friday evening and drove to Nuremberg. Unfortunately, we were slowed down when I got pulled over in Austria going 160+ KM/H, 60 KM over the speed limit. Had I known that this meant a 300 Euro fine (~$400) I probably would have been more cautious. We've driven through this country a dozen times at speeds faster than this but never did I think it could be that expensive for a speeding ticket. And despite all the bargaining I could come up with, the Austrian mentality easily trumped the rational. So I handed over my credit card and we continued on our way (the downside of technology, in my opinion). We actually stopped for the night about 30 minutes short of Regensberg at a bed and breakfast. The next morning we drove straight to Nuremberg and the Christmas market there. Supposedly it is the oldest (been going on over 400 years when 14 roads brought traders into the walled city) and most famous Christkindlmarkt in Germany, set along the cobblestone streets of the Hauptmarktplatz. It certainly is the most crowded that I have ever been to. After finally finding a place to park, we got everyone dressed as warmly as we thought possible, which was not enough, since as soon as we got 100 feet from the car Katie began to complain about how cold she was, while Ashley, conversely, refused to wear her hat and mittens no matter how hard we tried. Finally I decided it was not worth the effort, although I know each and every German that walked by us thought what terrible parents we were, for not having her flooded in warmth. At any rate, despite the complaining from Katie (I finally put her in the stroller, took off my coat, and wrapped it around her, which provided enough heat to silence her for a while) and the whining from Ashley, we managed to enjoy about an hour of perusing the different booths of Christmas themed decorations. We also enjoyed a lot of food, including the traditional candied almonds, bratwursts, chocolate covered apples, bananas, and strawberries, and finally fresh waffles with powdered sugar. We added to the girls collection of Christmas ornaments, as well as a German Nutcracker (we collect one at each Christmas market we go to). We listened to a Christmas brass orchestra set up in front of the Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady) for as long as the girls would allow us to, and then we proceeded back to the car for the trip to Regensburg.
Regensuburg was the capital of Bavaria before Munich and unlike many other German towns, everything in this city is original and untouched by the World War II air raids. The architecture dates back to the 13th -16th century. Emporer Maximilian said "Regensburg surpasses every German city with its outstanding and vast buildings". We validated this and have to agree with the Emporer. Situated at the northern most navigable point of the Danube, Old Stone Bridge (Steinerne Bruecke) provides a wonderful view of the city, we are told. Unfortunately once we got to the city we immediately went to the Regensburg Christkindlmarkt and did not make it to the bridge until after dark. So, this, we can not validate. However, we do admit that the Christkindlmarkt in Regensburg, although smaller than Nuremberg's, is just as fun. And this time Ashley fell asleep in the stroller so we were able to enjoy it in relative peace. Both these cities will be fun to go back to in the Spring, as the minimum daylight and temperature made it a little difficult to completely enjoy. However, the Christkindlmarkts certainly made up for anything we feel like we may have missed otherwise.