Imperial Castle of Nuremberg, Nuremberg, Germany

After our little stop off in Pottenstein, we still have the rest of the afternoon free. So we decided to get back on the Autobahn and drive down to Nuremberg, about 40 minutes away. It is the second-largest city in Bavaria (after Munich), and is the largest in Franconia. The population as of February 2015, is 517,498, which makes it Germany's fourteenth largest city!

Since our plans to go see the Hohenzollern castle didn't happen, Drew offered up the suggestion to head down to Nuremberg to check out the castle in Nuremberg (Imperial Castle of Nuremberg). I agreed. Since we had Rylie with us we didn't have to rush home.

We've been to Nuremberg before, to the airport, and IKEA, but we've never actually checked out the city of Nuremberg. Nuremberg is often referred to as having been the 'unofficial capital' of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly because Imperial Diet (Reichstag) and courts met at Nuremberg Castle.

So we headed down to Nuremberg, since it was a work day there weren't as many people on the road, but there were lots of cars parked on the side of the street so instead of a four lane highway it was only a two land highway, and you had to share the road with the trolley.

The view from the street

Our GPS took us right to the Castle, we had to loop around for a bit to find parking, and I'm pretty sure we parked somewhere we should not have, but oh well.

The Imperial Castle is the symbol of Nuremberg. Since the Middle Ages its silhouette has represented the power and importance of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and the outstanding role of the imperial city of Nuremberg.

The castle is pretty amazing. I love castles and I was very excited to see this one. Since it was on top of a hill, I was sure it had the best views of Nuremberg.

Before checking out the castle, we noticed that there was a little restaurant attached to the castle and decided to stop in for lunch. We were both starving and Drew says he didn't want me to get Hangry.

It was right under the castle!

The restaurant was a great choice, their menu was in both English and German, they had outdoor seating where we could soak up the sun and sit Rylie under the table. Drew and I ended up sharing a plate of Nuremberger Bratwursts. We love these Bratwursts, they're always in our house! Having a Nuremberger in Nuremberg was on Drew's bucket list! There were only 12 sausages, but it filled us up! We didn't want to eat too much because we had made plans for dinner with other friends.

He sure loves his Pretzels!

It doesn't look like much, but it was amazing!

After lunch we headed up the hill to check out the castle. We don't really like to go into castles, mostly because when we check out castles we have the pups with us. So instead we checked out the castle grounds.

Love the scaffolding!

I love bridges!

The exhibition in the castle was redesigned in 2013. The new concept shows not only clear explanations of the elements and function of the castle in their historical context, but also presents information about the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and the role of Nuremberg in the late Middle Ages in a vivid and exciting form.

The views from the Imperial Castle were absolutely amazing! I'm sure we could have spent days there!

Sidles' @ Imperial Castle of Nuremberg

My favorite part of the castle was the inner part. There were vine covered buildings (which is one of our favorites!) Rylie even got super excited to check things out too!