Day 18 - Thursday May 15, 2025 - Bamberg Germany
Welcome to Bamberg, Germany
Our bus left the ship at 9:15 am headed for Bamberg. It was about a 10 minute drive to meet our guide. The tour lasted about 2 hours and I'm pretty our the first 1 1/2 hours was uphill.
Our first glimpses of the old section of Bamburg
I may need to frame this one. They call this section, Little Venice as the houses sit on the canal which makes them far more expensive to buy.
Bamberg is known for it's architecture, a mix of styles like Gothic, Baroque, and Neoclassical, as well as the characteristic half-timbered buildings. WWII left much of Bamberg untouched as there wasn't as much industry to bomb.
Half timbered style
St. Elisabeth church founded in 1328
Bamberg cathedral. 13th century, houses the tomb of Emporer Henry II.
The cathedral square is surrounded by three impressive buildings, the cathedral, the Old Court and the New Residence.
Emperor Heinrich II made the Old Court the seat of the first Bamberg bishop in 1007. The half-timbered buildings at the back were begun in 1475 and the buildings in the Renaissance style on the cathedral square.
The two baroque wings were built from 1697 to 1703.
We walked through the square to a Rose garden. Unfortunately notuch in bloom. It has to be incredible when it is.
The cobblestones are still out to kill you in this old town as well. My hiking pole is getting a workout.
From atop cathedral hill, views of this UNESCO world heritage site.
Pics from our walk through the old town shopping area.
Our last stop was at the old town hall which is actually on a small island in town. The Old Town Hall, is a striking example of a hodgepodge of architectural styles, including Gothic, half-timbered, Baroque, and Rococo. The frescos on the side walls are really fascinating. Wayne wants to know how the building gets painted since you can't use scaffolding in the water. I say they lower them down from the roof.
Statute on the bridge opposite the town hall
We stopped for a beer and a quick lunch right after the end of the tour. We had "the usual", veal sausages, a beer and a pretzel.
The specialty of the area is what they call a Smiley Beer... Wayne and friends, Marc and Dana tried it. Well, Marc did. Dana tried their "unfiltered lemonade" an I had a light beer. It got better as the bottle emptied. The nickname for the Smokey beer, ( they smoe the hops) is "bacon beer" i.e. smokey flabrot
Beer is beer to Wayne, alththe doesn't like Whea Beer* another "thing" here in Bavaria. Wayne said is was good.
Following tradition from 1405, the smoked beer is still tapped from oak barrels here.
"Although the brew may taste a little strange at first, don't let it upset you, for you will soon realize that your thirst will not abate, as your well-being will visibly increase."
I'm all in on the partbabout visibly increasingy well being.
Wayne and his Smokey beer
My light beer
The outside of the famous beer house with the Smokey beer and where we had lunch. The name of the place is Rauchbierbrauerei Schlenkerla
The outside sign shows a depiction of Andreas Graser, the original "Schlenkerla". Above a blue lion symbolising the old house-name from the first knowledge of the brewery in 1405. There's what looks like a Jewish Star or Star of David in the sign, a sixpointed star, but it's the traditional sign of the franconian brewers, also called beer star or brewer's star.
Our waiter, Ralph. I could have broken out in song, from The Sound of Music.
Definitely old, the inside is really cool
On our walk back to the bus, we.crossed the small island where the Town Hall is located This building looked just like a Dresden plate
There's to be high tea at 4 pm today and tomorrow I'm off to Rothenburg of de Tauber for an 8 1/2 hour tour of another medieval town that time left behind.
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