Nuremberg

The Kaiserburg stands on a sandstone outcrop at the top of the old town, and the walk up through the lanes is half the pleasure — the Tiergärtnertorplatz below it is one of the most photographed corners in Germany, ringed by half-timbering. The castle itself has a deep well and a round tower to climb, and the terrace gives the view over the tiled roofs. Below, the medieval wall survives almost all the way round with its towers and gates, and following it is the simplest way to grasp the shape of the city.

The Hauptmarkt is the centre of everything: the Schöner Brunnen, a gilded fourteenth-century fountain in the corner, and the Frauenkirche, whose clock performs a mechanical procession at midday to a small daily crowd. From there the old town runs down to the Pegnitz, crossed by covered and stone bridges, with the Heilig-Geist-Spital straddling the water on arches — the classic photograph. The Sebalduskirche and Lorenzkirche bracket the centre north and south, and the whole circuit is walkable in an afternoon.

Two are worth planning around. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum is the largest museum of German-speaking cultural history anywhere, and its range — from prehistory through instruments, arms, painting and craft — makes it a half-day rather than an hour. The Spielzeugmuseum reflects a genuine local industry: Nuremberg made tin toys, dolls and model railways for centuries and the collection runs from wooden figures to postwar trains. Dürer's house on the slope below the castle is the third, restored as a working artist's household of its period.

Two sites relating to the twentieth century are open to visitors and are the reason many people come. The Documentation Centre occupies part of an unfinished monumental building on the former rally grounds south-east of the centre, reached by tram, and presents a permanent exhibition; the surrounding grounds can be walked. Separately, the Memorium Nuremberg Trials is housed at the courthouse in the west of the city, where Courtroom 600 can be visited when not in judicial use — check before travelling, since sittings close it. Both are serious, well-signed and take half a day each.

Franconia is not Bavaria at the table and locals will tell you so. The Nürnberger Rostbratwurst is finger-sized and protected by origin: eaten three in a bread roll from a street window, or by the six or twelve on a pewter plate with sauerkraut in the old taverns near the castle. Schäufele, a roast pork shoulder, is the plate to order in winter. Lebkuchen — the spiced gingerbread, at its best from the traditional bakers rather than the tourist tins — is a year-round product here, not only a Christmas one. The beer is darker and maltier than the south's.

The Christkindlesmarkt is the most famous in Germany and fills the Hauptmarkt through Advent with wooden stalls, mulled wine and the city's gingerbread. It is genuinely atmospheric and genuinely crowded — weekends are shoulder to shoulder, and hotel prices double or worse. If the market is the reason for the trip, come midweek, book months ahead, and arrive in the late afternoon when the lights come on rather than at peak evening. If it is not, avoid December entirely: the old town in November or January is the same city at a quarter of the density.

Nuremberg is on the high-speed network — around an hour from Munich and Frankfurt, three from Berlin — with its own airport connected to the centre by a short metro ride. The old town is compact and walkable, the U-Bahn covers the rally grounds and the outer sights, and nothing needs a car. Spring and early autumn are the pleasant seasons; summer is warm and busy; December belongs to the market. Two days covers the old town, the castle and one major museum comfortably, with a third day if you intend to visit both twentieth-century sites.