We had a perfect weather day for Nuremberg at the beginning...cool, sunny, very nice. We didn't begin our tour until 1:15, so we had lots of free time in the morning to take care of whatever. I washed out some stuff, Rich did his own thing. Sure wish we had a washing machine!!
We rode a bus to the city, which took about 30 minutes or so. Met our tour guide and we drove all around the city seeing some of the sights from WWII. One building that was ENORMOUS was never finished and has been left run down as a reminder of what Hitler was trying to do. He wanted to erect this place where he could speak to the crowds every so often and use it for no other purpose. Such a waste!
Another sight we saw was where the Zeppelin field was. It also is pretty run down.
Our guide led us inside the medieval city and showed us where to meet him again for the bus ride back to the ship. There was some Red Bull sponsored event happening and there were THRONGS of people all over the place. It was so crowded that you couldn't even enjoy the city. Rich tried some of the gingerbread they are famous for here--it was good, but different than ours back home. Kim and I bought some cream at a pharmacy that a lady on the ship told us about to relieve pain, then we made our way to a quieter section and had a beer near the meeting point. None of us were too impressed with Nuremberg.

The next day we were in Bamberg. We caught a bus to the city center and got a guided walk to a cathedral. They have a Little Venice there, right along the river, and I got some good pictures which I will post once I can. The wifi has been awful--I can't post a blog without a picture, and the signal has been too weak to upload anything.
Anyway, we were given several hours of free time, so we went and tried the infamous smoky beer. It was amazing how you could actually taste the smoky flavor. I liked it for one drink, wouldn't want to drink more than that. Rich didn't care for it at all.
We walked around and would've shopped, but the stores were closed since it was Sunday. We got caught in a rainstorm and stood in a church doorway until it stopped, which took about 30 minutes or so. Caught the tour bus back to the ship--or so we thought. Our cruise director got on our bus and said our ship was delayed and we would have to kill a couple of hours until it could pick us up. She had made arrangements for 170 of us to be taken to a restaurant that was about 45 minutes from us and drinks were on the Captain! Talk about overpowering a place!! Imagine 6 huge tour busses full dumping us all out at once, and then serving everyone a drink. You got either a beer, red/white wine, coke or water. Those poor beer maidens were something to see--got us all served in about 10 minutes time!! We got to sit with our new friends, Mariela and Dennis...Kim and Brian weren't next to us, but were at our table. We had fun but were so hungry by the time we got back to our ship. It was around 7:45 by the time we got seated. Made for a late night!!
We signed up for an optional tour today, which was a visit to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It's my favorite German city of all, so picturesque and flowers everywhere. Unique buildings, cobblestone streets--and we had a beautiful day to boot. Had a guided tour for part of the city, then free time. We shopped and looked around, took a ton of pictures. Lunch was at a typical German restaurant where we had potato soup, sausages, sauerkraut and potatoes. Apple strudel for dessert. After lunch, we got back on our bus and went to Wurzburg to see a palace built for the Emperor back in the 1700's. Reminded me of Versailles, but very elaborate inside. We only got to view a few of the 200+ rooms, and no pics allowed. Pretty darned extravagant--one room was done entirely in mirrors with paintings on them, gold everywhere. Wish I could've taken a picture.
Trying to hurry and update this since we are about to set sail and that means weak wifi again! More to come when I can. :)