Bamberg

On Tuesday we took a day trip to the city of Bamberg. Bamberg is one of the few cities around us that escaped Allied bombing during WWII, so there are some really old and intact buildings ... in fact, some of the oldest in Germany! It was a great day and we couldn't have asked for better weather ... Germany is so much more enjoyable when it's nice outside.

I had done a lot of research and had our day all planned out, but when the GPS wouldn't take us to the parking garage that I had all the directions from - we kind of had to wing-it.

This is a church in the main square downtown ... they had a farmer's market type thing set-up and it was pretty crowded.

Statue of Poseidon ...

They call Bamberg 'little Venice' ... fr obvious reasons ....

Elliott slept though most of the day. He was a lot easier to travel with than I thought!

We decided to start the day with a boat tour. It was only 8 euro, and they served beer on-board .... you can't beat that.

This view of the river was so cute .... there are all of these little half-timbered fisherman houses all squished together - it was really pretty.

Vic on the tour boat, with the previously mentioned beer.

Elliott passed out - this is how he looked for a majority of the day.

During the tour we had to go into this little contraption that cut off the water flow and lowered us under a bridge. They explained what was happening over the speaker, but of course it was all in German. I'm pretty sure we were the only Americans on the whole boat, so we just looked in the general direction of everyone else when they would point out something, and we would pretend to know what was going on. I don't think we were fooling anyone.

He woke up for the last leg of the tour.

Ol' one-eyed Willy enjoying the ride ...

Back at the docks ... and now it's time for lunch.

We definitely wanted to eat outside so we walked around until we found the perfect little cafe. The waitress took one look at us and brought us the English menu. We both had these amazing baguette sandwiches, and washed it down with a famous Bamberg beer. This was our view from the table ...

After lunch we were ready to start or tour of the city. We really had to plan, so we just wondered aimlessly until we stumbled upon cool stuff. The next two pictures are the old town hall building, built in 1744-ish ... it was really pretty.

Ol' JC, hanging out in front of the Old Town Hall ....

Bridge leading into the Old Town Hall ...

Looking up at the Town Hall ... the detail was amazing ...

The following pictures are from the outside/inside of the Bamberg Cathedral ... it was massive and so beautiful ...

 Entryway ...

Tomb ...

Front alter ...

Gigantic organ ...

This picture doesn't do justice for how high these ceilings are ... every little whisper echoed, so thank God Elliott didn't start crying ...

These are tombs where bishops of the church are buried ... it was underground and really creepy ...

You could light a candle for 1 euro! As I'm not a catholic and also not huge into religion, I had no idea what the meaning of this was ... but everyone was doing it, so I thought I'd join in ...

I then proceeded to ask Vic who lived in these little tiny church houses ... he looked at me annoyed and filled me in on the whole confessional thing. I swear I knew that ...

Another tomb ...

View from outside ...

This was inside the Old Fortress ... there wasn't much to do inside here, but we did find a much needed bathroom. Side note ... you have to pay to use most public restrooms in Germany (which got pretty pricey when I was pregnant). This particular one was 50 cents ... which seemed slightly ridiculous to me.

From the Old Fortress we walked over to the Neue Residenz, where the bishops lived after the 17th century ...

There was an amazing rose garden in the back ... I can't wait to go back in the summer when all the flowers are blooming...

You could see St. Michael's church from the garden.

The view was so pretty. Next time we will take the hike to see St. Michael's, but it was pretty late in the day and we were pushing our luck with Elliott being so good ...

We saw this basketball goal while walking along the river, and it explains why Germans don't excel in this sport. Smallest backboard and thickest rim ever.

We will definitely make a trip back to Bamberg soon. Our next trip is tomorrow and we're going to Heidelberg - which  I'm so excited about. Vic goes back to work on Monday, but only for two days and then we're off to a mini-vacation/marriage retreat to a beautiful resort in southern Bavaria. I can't wait to post pictures from both trips!!

Please excuse grammar and spelling errors ... it has taken me three days to finish this, and I don't feel like proof-reading!!