2 posts tagged “bamberg”
I know that's not how you spell "varied". I realized today that I've just been blogging too long, and have run out of synonyms for "very". Things in Germany have lots of something, I guess.
Bamberg
Bamberg was not what I expected. I thought it would be smaller and quainter, but it was an awful lot like Salzburg, but with a little bit of a Schaffhausen flair. Kay and I arrived around noon, while Jess, Maya, Gretchen and Lauren came an hour or two later. Scheduling confusion. I don't want to talk about it.
I had come to Bamberg with approximately three goals in mind: 1) Rauchbier (smoked beer), 2) Seeing why Andrea called it "Can't Miss", and 3) To see an example of "every major European architechtural movement starting with Romanesqe."
I did get some beer.
I picked a restaurant "with a lovely beer garden" at random out of my guidebook (never again!) and Kay and I spent an hour or so looking for it, only to discover that it was a Spanish Tapas Beer Garden. To add insult to injury. To rub salt in our wound, they did not have Rauchbier (tools!), and the stuffed peppers we ordered were so salty that they were bitter, and needless to say inedible. In a smart move by us, we relocated to a more traditional German restuarant across the river where we got tea and apple cake for a reasonable price. As we were finishing our cake, the other four girls showed up, and were also ready for lunch. So, we headed to yet another restaurant, this time a 100% German Gaststätte. Pretzels, camembert, wild garlic ravioli, and asparagus soup were ordered in addition to Rauchbier for all! (Among our group, Rauchbier is now known as "beef jerky beer", due to its smokiness). While there, we were treated to many a traditional German song/hymn by a table of middle-aged men throwing a few back on the first floor under our mezzanine table.
As planned, from there we went to Domplatz, which the guidebook referred to as having "no possible rival for the title of Germany's finest square" (Rough Guide to Germany, 6th ed. which I usually LOVE, by the way). I think the author may not have been talking about the right platz when he made this claim. What we found at Domplatz was an average-sized square with the Dom on one side, and a large palatial-but-institutinal-looking building on the other side. There were no businesses or restuarants, and frankly, Alexanderplatz could've given it a run for its money in the "finest square" category. And that's saying something. It would appear from my photos file that I was not actually inspired enough to take a photo of it. Here's the Dom:
Apparently there is an impressive collection of sculptural art in and around the Dom, but the group didn't seem in that sort of mood. I look forward to checking that out when I visit again, probably with my parents and brother. We wandered out the back of Domplatz and found ourselves on a road called "Teufelsgraben", which means "Devil's Ditch". In the distance, there was a tower that looked like it might JUST be close enough to walk to.
And we set off toward the horizon. It turned out that the path to what ended up being Schloss Altenburg went through big beautiful fields, and offered an impressive aerial view of Bamberg.
The castle ended up being two hills away instead of the assumed one. But by the time we realized that, it was way too late to turn back. Fact: Bamberg was built in Rome's image (apparently) even down to the fact that it sits on seven hills.
HERE is a google map of the important places in this story.
The castle/fortress was fairly small, and we only visited the outdoor elements of the building. In retrospect, I'm not sure that the inside was accessable to visitors. This website says that it was built for the first time in 1109, and rebuilt after a fire in 1553.
As you will see if you click on the google map link above, this castle is in the southwest of Bamberg, and the trainstation (Hauptbahnhof) is in the northeast. With an hour and half before our train, we didn't think we were going to make it back from the castle. Then, lo and behold, there was a bus that went from about 5 minutes away from the castle to 20 minutes away from the train station, and we managed to make the train.
So I only got to see a very little piece of Bamberg, and while it didn't blow my mind, I'd be very willing to give it another try. This experiment was inconclusive. A few more photos from Bamberg: The first two are the Old City Hall, and the last is a restaurant named after one of my favorite, frequently-posted-about things.
A post about Bamberg and Tutzing (a town on the Starnberger See where Regina's lovely great aunt is a nun)
And I've finally discovered what all of the yellow fields are, they're rapeseed! For oils! I guess! (This picture is from the top of the Altenburg in Bamberg.)
