What You Can Do Without A Garden

We started our third morning with a quick visit to Nuremberg.  We needed to find some new pyjamas for Catherine (she got a huge hole in the toe of the ones we put her in on the flight here) and couldn't resist lunching on Nurmberger Bratwurst in a bun from a street vendor.  We've visited the city several times before so didn't spend much more time than that.  

Love the way these modern apartment buildings go right up to the old city walls.

Noah meditating over a huge fountain.

Can't get enough of the street vendors with fresh produce.

One of the things I love the most about European cities is the way fruit and vegetable and flower vendors have their stalls scattered throughout the pedestrian zones.  You can always tell them by their red and white stripped fabric umbrellas and stall coverings.  All that fresh produce on display just makes me wish I was staying longer so I could take advantage of it.  Nuremberg, in particular, seemed to have more than usual when we were there.

A street in Nuremburg filled with fresh produce vendors.

After lunch we headed back to the Franconian Wine region to visit another pretty little town - Iphofen.  Smaller than Volkach (which we visited yesterday), Iphofen has most of its wall intact and is filled with pretty little lanes and houses boasting the most incredible window boxes imaginable.

One of the towers/gates along Iphofen's walls.

An Iphofen street.

Just look at those flowers!

Even without a box homeowners still manage to make their windows look lovely.

Catherine is in love with rocks right now.  She is constantly stopping to pick them up and snow us saying 'rock, rock'.

It didn't take us long to find the playground.  Located in a little park that runs around the outside of the town walls, this playground was just as creative and unique as the many others we have seen.  It's standout feature, though, was a built-in trampoline!

Catherine playing peek-a-boo.

We all loved this little built-in trampoline.

We loved this little town and will be recommending it to anyone who will listen.  We spent a happy couple of hours wandering its streets and enjoying its cafes.  There are still a half-dozen other little towns in the Franconian Wine Region on my list to visit but we've run out of time.  We will just have to plan another trip back before too long.  Iphofen would be a perfect town to stay in, if we did.

The flowers in this little town just blew us away.  The window boxes alone were something to marvel at but people had also set beautiful displays of flowers outside their front doors.  Even without space for a garden, the people who live here managed to flex their green thumbs and do amazing things.  We're feeling inspired to try something similar at our house next summer.

After heading home, we ended our day in a very memorable (and embarrassing) way.  We decided to go out for a walk after dinner and I managed to lock the keys in our apartment.  The apartment's owners don't live nearby and I didn't have their phone number on me.  With a little help from our neighbour, who doesn't speak English, and half the village (Oberndorf is small enough that there are no house numbers, just town numbers - our apartment address is '72 Oberndorf') they managed to find the phone number and call the apartment owners for us.  Thanks to the helpfulness of these strangers, we had the door open and the kids on their way to bed in no time.