Nuremberg

The day started out rainy but we opened our umbrellas and headed out to Nuremberg to meet our guide, "Elizabeth of Pommern", the 4th wife of Emperor Karl IV of Bohemia, who ruled in Nuremberg in the 1300's. A short walk from the train station we met her at St. Lorenz Church. Also with her was a Bavarian researcher, Marianne Sutter, who I had been in contact with for a few years, she would be available if anyone wanted to speak with her about future research.

Elizabeth first took us to a bridge where you could see the oldest hospital of Nuremberg jutting out into the river. This is the Holy Ghost Hospital and is still used as a senior citizen home and a restaurant today. In Elizabeth's time she explained how "stuff" from the hospital was dumped into the river and river was filthy and could not be used for drinking water.

We visited the churches of Nuremberg, St. Lorenz and St. Sebald. We learned that St. Sebald had been Catholic but in the 1525 Reformation it then became Lutheran but it still contains many statues of Mary and a relic of St. Sebald. The governing families who had donated these statues of Mary decided not to get rid of them at the time of the Refomation as they had spent too much money on them! This church was also heavily destroyed during the war but the citizens had yet again saved the statues and hid them throughout the war in a safe place, so they were once again able to be in the Church when rebuilt.

We had a wonderful tour, learned a lot of history and interesting stories of Nuremberg. I highly recommend having Elizabeth of Pommern as your tour guide if you travel to Nuremberg.

I have an interesting video uploaded on the Family Tree Tours Heritage Travel Facebook page, with Elizabeth's story of the Golden Ring but for some reason I can't get it to upload here. Sorry.

Of course we had to try the famous Nuremberg sausages, which are absolutely fabulous and we stopped at a store to buy some also famous Lebkuchen (gingerbread). Delicious. On our way out of town we discovered the craft market and went shopping for a little while. Fun day.