Middle-aged flash packers

Our journey to Nuremberg was a slow one. We had stupidly given no thought to the fact it was Saturday and school holidays. It seemed as though everyone was on the road either trying to get somewhere or come home. Oh well, at least it got us used to British traffic again.

The most annoying thing was we tried to divert off the motorway when it was at a standstill, only to find all the roads had been closed in the direction we needed to go! Obviously a German ruse to stop their towns being troubled by traffic, meaning we had to get back on the motorway – grrrr!

Anyway, we eventually arrived in the “old” town (much of it was bombed to bits in the war) and went for a wander.

First impressions of Nuremberg:

– a very liberal city. There was a gay pride event in progress which we walked through both in the day and in the evening. Everyone having fun, no trouble.

– Our very proper Holiday Inn hotel is smack bang in the middle of the red light zone. As we sauntered back from our meal, the girls were leaning out of the windows, plying their wares. A police van drove up and down to make sure potential customers behaved themselves. It’s obviously regulated and permitted. Again, very liberal.

– A concerning amount of people out and about with mental health issues. Are they being looked after by the state? I guess similar problems to the UK. It’s very sad to see someone who isn’t coping picking up cigarette butts and putting them in their mouths or another person agitatingly talking to themselves and others, repeatedly scattering stuff all over the place, then clearing it up. 

This particular scenario was going on while Steve and I were having a drink. Steve had his back to the person so was getting quite irritated because I was totally distracted by the bizarre behaviour.

– this city loves music. There were the most buskers I have ever seen in one place. They were incredibly professional and it was clear that locals really enjoy it as they didn’t just chuck a few coins in a hat and move on, they stood and listened for ages. 

– Amazingly, after the huge influx of immigrants Europe has had, this is the first place in all our travels that I’ve seen recent immigrants. I saw several groups of what looked like Eritreans. 

So all in all, a very interesting place so far. (Another good recommendation from Charlie). 

 Looking forward to a more in-depth explore.