Text and photo: Jonathan Gharbi de Maré
Nuremberg is one of Bavaria's most fascinating cities, with a mighty castle, medieval alleys and local specialties such as Nuremberg sausage and craft beer. There are plenty of sights here, making the city an obvious stop along the Burgenstrasse.
Tweet
Share
Share
Pin
Share
ShareTable of contents
Nuremberg – beer, sausages and castles
Bavaria is big and besides beer festivals and BMWs, there are plenty of castles. After visiting some smaller towns with very nice castles It's time to visit a proper fortress and experience a little more of the city environment. If you like drawing and sketching, you're probably familiar with the brands Faber-Castell and Staedtler, which have factories in the city.
Here you must also get acquainted with the famous Nuremberg sausage, eat pretzel pizza and sip local whiskey. If you watch the entertainment program På spåret, Nuremberg is a typical city that can appear in various quiz shows.
Now you may not need to visit a city just to get some points in a program, but the city is still well visited and there are several reasons to visit Nuremberg.
Nuremberg's history and specialties
Nuremberg became a city around a thousand years ago but flourished during the Middle Ages when the city was a hub for trade. Here the roads from Venice and the Silk Road that went all the way to China met.
Precious spices like saffron and ginger came here and were then sold by the great trading houses. Pepper arrived in large quantities in Nuremberg and explains why gingerbread has been a tradition for hundreds of years. There are several large houses with special skylights to air out the spices, so take a closer look at the roofs in Nuremberg.
Nuremberg is a cozy city even in winter, famous for its Christmas market.
Nuremberg sausage – sausage recipe from the 14th century
You will recognize the small white sausages that are available for purchase in Sweden but look a bit exotic to some. The sausage contains marjoram, should be made of medium-coarse ground meat and be 7-9 cm long with a weight of 20-25 grams.
Just like the purity laws for beer, there are of course laws for sausages too. The first laws for how sausages should be were created in the 14th century in Nuremberg, and in the 17th century a book was published on how to serve sausages.
So, having had these sausage laws for 900 years, you can imagine that no trip to Nuremberg would be complete without having eaten at least three sausages. This feat is no less than the classic serving of the sausage in many places. Simple but both historic and delicious.
Pure joy with a good beer of course and one of those who thought so was the famous German philosopher Goethe who ordered Nuremberg sausage even when he lived in other cities. So if even philosophers love it then it must really be something.
Also a good detail for your trip if you want to impress Germans, feel free to throw in a few quotes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe here and there. A simple quote that I liked was “A one sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”
Craft beer and prized local whiskey
Nuremberg has a little bit of everything and of course there is local beer and the smaller brewery near the castle offers both beer and whiskey. Hausbrauerei Altstadthof is not just a brewery with good German beer. In addition to the usual beers, there is beer aged in oak barrels that previously held sherry and brandy.
If you want a slightly more flavorful and stronger beer, Maibock is recommended, which is often around 6 % and has a little more hops and flavor. Generally in Germany, it is the classic beer styles that are served, where history and tradition take precedence over innovation. But this brewery has both. They have sample trays that you can order, something that is not obvious in many smaller towns where they definitely serve the beer in a certain mug and it is then neither more nor less even if you ask for it.
Whiskey is also distilled here by the creative distiller and brewer Reinhard Engel, who has received several really high points for his whiskey, which goes by the name Ayrers. It is actually remarkably high marks he has received in various international contexts, so you should definitely taste some and the prices are much cheaper than in Sweden, so just take advantage.
But it is strong, many of the whiskies he makes are around 52-60 % and even there there are those that are aged in rum and sherry casks. You get a pipette with a little water next to it so if you want you can drop in a drop of water or two if you want to bring out some other flavors in the whisky.
Nuremberg Castle, view of the city
Nuremberg was for a long time an important trading city for spices and this made the city rich, as can be seen from the fine castle that overlooks a large part of the city. The view is magnificent.
Below the castle there is a small square where the Germans gather in the summer. If there is no space at the outdoor cafes, a picnic is fine. Many people come with a blanket and a bottle of wine and enjoy a nice time during the late summer evenings.
There is also a pizzeria at the square that uses pretzel dough for pizza, which of course makes many Italians swoon, but it was actually delicious. Pretzel pizza is a relatively new invention, so there are no rules from the Middle Ages, so you can freely model with ingredients and taste.
Museum, towers and walls
The city was badly damaged after World War II but has been carefully rebuilt so many walls and towers are in good condition. One of the important landmarks is of course the castle. But also the house of the writer Albrecht Dürer is worth visiting. It is located near the cozy square where people sit and have picnics in the evenings.
Located in the center of Nuremberg, Sankt Lorenzkirche is a stately Gothic church that was completed in the 17th century. Sebaldkirche is another substantial church worth visiting.
The market at Spittlertor is good if you need to buy some souvenirs to take home. There is of course also a pub there.
Food tour and historical sites
We went on a little food tour in Nuremberg and got to taste both. Everything from soup to sausages, of course accompanied by beer. One of the coziest places we passed was the restaurant Trödelstuben which has a very quirky and old German interior.
With a guide you will be explained the different trading places in the city and a little about what happened during the course of history. You can visit their national museum or one of the dozens of others in the city.
Follow Jonathan here:
English (UK) 
Svenska