Europe 2016: Day one

Read ahead to hear about our arrival in the wonderful Nuremberg...

Our European adventure started in Germany, Nuremberg to be precise, due to its fantastically low flight prices. Whilst we had to compromise a bit on the departure airport we couldn't refuse a £6 flight (Ryanair) and got the coach over to Stansted.

Pretty amazing pizza, right?!

We found the check in process and security really poor at Stansted. It was timely and unorganised so I suggest leaving some extra time. We arrived in good time to stop at a restaurant there, Coast to Coast, and have some rather good meaty pizzas with cocktails. I mean once you're at the airport you're on holiday right?

Our flight departed at 2pm and it was only a short 1 hour and 10 minutes to our destination, a journey I entirely slept through. Upon arrival at the station we caught the metro to our hotel. The system was easy to manoeuvre and helped by the fact there are only a few lines.

The view from our window

Our stay for the holiday was the Ibis Nurnberg City am Plarrer, at a cost of approximately 50 euros per night. It was only 2 minutes walk away from the nearest metro station and centrally located. The rooms, whilst having a generic chain kind of look to them, were clean and modern and more than reasonably sized. We also enjoyed our view from the window, over the historic city walls.

After dropping off our stuff we walked onto the main town centre, which only took us about 10 minutes. It was overcast but it was warm and the walk was pleasurable.

We had made a dinner reservation at Pillhofer, a traditional style restaurant which had been very well reviewed. It lived up to its expectations with its cosy decor, friendly staff and delicious food. I'm glad we made the reservation as there was a large party in on that night but we may not have needed it otherwise. Adam and I both had beer and sausages, in true German style. I honestly don't touch beer when I'm in England but after getting the taste for it back when I visited Germany in February I drunk so much this holiday! We had a traditional Nuremberg bratwurst, which is shorter and thinner than normal but just as yummy.

After dinner we took a walk around the town centre, its a very walkable place and around every turn we found a lovely fountain or interesting building. One interesting fountain we discovered was the 'Ehekarussell' which we later found out represented the journey of marriage from dating to death. Apparently the fountain was quite controversial due to it being quite vulgar but I thought it was really cool.

The city had a very nice relaxed vibe to it, maybe it was because of the clouds but there was hardly a soul about. Despite being heavily damaged in the war Nurmberg was restored to its pre war appearence, which has a very medieval look to it and makes it such a charming city.