nuremberg

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #7 – Volkach Area

10/10/25 (Day 9) Respecting AJ & her family’s privacy I won’t go into too much detail however, I can’t not blog it, for me it was such a great event stemming from 2017 where I first met AJ in NZ when she was backpacking around the North Island & was about to struggle trying to do the more complex South Island & what a trip that was with 18days of pure excitement & no issues whatsoever. Now, we can all come together finally & meet AJ & her wonderful family.

After a few days in Nuremberg, Munich & Tegernsee we are now heading NW from Nuremberg towards AJ’s family home region in the wine area & when we left the Autobahn the scenery was fantastic of manicured farmland, wineries, forests & nature as far as you could see, but in the landscape I detested the ugly renewable scam machines of giant wind farms & solar, for they are truly evil to nature & never return the energy to make them back to viable electricity power. It is DC power, not AC & definitely not base power for high energy use like manufacturing. It is too intermittent & relying purely on the instant wind & sun gains & losses. A real climate change scam. Rant over!!!

After going through several quaint villages AJ continues to point out her childhood memories & then turns into a courtyard & says “Here we are”! What a welcome I received!!! First by her Mum (calling her EJ for privacy & clarity) & her dad (RJ) when I entered the home. RJ had recently come out of knee surgery so he couldn’t jump up to greet me but he’s slowly coming out of recovery. For being an active man, it is hard for him to do the rehabilitation process.

With family commitments, the home was full & my attendance certainly added to it!! AJ’s aunty & uncle were there, nephews & niece (parents away for a few days). Without delay EJ had the dining table full of food & I was given a right royal treatment of German hospitality!! We had a great time talking for ages; AJ & EJ can speak English, so that helped tremendously with the others trying to understand the conversations & laughing.

After the wonderful lunch, AJ showed me more of the countryside of wineries, quaint villages & historical sights. We went up to a regularly visited lookout & were surprised to meet the local Franconian Wine Princess who was wearing her crown & waiting for a representative as part of her duties. The annual festival is huge with up to 50,00 visitors staying in villages around the Main River loop. Back in the car AJ took me around the Main River Loop, they call it & we travelled on the shortest & smallest traffic ferry I’ve ever come across. The river width was around 30m if I was generous. Such a quaint ride. LOL!!!

Back at AJ’s home one nephew had arrived from school, etc & we went out to see the younger nephew do his soccer training. It brought back wonderful memories for me when my kids were little & I trained the Tiny Tots (3-5yrs) as well. Bringing the nephew back with us, the home was in full swing with everyone in attendance including AJ’s brother & sister-in-law. It wasn’t long before we were applying more food to my already expanded & full stomach. EJ said it was the normal German thing to do. More food, drink & talk & then it was ready for bed. AJ was exhausted doing the translation of German to English & visa-versa. She said her brain hasn’t switched around so much. I have no idea of what that would feel like, but I guess it doesn’t compare with my English to Australian language switch. Haha!

Out the back courtyard through the shed I slept in a well-equipped Winnebago & AJ had earlier put the space heater on for me which was an absolute blessing. Had a great sleep & rose at 7.15am (Day 10) to ‘sneak’ into the house but AJ & one nephew was already coming down the stairs. Again, everyone was up & food & drink was out in full pace once more. I don’t know how EJ handles everything & with RJ recovering. Later, AJ & nephews went out to play their regular soccer game, so that gave me time to catchup on my Polarsteps blogs while everyone relaxed a bit.

OMG! As soon as AJ arrived after the soccer, lunch was in full mode. Surely, I can’t fit much in. AJ still had some things to show me, so we headed out taking her mum (EJ) up to another lookout spot where RJ & the wine community association funded a permanent lookout structure. It was certainly well constructed but took around €20,000 to design & build & I can see why RJ is so proud of it. It is only just completed & the remaining touch up works is still to be done. From there, we went over to AJ’s brother’s place where she showed me his event company renovations & equipment, he put all his resources into plus renovate the house at the front. Incredible work & achievement. He also renovated EJ’s home too & all this after COVID closed him down temporarily. Such commitment. Truly wonderful to see & a great credit to him.

Back at EJ’s we loaded the car & said a very hard good-bye to such a great warm & caring family. I really loved my time there. It took a little while to get back to Nuremburg with the peak traffic & to find another car space. It was a wise & thankful decision to head back out to have dinner & to see the nighttime of Nuremburg. We found a spot out the front of a bar in the open space with 2 chairs & sat & watched the night life pass us by with my scotch & AJ, a non-alcoholic drink. Later, I repacked my bags ready for my afternoon flight to Amsterdam & made sure I was ready to meet the timing required.

12/10/25 (Day 11) I awoke early to my set alarm .. again & AJ was already up & getting organised. We headed back out to her favourite coffee & brekky place & to see the Bratwurst Museum (believe me, this is true), plus more historical sights before taking the train to the Nuremberg Airport early for my flight & allow AJ to get home to do her things before heading back to her mum & dad’s again for her sister’s birthday party. In taking my bags down from AJ’s apartment to catch the train I was thinking I won’t be missing the 7flights of stairs (no lifts). It’s a 15mins train trip to the airport & of course it was another hard good-bye & for so many thanks for such a great week, AJ had put on. Hopefully, I can return to see everyone again.

Nuremberg Airport is so small & didn’t take much time to get to my departure gate. The new EES Schengen traveling system came into effect today but didn’t intrude on us too much. Looking up at the board I have noticed my plane has had 2 delayed departures already .. Arghh! I’ll be arriving in Amsterdam in the dark!! My flight takes only around 1hour but by the time I get from the Schiphol Airport Railway Station to Amsterdam Centraal (Central Station & not a spelling mistake) & to find my hotel it will be truly dark. Upon arriving at Centraal I have a confusing issue understanding my travel app. I finally worked it out I needed to get onto a tram, so asking the information booth I am directed across the tram lines out the front, but the other challenge was to find where to buy the ticket. I took a guess with the ferry & tram booth some 20m further away & it was thankfully, correct. The cheapest option I was given was for 1hr of tram travel for €3.40 & he told me to go to RAI Station & use #4 Tram.

With minutes to spare I was on the #4 tram & helped 2 American women with their seating on a crowded tram. One spoke to me on a few things & then she got off at REI Station & confirmed to me RAI Station is some 15mins further. Unbeknown to me this is when I needed Google Maps to be on, even on a tram. Finally, I arrived at RAI Station with nothing alive, a place of clear desertion with no-one around. I looked up for directions to my hotel & it said 55mins walking behind me. Arghh!!!!! Deep breath & staying focused I still had tram time available (30mins) so I waited at the platform again knowing I had seen a tram go past earlier.

Within a few minutes a #4 tram came around the bend & stopped, allowing me to board & my app stated to get off at the REI Station where my Eden Hotel was only a few minutes away. Such a relief to be back on the correct route now & to check in. The next shock was the confirmation of paying the required City Tax of €128 … OUCH!!!! It is worked by a formula of nightly room cost, number of nights stayed plus a few other coefficients & that determines the payment. Bloody Hell & totally unexpected for that amount!!! My hotel is deceptively large & with lots of amenities. On my floor there are 49rooms alone. Anyway, a very hot shower, some great food next door (Hans im Glueck), meeting the host, Craig & off to bed.

Oh!! I forgot to tell you. Remember the ladies I met on the tram, well, when I entered the hotel one of them was filling her water bottle & I walked up to her & said “Stalking is illegal .. but hi again”. She was shocked & amazed we would run into each other again & was so sorry to hear of my wasted tram journey instead of getting off when they did. Small world ..hey?

I’ll end my 7th Blog here & many thanks for reading them. My next blog will be my 5day stay at Amsterdam & catching up with 2 of my much-loved backpacker friends I met years ago at my new hometown of Yamba at my cousin’s then Yamba Backpackers as well. Please stay safe, happy & healthy.

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #6 – Germany 

Munich, Nuremburg, Ingolstadt, Tegernsee

6/10/25 (Day 5) Up at 4.40am, checking out of Bettoja Hotel Massimo d’Azeglio in Via Cavour, 18 & paying my Rome City Tax €40 & hitting the pavement for some 150m to Rome Termini (Central) to Fiumicino Airport, some 35mins direct train. I made sure I had the right train & ticket this time (Blog 2). My ITA flight was on time at 7.35am to Munich & everything went smoothly .. but yes, spoke too soon. Everything to do with ITA is superb .. brilliant. Munich Airport however is a confusion pit to say the least. Finally, the baggage was claimed & customs was a breeze but signage, again was crap. I found an info booth & he directed me outside & down a level to the train platform to get to Munich Hbf (Central). The ticket booth was another dilemma from the past where several people were beyond frustrated trying to get their respective tickets. I gave up after so many attempts & others did too. I Googled other ways to transport & it said the airport has a great bus service (no shuttle mentioned), but I had to go up 2 more levels. I was then directed out to a street & that was beyond useless.

I forced myself to retry the train platform, so another 3 levels down. Not worried about the time, so I stood back & looked at the buttons on the machine & touch pad. Ha .. Huh! I found the small translation button top RH of the machine with 3 buttons. Now, I can follow the steps, but you don’t have much time to tap your card & enter the pin, but I managed it. When things turn bad, it is best to step back, catch your breath & seek out options available to you. It’s a satisfying effect when you readjust with success in the shortest possible time. With ticket in hand, I’m on the train & getting off at Munich Hbf to find my scheduled train to Nuremberg is getting closer to leave. The train schedule board is a breeze & us passengers head along the train & quite a few of us are at the first carriage but nothing is working (doors). Sometime later a guard yells out & directs us further up the platform where carriages have blue lights from the roof side. We just managed to scramble on when the train doors shut & we are on our way to Nuremburg, the first major stop (Direct service). They had 2 trains aligned on the same platform. Lesson learned.

With a full train we eventually stopped after a good 90mins travel & basically everyone gets out. With the crowding & stupid me, I thought this was Nuremberg station but when the train left, I saw that it wasn’t. Arghh!!! What happened to the direct non-stop to Nuremburg? The sign board said on the next platform a Nuremberg train was soon to come through. After 2 train delays later, a train arrives & so relieved to get to Nuremberg. Of course, AJ (my young German friend I met in NZ in 2017 & respecting her privacy by calling her AJ & no photos) is waiting for me at the station where we were both excited & relieved to hug each other. With a grin, AJ said we must catch another train to her neighbourhood. Another one!!! With a 10mins train trip we walked another 10mins to her unit & what a day!!!! AJ has annual leave for a week & she will show me as much as possible of this Nuremberg & Munich region. She even arranged for my Audi Production Tour on Wednesday at Ingolstadt due to my problems in getting the sold-out BMW tour.

After a great meal, hot shower & sorting out my packing I managed a sleep in. AJ has done so well with her unit .. very pleased for her & her achievements in this difficult year she has had. We caught up like it was yesterday & not the 8yrs since we stood together. The next day, 7/10/25 (Day 6) AJ arranged for a Free Walking Tour of Nuremburg city (historic area) where we paid our own fee to the guide. We did a quick walk around ourselves due to being early & AJ showed me one of her favourite coffee cafés & it was great coffee (Kaffee) too. Our walking tour started & saw churches (Frauenkirche – 14th Century Gothic with its iconic chimes & cuckoo-like clock figurines (Prince Electors) coming out on midday & circling the Holy Roman Emperor), the ancient Nuremburg City wall, Nuremberg Castle & old bridges across the Pegnitz River & other great landmarks such as a private dwelling of the earliest of medieval houses left standing & undergoing renovations (Photo 11).

Nuremburg even has a Bratwurst Museum (German Sausage) where the Bratwurst must be exact in its production & wherever it is sold the ‘Bratwurst Police’ will scrutinise it due to the current patent law. When the Walking Tour was over, we did more walking around & headed back to the unit for another special meal by AJ. She has the next few days planned so she said for me to repack for a few days away, as well for the Audi Production Tour at Ingolstadt along the way.

Getting up early, 8/10/25 (Day 7) we loaded AJ’s car, but being a hybrid there was no charge to start it. There are very few apartments with garages for cars in Nuremburg & far too costly if you can get one so AJ has to pay for a neighbourhood permit & the parking is who is first, wins. She must remember where she last parked it too, for parking is getting ridiculous & AJ sometimes spends a lot of time searching for that one space. After a 30mins setback (no stress) we are on the road & my first experience on the Autobahn (but not the super-fast one) but it was certainly fast enough. AJ was cruising at 154klms/hr in between the large roadworks (road widening) but there were much faster cars in the faster lanes. I’m a terrible passenger too.

It wasn’t far to Ingolstadt (South of Nuremburg & about half way to Munich) but with time we strolled through the slightly expensive so-called DFO outlet (called something else) on the outskirts of Ingolstadt & after a bit of a splurge at Lindt chocolates we went across town to do the Audi Production Tour & that was super amazing however, we never saw every bit of production due to R&D secrecy. You had to secure your phone, smartwatch, etc into a locker before proceeding to comply with their secrecy of production. 2hrs of strolling through with their guide highlighting the robotic work & some tasks done by humans, as robots can’t do those tasks yet. A large section of a robotic production workshop was out of action, but this was due to the new model coming out where it takes the robotic engineers a full 12months to programme everything exactly before production & setting up costs is around €1Mil to do it.

We see how the car floor base is stamped out & sides tack welded & glued precisely by very fast robotic machines. We are talking 0.05mm tolerance on everything until it is tested further later. This Audi Plant uses 3million m2 of factory plant space with a rail yard interchange, museum, restaurants & arthouse cinema. It employs around 20,000 people on various shifts. The first things we are shown are the bulk steel rolls, each weighing 3 tonnes & 3klms of wide sheet steel per roll. Most Audi’s models have up to 400 sheet metal pieces that need to be cut, punched & formed. Their hydraulic presses cause heavy vibrations through the over structured metal structural covering to the concrete floor due to having a compression strength equal to the dead weight of the Eifel Tower in Paris. These presses are fed by robots & the pace is quite fast. The presses are actually made by Audi & created for each model costing around €1Mil each. All presses are stored for a further 15yrs to backup their spare parts warranty, hence why spare parts costs more as they can affect the main production run. The guide showed us a pressed sheet metal part where they found a human hair left on the plate. Despite buffing, etc they still could not rectify the line, nor the dent it caused. Can’t imagine that until you see the plate. A costly accident by an apprentice losing a hair. Gulp! Wished I could have sneaked a camera in, to what was on show.

This plant produces 200 Audi cars (3 models) with various fittings, colours, etc chosen by the customer every day. The humans are so focused on their duty to install whatever is needed. The doors are put on & when the wiring harness is to be installed, etc the doors are removed (for better access) by human & a robotic arm holds the door & takes it away to another run for rubber seals, glass, etc & when all that is done the door meets up with the exact car sometime later. Incredible. The complete wiring harness installation was truly amazing & fast!!!! It comes in a large bag. With several smaller bag sleeves inside which is thrown inside the car & a couple of humans place the sleeves through the correct panel openings & attached where required & that just takes around 3mins. The car is pre-wired, awaiting the connections of instruments, etc later. This installation run also accommodates left & right-hand drives without any hassles. When fitting parts (hatch & bonnet struts, etc) the bin will light up telling the human which bin has the part to fit that specific car. No mistakes. I was really looking forward to seeing the engine works, but that is all secret stuff. Bummer!!! Sorry no photos apart from the Audi Mountain Bike on the back of a showroom Audi @ €5,000.

From Audi we head to Tegernsee (South of Munich) to a resort AJ loves called Blyb Resort – Seeglas, near Tegernsee.  Take Tegernsee St #41 off the Autobahn just after KurstraBe St, some 50klms south of Munich. A quiet recluse resort with sauna, restaurant & bar. Amazing place, a bit on the high market due to its high reputation where AJ & I enjoyed all the facilities here & some time relaxing along the Tegernsee lakeside. Blyb is 197klms from Nuremburg. It was the first time in about 15yrs since I sat in a hot sauna. I had 1 session, but AJ had 2. It was fantastic & helped my skeleton from staying cold (Germany colder than Rome).

In reception there is a wall plaque stating the history of this retreat & area which was a favourite place for Hitler. The original dwelling was called Lindenfycht. In 1934 Heinrich Himmler acquired this building after many elites started visiting the region. There is even a war bunker but not for public viewing. In 1945 3rd US Army used this building for their headquarters. After the sauna, we both put on our good clothes & had a wonderful meal & drinks before retiring to our separate rooms. Next day, 9/10/25 (Day 8) we both disclosed we hit our heads a few times in the quite low attic type ceilings. So funny. Breakfast was amazing & quite the buffet. After checking out of Blyb Resort AJ showed me a great café (Schlosscafe) where I could view the lake from inside (warmer) & she can sit outside for her recluse love of nature (She is in a healing process) to which I gladly obliged.

After all this viewing we head back to Munich for the remainder of the day. Parking in the city is very hard & lots of roadworks, etc so AJ kindly lets me out at the famous markets until she parks. I saw quite a few landmarks until AJ caught up with me some 30mins later. A busker with his mini grand piano was a real highlight out the front of the medieval looking Parliament House & the extra-large courtyard. We saw the Opera House & the Dining Rm setup for an event that night & the Arts Museum & of course AJ’s favourite coffee café with extreme cake sweets. Walking back to the car, we ventured into Frauenkirche, a Gothic Church of significance with iconic domed towers. Driving out of the carpark we sight the iconic Angel of Peace (Friedensengel) before heading back to Nuremburg & another fun run on the Autobahn.

For different reasons I wasn’t able to catchup with my other young German friends living in Munich I met in Cairns earlier this year (Helen & Dana), but WhatsApp helps fill the gap. They are safe, happy & well. Again, we had a hard time in finding a car space back at AJ’s neighbourhood. We are only staying overnight before heading to AJ’s hometown NW of Nuremburg. We timed it perfectly to have dinner & a drink out for the night viewing of Nuremberg.

I’ll end my 6th Blog here & many thanks for reading them. My next blog will be my trip stay with AJ & her hometown in the winery area & back to Nuremberg. Please stay safe, happy & healthy.