In Old Bavaria

(Written on Saturday night)

On Friday, we made two short trips.  That morning, we went to Nuremberg.  The town is famous for the Nazi parade grounds, as well as the Nuremberg trials and laws, but most tourists go there now for the Christmas market.  The markets there are huge—some of the biggest in Germany—and the delicacy of choice is gingerbread (Lebkuchen).  It is very tasty.  The first batch I bought was small chunks of very spicy, gingery bread that had a small amount of sweet glaze on them.  The second kind was extremely moist, a little sweeter, and dipped in dark chocolate.  There were many more varieties available, too.  The old town was pretty, so we walked around and explored that.  It was very snowy there, with maybe 8 inches of snow where it hadn’t been cleared.  It was also very cold and windy.    That afternoon, we took a train further north to the town of Bayreuth.  It’s where the Wagner opera house is.  Only Wagner works are performed there.  Of course, as there is in every German town, there were a lot of beautiful old churches, a castle or palace, and some other sights.  Our trains were late getting back to Munich that evening, so we just took it easy and relaxed in the hotel room.  While the weather was nice, Deutsche Bahn trains were always on-time.  It was very rare for a train to be even 5 or 10 minutes late.  However, 20 minute delays are now almost universal, and some are much longer.  Between delays with both of our trains, it took us at least 90 minutes longer to get back than it should have.

This morning (Saturday) we caught a train to Salzburg, Austria.  It was about a 90 minute ride from Munich, which was nice.  The scenery along the way was very beautiful, as we were going through the Alps.  I was a little disappointed to not see any mountain goats, but we did see some deer.   We walked around the city of Salzburg for a while and were glad that it was slightly warmer than normal.  We went up a big hill to a cloister, where we got a good view of the city.  Then we went into the old town and walked around their farmers’ market and Christmas market.   When I saw that there was a branch of the Hotel Sacher in town, I demanded that we stop by to get some Sacher Torte.  Sacher Torte is a very famous chocolate cake made at the original Hotel Sacher in Vienna.  Real Sacher Torte is very expensive, but it is supposed to be the best chocolate cake in the world.  I bought a petit four version of the cake, and it was delicious.  European cakes tend to not be as sweet as American cakes, but it was extremely chocolately, with a slight cherry taste.   This evening, back at the hotel, we are being lazy again.  We’ve been doing a lot of walking and all need a break by the evening. 

Tomorrow morning, we leave for Berlin.  I really enjoyed the city the first weekend I was in Germany, and I’m looking forward to going back.