The Beerhunters, Day 3

We were rudely awakened to the flashing of lightening, the crashishing of thunder and a torrential downpour – all at 06:00. Luckily by breakfast time it had all subsided and we were able to enjoy a full buffet in the elegant dining-room, this place has class. Did they know what they were letting themselves in for? First stop was a visit to Durer’s house, just inside the City wall. Most of it has been lovingly though not painstakingly, restored. The exhibits and the print-shop as well as the studio/workshop are very interesting to printmakers and gawkers alike. The audio-guide is noteworthy for it’s high cringe-factor. The next stop was courtroom 600, scene of the Nuremberg Trials. The courtroom has been refurbished as there are still criminals in these here parts though thankfully not up to the Genocidal levels of previous detainees. It’s still a very spooky place. The exhibition upstairs is well-worth spending some time at, something we didn’t really have, but enough to get an idea of what were the first cases for crimes against humanity.


Another stop on the history trail was the Zeppelin Field, so called because Count von Zeppelin landed one of dirigibles here in the 20’s. It’s more notorious fame is as the rallying point for the famous Nazi rallies of the 30´s when, hundreds and thousands of Party members would come and march up and down and pay homage. Strangely, a lot of it is still intact with the arches being dismantled a few years ago for ‘Health and Safety’ reasons – they could have saved us a lot of hassle by not building the thing in the first place. The space is now used as a fairground/rock-venue and grandstand for the Nuremberg 200 motor race which had just taken place. Read into that what you will.

It was a short hop to our next port of call, Bamberg, only 60 km to the North. We were accompanied by a wonderful ‘Son et Lumiere’ of a typical Central European thunder storm ahead of us most of the way. Bamberg is a beautiful German town, Medieval and Quintessentially Frankish with houses built down to the river’s edge, over the river and in some cases on the bridges. Bamberg is famous for beer and its Breweries, some of which are still located in the old town. In fact, some of them were located within stumbling distance of our ‘Pension’ – Scheiners am Dom - http://www.scheiners.de/ quite the designer hostal. The specialist beer in this town is ‘Rauchenbier’ or a smoked beer, a bit strong and with a heavy peaty taste though I wouldn’t recommend a night of it. There are however, several other types of beer available which were sampled but whose names escape me, funnily enough.