Happy Wednesday! I'm excited to share a recap of my spring break! This will be a series of three blog posts so keep an eye out for the next two. From what I've learned thus far, many schools in Hungary take an Easter break rather than a spring break. This means that the break off from school always falls at the same time as the Easter holiday. In the United States where I am from, spring break doesn't always coincide with Easter.
Our spring break for this year began on Thursday, April 6th and we returned to school on Wednesday, April 12th. Dan had two childhood friends visiting us from New York who joined us on the trip. They arrived two days before spring break began so we had time to show them around Budapest. In the weeks prior, the four of us (Dan, his two friends, and I) mapped out our route. Our route consisted of three other countries besides Hungary (Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria).
We had done a lot of research on what the most cost effective method of transportation would be. We ended up deciding to go with the Eurail pass of four travel days within one month. This means we could use our pass on four separate days to travel to wherever we wanted to go.
Now that I've set the scene a bit, let's get to the recap. We took a 6am train from the Budapest Kelenfold station to Nuremberg on Thursday, April 6th. It was an early morning but we were able to get some rest on the train rides. We had one transfer in Vienna so only two train rides. The total travel time was around 7 hours.
We arrived to Nuremberg around 1pm and we were hungry to get some food in us. As soon as you leave the Nuremberg Train Station, it feels like you are stepping into medieval Germany. Handwerkerhof Nuremberg, a medieval shopping area with small traditional shops and rustic restaurants, is right across the street. We walked right over with our luggage and everything and found a restaurant.
The restaurant we chose, Fränkische Weinstube, is a Rustic Franconian hangout with local beer and wine, and traditional food. We ordered right away. I ordered a coke and the spätzle. Spätzle is a dish consisting of egg noodles with cheese. I had tried a variation of it in Austria last year so I was really excited to taste the German spätzle. It was absolutely delicious! The boys ordered German beers and sausages.
After eating, we walked around the shopping area.
Afterwards, we took a bus to our AirBnB which was about a 10 minute ride from the station. We got checked in and put our things down before heading out to the Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds. This was a museum that I was interested in visiting; however, there was only one small temporary exhibit since the entire museum is under construction. I'm still glad we went as we learned a lot. We learned about the history of the Nazi party rallies and we were able to visit the unfinished Congress Hall and walk to the Zeppelinfeld where many of the rallies took place. It was chilling to say the least but important to do while visiting Nuremberg.
After we finished, we rode a bus close to the old town center. I had marked down several landmarks there that I wanted to visit.
After walking around and exploring the castle area, we were ready for dinner. We found a beer garden right next to the castle called, "Hexenhäusle". We were very pleased with our dinner and drinks again. I highly recommend trying this restaurant if you ever visit Nuremberg!
After dinner, we got another round of drinks before heading back to the AirBnB and crashing after a long first day. The next morning, we woke up ready to see a few more sights before leaving Nuremberg.
We ended with one last traditional and delicious meal at Bratwurst Röslein. I ordered the potatoes au gratin with a huge salad which I devoured! My dad and mom always made them growing up so to try authentic ones was incredible.
After we wrapped up lunch, we walked over to the train station and waited for our next train that took us to our second destination which will be revealed in part 2! Thank you so much for reading! Keep your eyes open for part 2 soon.
I want to go here so bad!!