Nürnberg with Mara (4. January 2014)

My first roasted chestnut

A church, still decked out for Christmas

a second organ

Sketch of old Nürnberg on a building

another church

the marketplace

this statue

the ring in the middle, everyone went up and spun it because it could spin

Mara posing for a picture

Another alleyway

Love those headless saints...

Ok we had the best food in here, it was super busy and rightfully so.

Bratwursthäusle, is the name, and...

Rotary has a hand here too! Go figure!

The view from a nice little cafe

The tunnels of the Nürnberg Cellars, once used for beer and alcohols and pickles and survival during bombings, now used to give tours and a sense of history, and as a schnapps brewery. And I did see a fancy table set up for a meal in there so I wonder about that...

If you find yourself in Nürnberg, and can get the tour in your language, take this tour! Not only is it informative and everything, but our guide was passionate about her job, and that's always a plus.

The castle on the hill

Some flags

A view of the city from the castle

Mara's happy

Mara in the rain

Mara in the rain, a bit bigger

I mean look at those houses it's like San Francisco without fences in between the houses

And some oldschool buildings mixed in, those are always pretty

The castle with the first city lights in the background

Castle tower

More of the castle

A statue depicting an epic poem we talked about in my German class, "Das Narrenschiff" (the ship of fools).

I wasn't sure if that was really it but if you read the inscriptions around the top, they are quotes from the book.

Yeah I was excited about that so there you go. :)

Things that don't show up in these pictures: the street music everywhere, accordions and panpipes and organs and bagpipes and radios in stores and the smell of the city and the feel of rain when it started to drizzle and the after-rain feel drifting up from between the cobblestones on our way back to the train station, grabbing sushi from one of the street vendors and sitting on a bench to enjoy it before moving on, that Mexican restaurant we found but weren't hungry enough to try, the dry moat around the old city, all the food street vendors, there's just so much that doesn't come across in the thousand words a picture speaks. That's true of every city, as I'm sure you know. And that's all for now, folks! :)

Hamburg (November 2, Rotex day)

Meeting up at the train station and getting name tags and everything else sorted out.

This is a nice little alleyway with little shops

and then you look up

What a twisted chimney you have there!

St. Michael's Church in Hamburg

and the view from the top of the dome

oh look roller coasters

and more stairs

I like that this building says "Cosco" because it's pizza shaped and that's almost Costco pizza.

The Lion King and where it is performed.

These two are the cutest, they're not even a couple but they're cute together so here have a picture. :)

Boats and windmills

Jake was telling a story or something.

This is a sample of the underside of the stairs we climbed to get to the top of...

why don't I have a picture from the outside?

oh well..

thanks wikipedia

to the top of this.

here have some pictures of exchange students

is that a port-a-potty in the background?

(I just noticed that)

So this may be controversial for me to publish but focus on the left. Really? "Jesus lives"?

Not on the Reeperbahn he doesn't...

Again, focus upper left: "Caution, children at play!" ...on the Reeperban...

This is Yuri, he's super awesome and nice. He's from Brazil, like half the other exchange students in my district.

Fun fact, Hamburg is where we meet to get on the bus for Eurotour on Monday!!!!!