Albrecht Durer's Nuremberg

For me, the most memorable moment was seeing the Albrecht Durer house, at least from the exterior. I'll go into more detail about the house later. I am a big Durer fan, and this was a dream come true. We also visited his grave in St John Cemetery. I saw lots of his paintings in the Germanisches National Museum and took pictures of his statue in the Durer Platz. We walked around the Hauptmarket and visited two churches. The fountain there is extraordinary.

Quick Tips:

This is a very walkable town, and when we tried to park near the museum, it was impossible. Like many others, we parked anyway and got a ticket for our efforts. It was worth getting a ticket, though, because there were huge lines to get into the parking garages, and frankly, we had more money than time.

Best Way To Get Around:

The streets near the Durer house are very narrow, and driving was not at all easy. Walking works best, even though it is quite hilly.

This is a modern hotel with odd shaped rooms and great views. We looked out our window onto one of the medieval turrets of the fortification. We were next door to the Albrecht Durer House so the location could not have been better.

The rooms are clean and have all the amenities. The bed has a duvet and feather pillows and was very comfortable. The furniture is simple, Scandinavian in design. There is a desk, minibar and a TV and two nightstands. The bathroom is light and bright and also very modern.

The hotel has its own parking garage which they charge 13 DM per night. Breakfast is included and was a very nice buffet.It included croissants, scrambled eggs, bacon, cereal,yogurt, juice and fresh fruit. It was not charming but it was in such a great location we didn''t care.

This is located in the same area as our hotel and the Durer House and is an easy walk. We started our meal with Franconian Potato soup and salad. The soup was creamy and delicious and the salad was fresh with a nice vinagrette dressing. 2 of us had crispy breast of goose which was unusual. Goose of course is all dark meat and it was juicy with a crispy crust. It was served with potato dumpling which were terrible tasteless lumps. My husband had pork shoulder which was tasty. Another one of our friends had venison which he didn't like but it was his first time with venison so it may just be a personal preference. I had very good red cabbage as my vegetable and apple strudel for dessert. All in all it was not a bad experience but it was overpriced for the quality of the food.

What should have been the greatest experience of my trip here was a big disappointment. It started out all right; we arrived at about 4:15pm. We paid our fee and then passed on to a man who set us up with the headphone tours.

The first room you enter has large wall posters that you read—there were at least five or six. From here, you go to a video presentation that takes 15 minutes. Of course, it didn't start the minute we sat down. After the presentation, you view the other two floors of the house using the guided tour.

My tour never worked correctly; it screeched loudly every time it was supposed to play. There were some live demonstrations going on, and of course, we wanted to stop to see them. At about 4:50pm, when we hadn't even gotten to the third floor, the man who had given us the headphone tours started gesturing that we needed to leave. We were very disappointed.

If the tour takes more than 45 minutes, we should not have been allowed in, and then, after we were in, we should have been allowed to finish it. I felt rushed, and I hardly got any of the tour information. Then my husband fell on the bottom of the stairs with at least three staff members standing there, and not one of them even made an effort to see if he had been hurt (he hadn't, but he was flat on the floor for at least a minute).

This was the first time we were disappointed with the attitude of the staff anywhere. They really need to be re-instructed in customer service. So please visit the house; it's a wonderful tribute to the Leonardo of the North, but be warned: get there early.

Update 2004 Our second visit was everything we could have wanted. Though the staff still isn't what I would call warm, we had an excellent visit and enjoyed every minute. I have added photos from the second visit.

Of course this museum has a whole section dedicated to Albrecht Durer and Lucas Cranach the elder as well as Hans Holbein. From Durer we have the portrait of Kaiser Maximillian I and the portrait of his mother Barbara. From Cranach there are 2 portraits of Martin Luther, one when he was still a monk in his habit. One of my favorites is the old man and the young woman: he is leering at her and she has a very knowing look which she is giving to the observer.

One really unique area of this museum is constructed around a Carthusian Monastery. It's hard to believe as you open the door from the very modern gallery and suddenly you are in a medieval church. We only found it because we were looking for the portrait of Barbara Durer which was not in the expected gallery. They gave us directions to find it--go through the kirche. And go through it we did. You will also pass through the cloister and the Stations of the Cross.

This is so much more than just an art museum, it is the largest German Museum of art and culture. You can find early exaples of tools and weapons from pre histroy through the middle ages. Also on display is the oldest known globe in the world which was made in Nuremburg in the late 15th century.

There are galleries dedicated to the lives of not only the upper classes but the working classes as well. See the toys, clothes and household impliments , enjoy the displays of regional costumes and folk items. There are cases of religous items and articles of furniture. Plan to spend several hours just waundering through the many displays and find out why this is one of Germany's most popular museums. This museum has an excellent store. We did a lot of shopping here.

Parking is a problem in this area of town. We ended up parking in a no parking zone and got a ticket. This caused us a lot of inconvience because we had to go to a Deutsche Bank to pay the ticket and it was a Saturday and none were open. We payed it finally in Munich. However if we hadn't parked where we did we would not have been able to stop and the musuem.

We were here on Friday night and Saturday morning. At both times the beautiful fountain was a big attraction. It was lit up at night and the four tiers were all glowing. It was built in 1396 and is covered with four tiers of figures. On Saturday morning all the stores surrounding the plaza were open and on the square there was every possible type of fruit, vegetable, bread, cheese, coffee and pastry stand. People were busy buying everywhere. We loaded up on Christmas ornaments made of wood and straw. We also bought some Most chocolates which turned out to be an alcoholic suprise. My guess is that the truffles are laced with rum. They are excellent.