Nuremberg, Fürth and Erlangen

There are 835 bicycle parking spaces in the immediate vicinity of the railway station.

From the south exit at the main railway station in Nuremberg, walk along Hummelsteiner Weg to Humboldtstraße. Turn left and then immediately right into Dovestraße. It is only a ten-minute walk to the bike hire centre.

With private bike hire in Nuremberg, you can choose from a wide range of bikes: from Dutch bikes to tracking bikes, from city bikes to pedelecs. The bike hire also offers a storage service for excess luggage and tours with professional and certified city guides. Rent a bike is available from 9:00 to 18:30.

You cycle back towards the station, through the Celtis subway and over the island of Schütt into the centre of Nuremberg. You may know the main market from the world's most famous Christmas market. Today you will see the beautiful fountain and the Frauenkirche without Christmas decorations.

The almost 20 metre high "Beautiful Fountain" rises like a Gothic church spire on the edge of Nuremberg's main market square. On four floors, forty painted figures of famous role models represent what the world was like from the point of view of the rulers at the time of its medieval creation. Below, philosophy and the seven liberal arts - the basis of higher education in antiquity. Above that, the four Evangelists and some of the Church Fathers. Then the seven electors, the nine good heroes of world history and finally Moses with seven prophets. The seven vices and the lucky charm Adebar spout the water from the fountain.

The original of this structure dates back to the end of the 14th century. Its remains are now in the Germanic National Museum. Even back then, it had its own water supply, one of the city's early pipes, initially made of wood, later of lead and in use until the 20th century. The exact replica on display today was made of shell limestone in 1903 and survived the air raids of the Second World War under a protective concrete casing. It was extensively renovated in 2016.

Incidentally, legend has it that turning one of the rings in the fountain's grate brings good luck and many children. Whether it is the brass or the iron ring is a matter of debate.

From the main market square, head west via Maxplatz down to the banks of the Pegnitz. If you want to take a breather or recharge your batteries in Nuremberg, take a break at Café Schnepperschütz and enjoy a sandwich or a slice of cheesecake with a view of the Hallerwiesen meadows.

Follow the Pegnitz along the Hallerwiese meadow and through the Pegnitz meadows. At the Fuchslochsteg footbridge, you change sides of the river for a short section. At the Fuchsloch wave created in 2021, you cross back over to the north bank of the Pegnitz. Can you spot surfers on the standing wave today? Now it's not far to Fürth city park.

Fürth's city park stretches along the Pegnitz and its meadows. It was created in 1951 on the occasion of a garden show on the site of the former cemetery next to the Church of the Resurrection. In the green heart of the city, walking paths and benches invite you to relax. There are duck ponds, a rose garden and a botanical school garden. A meadow orchard was planted in 2001. For the more active, there are table tennis tables, a mini-golf course and a children's playground for the little ones.

The Stadtpark is often used for special events such as the Summer Night Film Festival, the Summer Night Ball of Comödie Fürth, the Classic Open Air or the Apple Market in autumn. The Stadtparkcafé used to be a dairy restaurant and is now a listed building with its original paintings of the Bavarian Milk Supply on the outside façade and in the dining room.

Before you set off on the longest stage of today's tour, it's worth making a detour to the centre of Fürth to see a fountain that is very different to the one in Nuremberg. More playful than imposing, but no less beautiful.

You cycle northwards through Gustavstraße into the city centre, which is well worth seeing. Here, no two houses are alike, and colourful slate often conceals the half-timbered houses that were once frowned upon as old and rustic. Gustavstraße has been the centre of the restaurant and pub scene since the 16th century and is a popular meeting place, especially in the evenings.

Shortly after St Michael's Church appears on the right, turn left and pay a visit to the Gauklerbrunnen fountain.

The Grüner Markt, where important trade routes ran, was the centre of old Fürth. The historic facades that line it today date back to the 17th and 18th centuries, after it was almost completely destroyed in the Thirty Years' War.

In earlier times, Fürth's market square provided a stage for many artists who entertained their audiences here. The Franconian sculptor Harro Frey took this fact as an opportunity to create his juggler's fountain in 2004. As part of the extensive redesign of the market square, he designed two groups of figures of acrobats and artists, which are connected by a water-bearing stone channel.

You now leave Fürth and head towards Erlangen. Firstly, take the Friedhofweg and footbridge back to the north bank of the Pegnitz, which immediately joins the Rednitz. You now follow it further and further north. The meadows of the Fürth and later the Vach storks pass by on the opposite bank. You cycle through the Fuchswald forest, cross the Regnitz at Eltersdorf and then follow the Main-Danube Canal for a while.

If you get hungry on the way or simply fancy some Franconian cuisine, we recommend a visit to the Ritter Sankt Georg inn with its rustic Franconian parlour and beer garden. You will find it after a short detour across open fields on the banks of the Pegnitz.

After the Erlangen harbour basin, turn right and head back towards the Pegnitz. A pretty final section across the Erlangen Wiesengrund takes you into the city and to the last major highlight of your tour: the palace gardens with the Huguenot Fountain and the Botanical Gardens in Erlangen.

Gasthof Ritter Sankt Georg
Herzogenauracher Damm 11, 91058 Erlangen
Tel: 09131 76650
ritter@birnbaum-hotels.de
www.gasthof-ritter-st-georg.de/
Mon to Sat 11am - 11pm, Sun: 11am to 10pm

The palace garden and the botanical garden in Erlangen are directly adjacent to each other.

Margrave Christian Ernst von Brandenburg-Bayreuth gave the newly built palace in Erlangen to his wife Margravine Elisabeth Sophie in 1704, just one year after their wedding. It was presumably at her insistence that one of the first Baroque gardens in Franconia was created instead of the originally planned small garden, measuring an impressive 280 by 550 metres.

In 1706, the Bayreuth court sculptor Elias Räntz created the Huguenot Fountain. A conical rocky mountain with three levels rises out of a large, oval fountain basin. The Huguenot families can be seen at the bottom, followed by the ancient deities and the margrave himself at the top.

The garden has been open to the public since 1849. After the Second World War, the municipal garden office took over the maintenance of the castle garden and replanted numerous oak and lime trees in the 1970s. Every year, the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg's Schlossgartenfest, the largest garden festival in Europe, is held here.

The university also owns the neighbouring botanical garden to the north. It was moved here from its original location in front of the Nuremberg Gate in 1826 and today, together with the Aroma Garden in the Palm Grounds, houses the university's only living collections. Around 7,000 different plants - both native and exotic plants from different regions, from the Arctic tundra to the tropical rainforest - are cultivated here according to scientific criteria. The aim is to research and preserve the world's plant diversity.

If you feel like it, take a stroll through Erlangen's pretty city centre before heading to the nearby train station. If this excursion seemed too short and you want more, you can of course also take the Regnitz cycle path upstream and cycle back south to Nuremberg.