Just before the train pulled into Nuremberg, I got the mother of all blood noses. It just wouldn’t stop. Now I’ve never had a blood nose before so needless to say it was freaking me out a bit. There I was with a mountain of blood sodden tissues trying to negotiate our way off the train, through the train station and to our hotel, with a (by now) very heavy backpack and trying to stop the bleeding. Fortunately the hotel wasn’t far away and after a little while I managed to stop the bleeding. The thing about hotel rooms in this part of the world is that they are really hot in comparison to outdoors so you need to immediately remove a couple of layers to feel mildly comfortable. That was a struggle in this circumstance. By this stage I was both a little light headed and freaked out so I lay down calmly for a while  

Eventually we decided that it was time to venture out and find the reason for our stopover in Nuremberg – the Christmas Market. In all the travel literature you read, the Nuremberg Christmas Market is heralded as one of the best in Germany and the Nuerembergers obviously think it is too because you can buy souvenirs for the Christmas market at the Christmas market. It did have a much larger array of stands selling Christmas decorations than other markets we had visited. I bought a balsa wood Christmas decoration for our tree. And I did see a stand selling babushka dolls – that had a Madonna doll, that presumably ages as you open each doll,  and a Gorby doll – my question here – is who is inside Gorby? The chocolate tools too were a step above those we had seen elsewhere – there was a very intricate antique iron for a start. (Shout – Tears for Fears – well before emo existed, there was already angst ridden music for teenagers who hated the world. Tears for Fears were my version of that. And better. It also seems the appropriate soundtrack as I type this on a train on a rainy day hurtling through the former DDR)

The food choices were more limited though. There were waffles and there was one place selling potato cakes. Other than that, every time you turned a corner there was a place selling one type of hotdog – the nurnberger bratwurst. The local delicacy was pretty good though. Three little sausages (herbed pork and beef I am pretty sure) on a crusty roll with mustard. Dan liked them so much he went back for two extra serves. I followed my hotdog up with another local delicacy – fruit bread. There were heaps of stalls selling it and it was really yummy. What bread there was, was a sort of rye bread but the bread itself was mostly fruit, including dried figs and plums I think. It was awesome. There was also plenty of Gluhwein as well but given the nosebleed episode, I thought it was probably better to leave getting liquored up for another day. Dan was looking for beer but couldn’t find one – probably a good thing for his cold.

We decided to head back to the hotel about the time the markets were starting to close up – 8pm – so we and our various ailments could get an early night and sleep in a bit in the morning. There was plenty to see in Nuremberg, especially in the Aldstadt but we also both needed the rest. We got up with enough time to wander for an hour or so before we caught the 11am train to Leipzig. (Before too Long – Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls – I wrote Paul Kelly off somewhere back in the late 80s, early 90s but about 15 years ago I re-listened to him and have gained a whole new respect for his ability as a singer-songwriter)

First stop – a quick breakfast in a café near the hotel – croissants with ham and cheese, coffee and hot chocolate and a good dose of OJ. Then we wandered through the main market place where the Christmas Markets were just starting to open for the day’s trade. We, though, were marveling at the array of gothic churches and other buildings surrounding the market. The markets open so early you could have Gluhwein for breakfast. Or bratwurst for that matter. I am not sure which would be worse. Although I could probably stomach both if I had been imbibing all night.

Dan spied an Aldi on the corner. We hadn’t been in one so far and we did need some basic supplies like tissues and deodorant that we could likely procure there. Unfortunately the ability to buy small packets of tissues at Aldi was only possible in lots of about 60 packets so we opted for a bo9x instead. At 50 Euro cents that is even cheaper than Aldi at home, a point Dan was happy to point out. We chose some deoderant. Unfortunately with a stuffed up nose, it’s hard to tell it offensive a fact we subsequently discovered before we binned it after one use. I guess we’ll know if people start sitting at the other end of the train. Dan also procured some pretty tasty feta filled olives for a Euro and some OJ. After our Aldi foray, we grabbed our bags and headed for the station. We actually had to find the right car this time (instead of just looking for a train carriage with a big 1 on the side) as we were riding with a reservation for the first time in days. A good thing too as the train was pretty full and nearly all the seats had reservations posted for some part of the journey – the train was going to Berlin and then on to Hamburg after we got off. (Stain – Narco Wendy – off the local Canberra album Legoland Strikes back – this was a band some friends of mine put together for fun. They did a few gigs at the long defunct Terminus. Forgot this was on my MP3 player actually – gotta love shuffle.)

This train trip marked our first foray into the eastern part of Germany, the former DDR. While Germany has been reunited for a quarter of a century now, there are still hallmarks of the DDR everywhere, especially the advertisements for museums for those looking for DDR nostalgia. Also much of the infrastructure – pipes and bridges have that utilitarian look about them. Perhaps it is just German engineering, noting that we have spent the past few days in Bavaria which doesn’t have that same functional feel. But the countryside does look a whole lot more mean business and damn the vista than we had seen previously.

There were also plenty of the German man caves that had littered the side of the train lines over the past few days. I guess they are most likely called summer houses here. At any rate they are often near the rail line and feature a small shed with a vege plot – sometimes outdoor furniture. They are obviously plots for people who live in apartments to be able to have their own outdoor space to grow produce. But over time they seem to have developed into man caves with barbecues and other man style tinkering toys. Some even have kids play equipment and small pools – I am guessing these are probably more family caves than man caves.  I am glad our man cave, which I am allowed to enter, is a bit closer to home or chances are there wouldn’t be any real point having a boyfriend because I would never see him. The difference as you go further east is that these plots look more like shanty towns where people live. Perhaps they are just more elaborate sheds.

Christmas themed activities – 14  War museums and model shops – 1.5  Design experiences – 1