An Afternoon in Bamberg

So as I mentioned, last weekend I decided that the foot was doing well enough that I could venture out and resume my burgeoning exploration of Bavaria.  Besides going back to Nürnberg or München (that's the real name of Munich) there are three places I really want to see, those being Bamberg, Würzberg, and Regensburg.  All three have huge amounts of history, beautiful architecture and are within a short train-ride of Erlangen.  So since Bamberg covered the smallest area, and would therefore entail the least amount of walking, I decided to start there.

The entire town is listed as a UNE$C0 World Heritage Site.  That's right, the whole place.  Not just a cathedral here, or a castle there - the whole, freaking town.  I won't go into the details, but there's lots of info on the town and its history here.  I also didn't get to cover as much of the town as I wanted, as my feet were killing me after only a few hours.  Not just the damaged one, either.  Cobblestone is not enjoyable to walk on.  So I missed a lot, and I'll just have to add this to the list of places to which I need to return.  I didn't even get to go to any of the nine breweries in town, which was obviously disappointing, but especially so since I'd heard some good things about one of the types of beer distinct to this town call rauchbier (smoked beer).

Some of the highlights of the day included Die Altes Rathaus, or town hall, as pictured below, from upstream, downstream, and a side view.

  

This place was built in 1456 in the middle of the river Regnitz on top of a bridge that was built in the 12th century, with the sides of the building painted in the 1700's (both sides are painted, I just didn't get a good shot of the other side).  Really cool place, and one of the best-known landmarks of the town.

Next up was the Bamberg Cathedral.  The original Dom (that's German for Cathedral) was built in 1007, but was destroyed by fire, so this one is only 750 some-odd years old, as it's the replacement (my apologies for the bad pic - I seem to have a knack for getting shots of things with the sun being in the worst possible position).  The tomb pictured below is inside the cathedral and holds the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and his wife, who were responsible for the town being what it was back in the day.

                   

                  

I've got lots of other pics of inside the Dom, and I'll try and figure some good way to display them all as well.

Next to the Dom is the Neue Residenz, which housed the city's bishops from the 1700's.  The place is huge, and as you can see, the picture doesn't capture the entire thing.  The accompanying pic is of the Residenz' Rose Garden, a very pretty area with a cafe at one end (gotta get those tourist euros).

                  

One of the really cool things about this town is the river.  Very scenic, to the point that one section (as seen below) is called Little Venice.  That might be a tad presumptuous, I don't know (haven't made it to Italy yet), but it is very pretty, and I would love to live in one of the places right on the river.

And lastly, there is one final place that I did not get    to, as it was further up even higher hills than the ones to get to the Dom and the Residenz, but from afar looked very impressive.  That would be the Michalsberg monastery, as seen below.

So that was my day in Bamberg.  Like I said, I really need to go back, if for no other reason than the brauerei, but of course for more than that.  I find myself doing a lot of the same thing I did when I went to Paris last fall, and that's going to a lot of places, but never really going in them.  You can get a lot of good pictures, sure, but you don't really get the feel for a place and what it's all about.  I need to work on that.  It would probably make these a little more interesting for you, as well.