StarwoodGuy: Around the World With Starwood Hotels in 30 Days

The train trip from Leipzig to Nuremberg is almost four hours, but on the ICE it just flies by so quickly especially with the wifi making it easy to get some work done. I had a beer on the train with the staff telling me how much they loved Vancouver which is always nice to hear. Arriving in Nuremberg I found Le Meridien Grand right across the street from the station. I checked in with another cheery welcome and headed up to my room, upgraded to an Executive Business Suite. The room was massive, with not much of a few onto the interior courtyard, but apparently it can be noisy on the exterior since the hotel is right next to the train station and one of the major highways in and out of the city. I looked around the large room with an entry way complete with pants pressing machine!, a large sitting area with a full dining table, coffee table with sofa and chair, mini bar and second table with wine and glasses, and a television, then a separate doorway leading into the main bedroom with a television and dvd player, almost an antiquity now but still appreciated by many since hotels are for some reason so reluctant to put them into most rooms, and then another spacious closet area and a very nice bathroom. It is an old hotel and the lift is one of those double doors where you wait for the outer door to close before the inner door opens, small, but it works. I took the nice grand looking staircase when not lugging my bags.

I had a quick shower and headed right out for a look around the town rather then lingering around. I had intended for this to just be a stopping point for my early morning day trip the next day to my favorite town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which I remembered fondly from my childhood, but I did want to see Nuremberg as well. The town is of course famous for both its Nazi past and for the subsequent trials after the Second World War, but it is a very interesting city with much to see. I did not have time for the museums, and since I have degrees in European History focusing on Nazi Germany I was very tempted to stay an extra day to see the Nazi Party rally grounds, the museum there and the Zepplin airfield, as the museum gets great reviews, but this was a trip about hotels and exploring towns not a museum trip for me and this one was a little out of the way, so I headed right down the main pedestrian road next to the hotel. The first thing you see is the old city tower wall followed by the market place shopping street and several churches as well as the Town Hall. The walk takes you up a narrow street towards the Castle at the top of the hill. A tour bus had gotten stuck on its way up causing relative traffic havoc (not too many people drive up to this top area) but I just kept on walking. There were a dozen or so beautiful pathways to choose from, little beer gardens here and there. I finally reached the beautiful castle gardens and then the old wall and main building, though I was too late to enter since the castle was already closed. I took a slightly different route on my way back down, then wandered along the main shopping street to the edge of the old town, and then I came back along the river to the main square, grabbing a German sandwich roll and a pastry on my way back to the hotel where I had some wine and broke down and had the delicious yogurt covered raisins in the mini bar that were taunting me for a relatively decent hotel price of five Euros. I did a little work before having a wonderful sleep.

The next morning I asked for a 6:00 am wake up call so I could get a workout in at the once again small gym. I did not have time for the infared or the regular sauna, both of which were shared here, before having a wonderful breakfast in the busy restaurant with the same German and North American options before heading out on my train to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Nuremberg is a good jumping off point for this historic town which is one of the few towns that is still fully encircled by its old town wall having escaped most of the bombing in the second world war and having been painstakingly preserved and where needed restored as well. Unfortunately it takes three trains to get from Nuremberg to Rothenburg, only a 1 hour 20 minute journey and when I asked the Deustsche Bahn agent about the schedule she simply presented it to me since it seemed every tourist here asked her for the same connection information. The trains are scheduled perfectly so that one waits for the next with four minute transfer time at each station and very quickly I arrived in the amazing town. Some Germans say it is kitschy and touristy, but just as in my childhood I found it adorable. It is a short five minute walk from the station to the entrance gate to the town, cars have to squeeze through the old bridge and gateway. You can get great views of the wall from all around. I walked down the main road and to the main square with the town hall, then on to the two large churches, out of the other gate for some beautiful views out over the city and the valley, then I cut back in to go up one of the inner walls which you can climb up - but watch your head, built hundreds of years ago it was designed when the average height was much less then it is today - then I made a quick stop in a toy store to buy one present before having a very speedy walk back to the station. I only had an hour and fifteen minutes from train drop off to train pick up, I would recommend a full day or at least several hours, but my time was short. I loved it though. The train back was slightly delayed so I feared I would miss my connections and then the next train to Munich, but the trains are designed to wait for each other. I made it back to the hotel in time for a quick shower before heading back across the street for what would be my seventh train of the day from Nuremberg to Munich.

Le Meridien Grand was a lovely hotel with a great staff at the front desk, at room service and in the restaurant. The location was excellent for the train station and for access to the old town. The furnishings in my room were dated, but construction in the hotel was evident during the daytime hours and as can be seen on the website some of the rooms have been updated already, I actually quite liked the older charm in my room though, as compared with the very modern Meridiens in Bali and Hamburg, but it really depends what you are looking for in a hotel and in Europe I am happy to fluctuate between old world charming and modern business efficiency especially when working. I was happy to have in-room coffee again, working plugs, and when I ordered ice it came very quickly which I always love. Overall another wonderful stay and SPG property for Nuremberg itself and for access to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.