Bamberg

For Valentine's Day Weekend, we wanted to do a quick trip, just a couple of days somewhere not to far from here.  Bamberg is a town we've talked about visiting for awhile.  It's known for it's unique Rauchbier (Smoked Bier), as well as the fact that it was never bombed during WWII, so there are old buildings and architecture everywhere.

Saturday morning we took the train from Stuttgart to Bamberg, with a brief layover in Nürnberg.  The train is a nice way to travel, since you don't have to worry about weather (for the most part), traffic, or dealing with security & baggage at the airports.  You also get to see the scenery along the way.

The hotel was only 600 meters from the train station, so it didn't take long to walk there.  By 2pm, we were checked in and ready to see the town.  There was a bridge right outside our hotel that led straight to the Old Town area.  There weren't too many "must see" things in particular we wanted to see in Bamberg, it was more about just walking around and seeing the historic town.  We walked down one street with a bunch of old houses, and noticed that each door had "20*C+M+B*13" over it.  I'd never seen that before, so we looked it up on my phone.  Turns out it's a Catholic tradition to write that above one's house in chalk to bless the house.  The first & last digits combine to form the current year,  and the three letters are the first initial of each of the Three Kings.  Growing up Catholic, I don't ever remember that from when we were younger.  Around the corner was a small area called "Little Venice".  I was hoping we could walk along it, but they are all private homes, so you can only see it from a bridge or by taking a canal tour.  It was too cold & windy for a tour, so the best we could do were pictures from the bridge.

Across Europe we've seen bridges all over the place where couples attach a lock to it, then toss the key into the water, symbolizing love.  While walking over this bridge, we noticed a lock that had been placed there that day.

Next we headed up towards the big Cathedral on the hill.  Up there, in addition to the Cathedral, was the New Residence, where the Bamberg Royal Family lived.  The Cathedral was neat, and one thing I noticed was it seemed more "simple" than other Cathedrals we'd visited.  Not to say it was simple, just not as extravagant as others.  But it was still neat.  The original Cathedral was built 1,000 years ago in 1012.  It burned mostly down, was rebuilt, burned down again, and finally the version that stands today was completed in 1237.  Most of the statues and furnishings inside have been added over the years, but the guide book we read pointed out that the knight on the horse was sculpted and put in there when the Cathedral was completed in 1237.

Once we finished at the Cathedral, we walked over to the New Residence, but it had closed for the day.  We saw it was open daily, so we just planned to come back the next day.  Instead, we headed down to a street that had multiple breweries on it.  We stopped in each one, getting a beer or two at each.

We ended the night at Fässla Brewery, where we had some amazing smoke beer and incredible food.  The brown sauce on the beef was outstanding!  Our hotel was right around the corner, so after dinner we headed back and called it a night.

The next morning we slept in, then had breakfast at the hotel.  We'd seen most of the city the day before, so we were in no rush to get moving.  Eventually we did, though, and headed back up to the New Residence.  The tour was really neat.  It was all in German, but each section of the residence had a booklet in English explaining what we were looking at.  One neat thing mentioned was the influence the Habsburg's of Austria had.  We've visited palaces all over Europe, even as far east as Turkey, and seen their influence in style and color.  One of the more beautiful rooms was used to entertain guests, with large chandeliers and paintings all over the ceiling and walls.

Once the tour was over, we walked around town some more, including going through the old town hall that was built in the middle of the canal, with a bridge connecting to it on each side.

From there we headed back to the train station, got lunch, then got back on the train to Stuttgart.  One funny thing I noticed at the train station was a coin operated car ride for kids with a painted image of David Hasselhof on the back.  You always hear how the Germans love him, so it was funny seeing that.

This was just a quick weekend getaway, and we had a great time.  The next post will be sometime next week after we get back from a long weekend in Hamburg.  The original reason for going was because a band I like is only playing two shows in Germany, Hamburg and Berlin.  Since I've been to Berlin, I wanted to see Hamburg.  Shanna wanted to go to, so we're turning it into a trip.

To see pictures, click here or any picture above.