Travel Blog: Medieval Bamberg

Our stop in Bamberg was a little longer than some of the others, which actually allowed us to stop and try a local Rauchbier, or smoked beer. More on that later.

Bamberg dates back to the 9th century, and, according to our local guide, has tongue in cheek been called the Rome outside of Italy because it, like Rome, is built on 7 hills. And each one of them actually does have a church on top of it. This building used to be the citizens' hospital, where people went with the expectation of being cured rather than waiting to die. It now houses the city archives.

The area of Klein Venedig, or Little Venice, in Bamberg. The local fishermen, who took plentiful stock of many kinds of fish from the river, used to live in these houses. It's quite a picturesque area, and the current owners keep lovely colourful gardens on the water's edge.

Someone painted some scenes of historic Bamberg on a local building.

Bamberg dates back to 900, and has the largest intact city wall in Europe. The whole town is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This pretty half-timbered building is the home of the oldest brewery in Bamberg, and the one famous for the Rauchbier.

The Altes Rathaus, or old town hall, was built on an island in the river because the Bishop who was in charge at the time didn't grant the citizens of the town any land on which to build one. The art on the outside walls is still very impressive, and on the other side from this photo, even has a 3D cherub's leg sticking out and the cherub's hand pointing to the signature of the artist. The original billboard!

St. Michael's Abbey, which sits atop the highest of Bamberg's hills. The church and monastery were founded in 1015 when the King of Bavaria, Heinrich II, gave the first Bishop the land to build them. The remains of Heinrich II and his wife Kunigunde are supposedly buried here. The small house structure was the original Bishop's residence. A later Bishop wasn't too happy with the small quarters, so he built another home across the square...

This is the Rose Garden in the New Residence which was built around 1700 and was the residence of the prince-bishops until 1864. The gardens are quite beautiful. and they overlook the rooftops of the town.

Now to the beer stop at the end of the tour. It was a very hot day, and since our Tauck tour directors had said we couldn't be in Bamberg without trying the beer, Larry decided to have one. How did he describe it? Like drinking water that had been filtered through the remains of last night's burned out campfire, bottled and poured into a nice glass. Needless to say, one try was enough, and he had to get a Warsteiner beer on board to wash out the taste.

And finally, we saw some really nice mosaic artwork along the wall by the town archive building. On the way back, we took this photo of the Bamberg Horseman, based on a stone sculpture inside of the Cathedral. Historians have many different theories about his identity, ranging from Jesus (as in the Book of Revelations), to one of the kings or emperors, to one of the three wise men. We'll never know...

We set off before dinner towards Wurzburg, and we had another beautiful evening on the way.

Our pastry chef, Igor, is absolutely amazing. This dessert was a deconstructed Black Forest Cake, almost all cream, cherry and chocolate and very little chocolate cake.