Nuremberg

Travel Guide Europe Germany Bavaria Nuremberg

Introduction

Nuremberg

Nuremberg is located in Bavaria and has around 500,000 inhabitants (the European Metropolitan Area Nuremberg has 3.5 million inhabitants). It is the second largest city in the German federal state of Bavaria and the 14th largest city in Germany. The city is the capital of Franconia and home of the famous Bratwurst.

Outside of Germany Nuremberg is best known for two things: For the trials of high-ranking Nazi officers after WWII held in the city and for the Christmas market. Visitors should note that the correct German name of the city is Nürnberg and that due to this the city's name is sometimes spelled Nurnberg or Nuernberg. When using an English keyboard without umlauts the latter spelling should be applied.

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Sights and Activities

The sights in the city that draw the most foreign tourists are the remnants of Nazi architecture. The Nazis hailed the city above all others as place where the NSDAP party members would meet and celebrate their triumph. This resulted in a row of building projects of megalomanic proportions, some of the ruins of it are still standing today.

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Events and Festivals

The biggest event in the city is the annual Christmas market. As one of the top Christmas markets in Germany it is famous all over Europe and draws many visitors from all over the world.

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Weather

Average lows in Jan: -5 °C
Average highs in Jan: 2 °C
Average highs in August: 24 °C
Average lows in August: 12 °C

Weather in Nuremberg is similar to most of Western Europe and Bavaria, if only slightly drier due to the geographic location. Also, average winters are a little colder and summer a little warmer than much of Germany.

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Getting There

By Plane

Nuremberg Airport (NUE) is the 2nd busiest airport in Bavaria and the 10th busiest in Germany. It is mainly used by charter flights to Southern European destinations. The closest bigger airports with intercontinental flights are Frankfurt am Main International (FRA) and Munich Airport (MUC).

To get to Nuremberg Airport by public transport take Underground 2 from the main train station to stop "Flughafen". It travels every 10 to 15 minutes, and takes only 12 minutes to reach the Hauptbahnhof (Central Railway Station) and the nearby Altstadt (historic old town). Just taking the bike or walking to the airport is even possible if you like, as it is not that far from certain neighbourhoods.

By Train

Nuremberg is easily reached by train, it forms a transport hub for trains in Bavaria and Germany.

By Car

Four major autobahns meet at Nuremberg, the A3 (The Hague-Vienna), the A6 (Paris-Prague) and the A9 (Berlin-Munich) as well as the A73 (Suhl-Nuremberg-Feucht).

By Bus

Nuremberg is served by a small number of national and international bus connections. Currently there are regular national buses to Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden. International destinations include Prague (Czech Republic), Warshaw and Wroclaw (Poland), Madrid (Spain), Brussels (Belgium), Banja Luka (Bosnia), Paris and Lyon (France) and Varna (Bulgaria).

Companies are BerlinLinienBus and Touring.

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Eat

The famous Nuremberg Bratwurst of course!

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Sleep

Budget and Mid-Range

Camping - Knaus Campingpark, Hans-Kalb-Str. 56, 90471 Nürnberg, Tel. 0911 / 9 81 27 17
Youth Hostel (Official YHA/ HI/ DJH) - Jugendherberge Nürnberg, Burg 2, 90402 Nürnberg, Tel. 0911 / 2 30 93 60

Please note that in Bavaria and thus Nuremberg the term Youth Hostel is taken literally, if you are over 26 and not accompanied by a minor under 18 you will not be allowed to stay at this hostel.

Upscale

Try booking through the tourist information service booking engine.

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Learn

Nuremberg is one of the cities that hosts the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.

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Keep Connected

Internet

Internet cafes (rates €1.50 to €5 per hour) are starting to become less common due to widespread offers of free wifi by shops, restaurants or cafes. Sometimes it requires minimum consumption but usually it's free within the premises. Phone shops will often offer internet access, too. In general hotels offer internet access. In several cities, projects exist to provide free "community" hotspots for wireless networking. Passenger lounges at some airports and central railway stations also provide internet access to their customers.

Several pre-paid SIMs allow Internet access for a monthly flat fee, for example those available at Tchibo coffee stores (o2 network, €10/month limited to 500 MB, €20/month for 5 GB) or Aldi (E-Plus network). A regular O2 sim card, which can be used for calls and text messages, is €15 and another €15 buys 1GB of data valid for 1 month. Vodafone offers a prepaid sim card for €25 which includes €22.5 of credit, out of which you can get 300 MB of data for 2 days for €15 and be left with €7.5 of credit.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The international call prefix in Germany is 00. To dial out of Germany, dial 00, followed by country code, area code, and the telephone number (for example 00 44 1234 567890). If you're using a mobile phone, simply add the plus sign "+" before the country code to call out of Germany (for example +44 1234 567890). The general emergency number is 112 and the additional number for less emergent issues for police is 110.

Mobile phone coverage on the four networks (T-Mobile, Vodafone, E-Plus and o2) is excellent across the whole country. UMTS (3G data and HSDPA) and EDGE is also available. UMTS is still somewhat limited to urban areas. All mobile providers use GSM technology on the 900 and 1800 MHz frequency ranges. If you stay for a longer period of time, consider buying a prepaid phone card from one of the mobile phone companies; you won't have trouble finding a T-Mobile (in a "T-Punkt"), Vodafone, E-Plus or O2 store in any major shopping area. In most supermarket chains (for example ALDI), there are prepaid SIM cards from their own virtual providers available. These are normally quite cheap to buy, but expensive for international calls (around €1–2/min), but incoming calls are always free and SMS cost around €0.09–0.19. They are available at: Aldi, Lidl, Penny, Netto, Tchibo, Rewe, toom. A registration via Internet or (expensive) phone call is necessary after buying to activate the SIM card.

The cheapest way to call abroad from Germany is to use the internet cafés run by immigrants. They sell special calling cards that give the best rate to certain countries as well as offer cheap international calls from phone booths. It is also the cheapest way to call landlines in Germany.

Post

Germany's postal system is very efficient, their logistics branch DHL is one of the best companies in this field world-wide, with domestic post or within a radius of 400 kilometres, send within a day. The website of Deutsche Post has an online calculator for postage fees as well as a post office finder. Stamps are available at post offices and sometimes at newsagents or shops selling postcards. Also stamp vending machines can be found at a lot of places around the cities. You can purchase every stamp you need from this machines. They are unique as they accept every coin from 1 cent to 2 euro but change is only given in stamps. It costs about €40 to send a small package to Australia and €1.70 to send an old-fashioned letter to any place in the world outside of Europe. Within Germany, sending postcards costs €0.45 and standard letters €0.55, within Europe it is €0.65 for a postcard, standard letters to places in Europe cost €0.75. Outside Europe, the prices for sending a postcard or standard letter are €1 and €1.70 respectively. Although you will find the old post offices (mainly in the city centre), most of the smaller neighbourhood post offices are part of a small tobacco shop or grocery store. For larger package, you might consider competitive private companies like UPS, DHL or TNT.

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