Let's walk there...

Nürnberg or Nuremberg is a small sized city in the state of Bavaria in Germany.  It has an area in center of city called the old town that’s surrounded by city walls. The city walls were built and date back to Medieval times, when the kings needed protection from attacks.  The city itself sits on Pegnitz river.  Nuremberg is infamous for the Nuremberg Trials; however there are some other neat things to learn about the city.  One is its transportation system.

We arrived on Sunday and it’s been great weather ever since.  It's been mostly in the 60s and 70s with sun shining all day.  There was one day of rain in the middle but nothing too bad to keep us away from strolling in the city.  We’ve done all of our sightseeing on foot, by the u-bahn or tram.  U-Bahn is Germany’s metro system.  There are u-bahn stops encompassing nearly the entire city, extending into the suburbs.  On Monday, he and I were on a mission to find the quickest route to his work using the u-bahn, which we found took about 20- 30 minutes in commute.  As of today, he has found a direct route to work on a tram that takes him 7 minutes plus 8 minutes of walking. Munich is only 1 hour and 30 minutes from here on u-bahn, so hopefully we’ll make that trip soon. I am amazed at how efficient the public transportation system works here.

Another form of transportation is bicycles.  I’ve seen more bikes since we've been here than I have ever seen in America.  People of all age, size and color use bikes as their form of transportation.  After speaking with the locals, we’ve learned they prefer bicycle commuting over any other form of transportation.  There are also bike trails around the city and along the river that are great way to sight see the city.  With all this bike talk, we’re thinking about buying used bikes to commute and sightseeing in the weekends.  Of course, there are cars and roadways as well, however I believe those are mostly for shopping (for large amounts of groceries) or long distance trips.

Most of all, we're enjoying our strolls to many parts of the city.  In the few days since our arrival, I've mostly commuted by foot and found great bakeries (Bäckereien), ice cream (Eis) shops and restaurants (Restaurants). I am reluctant to use the train/tram unless I have to because the weather is so nice and walking lets me sight see and discover much more. Speaking of the great weather, it doesn't last long so we're taking as much of this in as possible before it gets cool in September.