Well I got a surprisingly good night's sleep.  My room was above a square in the old town, with a kebab restaurant across the road (still going strong at 4.30 am), and a night club in the basement.  It was stinking hot right through.  Double glazing is a mighty fine thing.

Simply outstanding morning.  Hotel Avenue provided a great breakfast and then I walked through an almost deserted old town to the Germanisches National Museum.  This is the largest museum of cultural history in the German speaking world.  It was founded in 1852 by a Franconian nobleman, Hans Freiherr von under zu Aufseß.  It arose in the aftermath of the failed attempt at German unification in 1848.` For years it relied upon the good will of leading private benefactors, but after the creation of the German state in 1871 it achieved the status of the national museum of German art and culture and was funded by the Federal government.

It is home to wonderful collections of German painting, most notably Albrecht Durer and Lucas Cranach.  There are also sections devoted to scientific instruments, arms and armour, musical instruments, toys, medicine and folk art.  There were astrolabes, several types of sundials, slide rules, technical drawing instruments including compasses and pantographs, and early clocks and watches.

Durer's painting of Charlemagne was an outstanding historical piece.  His attention to detail was extraordinary and innovative in the late 16th century.  I was also impressed by Hans Baldung Grien's depiction of naked Judith holding the head of Holofernes - an embodiment of "the dangers of seductive beauty and the heroic deed"  

There was another room devoted to a publication by George Braun and Franz Hogenberg - a book providing large format views of 60 towns from all over Europe: magnificent detailed drawings of places such as London, Innsbruck, Koblenz, Nürnberg and of course many others.

Another exhibition was devoted to every day objects. The highlight for me was a wonderful ceramic tile stove from Winterthur.  Its decorative tiles show illustrations with "rhymed commentaries of a moralising nature".

Another highlight (and it took some finding!) was a small separate section devoted to toys. There were some outstanding 17th century dolls houses, each more than 3m in height, with each room fitted out in the most minute detail.  Such were these details that historians refer to them when trying to learn for example, how tables were laid out in this period.

Treuchtlingen

Treuchtlingen is a small spa town about 50 minutes south from Nürnberg by train.  I arrived in the mid afternoon and checked into Hotel Gästehaus Stadthof.  I met up with Paula and Maddy at the thermal spa and we spent a couple of hours there relaxing in the various pools with massage jets, saunas and a whirlpool.  But you need a doctorate in logistics to navigate the change rooms! Plastic locker tokens which sort of follow you around until you leave and walk through change cubicles - all very well thought out, but very confusing to the the newly initiated patron - more like a maze.

It's pfifferlingen season here and we enjoyed a relaxing meal at Wallmüller Stuben.  It is a German Spanish restaurant but everything on tonight's menu featured pfifferlingen.  I ate semi knödel with pfifferlingen cream sauce.  Washed down with Jever Pilsener, from a brewery in the Friesian Islands.