Nürnberg!

Nürnberg!
On Saturday, Patrick and I took a leap of faith and navigated the train system over to Nürnberg. After about 10 minutes of messing with the system, we realized there was an English option and from there we had no issue. There is a "Bayern Pass" that allows up to 5 people to travel anywhere in Bavaria (aka Bayern in German) for the day. Sweet deal, huh?

Our main goal of the trip was to make it to a conveyor belt, all you can eat sushi restaurant, but I did some researching before hand and had a wish-list of a few sights to see. The first was the Schöner Brunnen (Beautiful Fountain) built in 1396 that looks essentially like the top of a church sitting in the middle of the main town square. There are figurines everywhere that depict the world view of the Holy Roman Empire during that time. We stopped here for some luck though - there are two small brass rings on the gate surrounding the fountain that apparently bring good luck/a wish to whomever turns them three times. Patrick and I did so, then had several tourists ask what we were doing and why - hopefully they followed suit and we brought some luck to them??

Tugendbrunnen (Fountain of the Virtues)

I know a lot of the churches and fountains start to look alike, but there is something different about this one.... All of these ladies represent the seven virtues: Faith, Love, Hope, Courage, Moderation, Patience, and Justice. We are looking at Patience with the lamb on the left and Faith with a cross and chalice on the right.

After we learned that stretching people up to 30 cms was run-of-the-mill torture in the 14th century at the Lochgefängnisse (Medieval Dungeons), we stopped by the last fountain of the day, the Ehekarussell or Marriage Carousel. This one was another unusual one - apparently it caused quite a stir when completed in 1981. It depicts the six phases of married life. Here, Patrick and I are posing next to "Till Death Do us Part" where skeletal figures are strangling each other. My second favorite of the scenes was where the man was wallowing because his wife had 

gained 100 lbs. The scene showed her 

stuffing her face with plenty of food!

Around 3:00 we made it to our final destination - an all you can eat, conveyor belt sushi restaurant. We couldn't fully understand the rules, but it may or may not have said 10 plates max. This picture is of Patrick about 7 minutes in... good thing no one noticed!

Overall we had a very successful trip to the lovely town of Nürnberg. Given that it is the closest Ikea location, I know we will be back, but we highly recommend seeing the sites in the old city!