Nürnberg (Nuremberg) and Schweinfurt - Visits with David's Host Family

Lunch at the Nürnberg "Bratwurstglöcklein"

[David] The week of July 23-27 was quite a reunion for me, as I saw my own German host family again.  Monday we took a morning train to Nürnberg (anglicized as Nuremberg), the city where I was first introduced to Germany in 1988.  Fresh out of high school, I had scored well enough in a contest to be Alabama's representative in a summer exchange program for a group of American students in Germany.  (Interestingly, in addition to Munich, our group also made a trip to West Berlin and had the opportunity to cross into East Berlin.  Few experiences have been as eye-opening for me.  I still have a piece of the Berlin wall, which came down a year and a half later.)  I lived for a month with a wonderful family in the small town of Großgeschaidt (Grossgeschaidt; not so "gross" [big] however!) outside of the main city of Nürnberg.  I had a wonderful time with the Hempels--Matthias and Ulrike with their children Cornelia (Nele), who was my age, and her brothers Götz and Tillmann, who were younger.  They treated me like family, and I was very sad to leave.  My host sister Nele came to the International House at Jacksonville State University two years later; I joined that program as well, and that was also one of the most fortunate decisions of my life.  I returned to Europe in 1992 after finishing college, spending 6 weeks with my friend David Burnham visiting friends all over Europe; I then spent 6 weeks in Austria, mainly Salzburg, with a music program sponsored by the University of Miami.  Nele came back to Alabama for my first wedding (with Amy, January 1995), and the kids and I saw her once more maybe 10 years ago in Orlando when she and her husband came to a veterinary congress.  (For those who knew me then, that was the fateful trip when my van’s transmission went out on the interstate in Florida….)

Königstor and city wall of Nürnberg

But I digress.  It had been 22 years since I had seen my host family in Nürnberg, so I was excited to have the chance to see them again.  I called them on Monday, once we got settled in our hotel, and we made plans to meet them for dinner the next day.  (I actually could almost dial their number from memory....)  In the meantime, we saw some of the main sites in the city.  We crossed over into the old part of town, within the city walls, past the Königstor (King's Tower) and had a wonderful lunch at the historic "Bratwurst Glöcklein" (bratwurst "little bell")--which serves, among other things, the small sausages which are a specialty of Nürnberg (they're about the size of our breakfast sausage links in the U.S.).  The homemade sauerkraut was the best I had ever tasted.  Afterward, we looked around the surrounding market, where small shops sell handcrafted items.  There were all sorts of things--wooden, cloth, food, jewelry--but one thing that caught Heidi's eye was a shop where a silversmith made her own jewelry designs.  Heidi had been looking for a ring that would fit her better than her wedding bands, and she found one she really liked.  While the silversmith was resizing the ring a little bit, we set out to visit several well-known churches in town, since they often close early.

Nürnberger Brawurst, sauerkraut, Tucher Weissbier, and a pretzel--perfect!

Towers of the Lorenzkirche

We went first to the Lorenzkirche (St. Lawrence Church), a large protestant church (that means Evangelical Lutheran in Germany) that is one of the main sights in the city.  A church had been there since at least the 12^th century, but the style seen today is mostly from the 15^th century; it’s one of the best examples of late medieval architecture in Germany.  More interesting to me is that the Lorenzkirche has one of the largest organ ensembles in the world (160+ ranks, I believe)—the second largest in Germany (after one in Passau) and the largest in a protestant church in Germany, as we were told by a very nice lady who volunteers as a guide in the church.  There are actually three organs—a huge 5-manual main organ in the rear balcony and two smaller organs (“smaller” is relative) high up on either side of the front.  They are not that old (the oldest is from the mid 1800’s; the largest is from 1937) and have all been rebuilt and coupled together electronically so that all three can be played from one huge console down on the floor of the church.  We were told that more than one organ was needed because the porous sandstone in the church absorbs so much sound.  We unfortunately did not get to hear the organs, as we did  in Salzburg, but I did buy a list of the organ specifications, which is mind-boggling.

Altar of the Lorenzkirche

Great Organ in the rear

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We also went to the catholic Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) on the main market square in town, where the Schöner Brunnen (“Beautiful Fountain”) stands as a landmark.  We missed the noon chiming of the mechanical clock at the Frauenkirche, but we did enjoy looking around the market stands and planning what fruit to buy to go with our breakfast for the next few mornings.  (We decided on local cherries and small apricots.)  We continued on the the Sebalduskirche (St. Sebald Church), another beautiful protestant (Lutheran) church in the city.  (Nürnberg, interestingly, is largely protestant, making it somewhat of an anomaly in southern Germany.)  Parts of St. Sebald were being renovated, including the organ.

Frauenkirche and market square

Schöner Brunnen with the towers of Sebalduskirche in the background

Organ of Sebalduskirche

Inside the movie theater

After walking back through town, picking up Heidi’s new ring on the way, we rested in our hotel and decided to take a break from sightseeing by going to a movie that night.  We had found a movie guide and discovered that “Maleficent” was showing in English at 9:00, so we ate a quick bite (we made do with Burger King since we were short on time) and made our way to the nearby theater.  We knew from Kira that movie seating was different in Germany—our tickets were for assigned seats we could choose—but we were not expecting other differences.  This movie theater (Cinecitta) was apparently the largest in Germany—numerous screens (20+?) spread out on several underground levels, with several restaurants and bars throughout.  One section was the “deluxe” cinema where you had an individual recliner and table for your wine and dinner.  We did find out that we could change seats if any were empty (and there were lots of empty seats for this English showing!), so Heidi and I moved to a couple of seats arranged like a couch (love seat) so we didn’t have a chair arm between us.  We all really enjoyed the movie and the chance to escape from reality for a little while.

Round Tower at Nürnberg Castle

The next day we slept in a little and walked to see the castle (Burg) and castle museum in the northern part of the old city.  We learned a lot about the history of the city and its place in the former Holy Roman Empire.  After Charlemagne, the ensuing empire was called “Roman” because of the supposed biblical prophecy that the world would end after four major empires (Rome being the fourth); so this name sidestepped the possibly embarrassing fact that the world had not, in fact, ended after the collapse of the Roman Empire.  The empire had no capital city; rather, the emperors moved around among major cities, including Nürnberg—at least until the city became Protestant…  This has been the case since the mid 1500s, which is why the Holy Roman Emperors stopped coming to Nürnberg so often and the castle and city walls have remained mostly unchanged since that time, making it a famous example of architecture from that period.  We learned a lot of history and saw examples of medieval weaponry, art, musical instruments, and so on. 

View of Nürnberg from the castle

Hempel's home in Großgeshaidt

We had to pick up our pace halfway through and barely made it out in time to walk back to our hotel to meet my host father, Matthias.  He had arranged to pick us up and take us to their home in Großgeschaidt for dinner.  Even after so many years, I recognized where we were when we neared their small village, and it was a great homecoming of sorts to see my host mother, Ulrike, and also Tillmann (who now works with his father’s cosmetics company) and his year-old son Theodor.  As always, they were gracious hosts.  Matthias grilled all sorts of meat, and Ulrike’s potato salad was some of the best we had eaten.  She kept my wine glass filled, told Heidi stories of when I lived with them, and showed us all the flowers and berries in their garden.  Erin found a new friend in Geisha, their huge, energetic black schnauzer.  I remember that the Hempels had a pair of big schnauzers when I lived with them (and a mynah bird that took pleasure in calling them!).  It was wonderful to enjoy a meal and catch up with them, but sad to leave again; I feel blessed to have had the chance to visit again.

Host father Matthias

Host mother Ulrike

Tillmann and Theo

Reunion with my "sister" Nele!

The next morning (Wed.) we took another train to Schweinfurt, an industrial town like Pforzheim that was completely bombed during WWII, since they produced tanks and other heavy machinery.  Nele and her husband Roger have a veterinary practice there, as well as clinics in two smaller nearby towns.  After a happy reunion at the train station, Nele showed us their Schweinfurt practice and took us to Gerolzhofen,  where she had to check in at their second practice. We walked around the town a bit and looked in the catholic church there (Stadtpfarrkirche).  We ate at a wonderful local restaurant and then went back to her house near Gädheim, where we spent a relaxing afternoon and met their three children, Ferdinand, Johanna, and Helena.  In addition, they have a big schnauzer named Emma—the half-sister of her parents’ dog—along with a half dozen ducks (a strange-looking variety I had never seen which like to eat garden snails).  Nele has a wonderful family; we shared stories and found it generally found it somewhat strange and interesting that we are parents now.  They live in a very small village, surrounded by fields of wheat, corn, and rapeseed (canola).  We, of course, compared notes on living in small towns—it’s similar for us.  Rather than sightseeing here, we took great pleasure in taking it easy; they made us feel right at home.  

Daniel and the ducks

The kids making themselves at home....

Helena cheering on Germany!

We, of course, had to watch the Germany-USA soccer match on Thursday.  Nele and Helena (with her drum and whistle!) were really into it.  It kept catching us off guard to hear “Dempsey” occasionally from the TV, as #8 on the US team has our last name.  But he wasn’t enough to keep Germany from winning….  But at least we got to eat supper—Nele had jokingly said we wouldn’t get any if the USA won!  Overall, we had a very relaxing visit and we very much enjoyed talking and looking at photo albums from college and their wedding (which I unfortunately missed the year after Daniel was born).  It was another sad goodbye on Friday when we went back to the train station to continue on to Celle to meet Moritz and his family.  One thing is for sure—we will remember Germany well, as we got to visit so many people who are like family to us.