European Vacation: Day 4 - Sightseeing in Bamberg

The hotel owner brought us breakfast in bed - rolls, jelly, ham and cheese. Energized, we hit the streets of Bamberg. Our guidebook provided a rather odd piece of advice: Go to the tourist information office and ask for the key to the tower. This tower allegedly offered the best view of the city. So we did just that and - Badadada! (insert sound effect from Legend of Zelda) we found a small key! It was a long, aged skeleton key, and we felt a bit strange being handed it unquestioningly (and without a tour guide attached).

We followed a path to an empty courtyard nearby. Inside we found the door to the tower labeled only with a no-smoking sign. We ascended until we reached a large open room with windows that looked out over Bamberg. The book was correct that this was an incredible view. We took lots of photos, then realized we were not actually at the top. So we continued up another flight, which led to a much smaller room but an even better view. It was also very obvious by then why the door and every few feet were marked with a no-smoking sign. This wooden tower was undoubtedly incredibly flammable.

After returning the key, we walked along a canal to view another feature in our guidebook - Castle Somethingorother. I would take the time to look it up but it wasn't really much to look at. It stood on the other side of the canal, so we couldn't even get very close to it, but it was an interesting mesh of modern and Medieval architecture.

Next we wandered over to St. Stephen's Cathedral. We were hesitant to enter because we could hear organ music coming from within and thought there may have been a service going on. But we took a peek and found it empty save for the organist and an elderly man reading a newspaper. We think the organist was practicing for an organ festival we'd seen signs for around town. This church was really impressive - an all white interior and lots of interesting statuary. A local artist had an exhibit on display there. His work portrayed people, carved in simple but elegant forms out of smooth wood. These were admirable until I came across the statue of Scary Baby Jesus. The orb in his lap represents his power in the world. His expression represents the horrors he would witness throughout his life. The gigantic hand is his own as an adult. Unsure why Adult Jesus Hand is strangling Baby Jesus. Guess that's up for interpretation.

It rained the rest of the day, but we had umbrellas and were in good spirits so we still enjoyed the sights. We saw the Imperial Cathedral, which stands out in the city because of its four spires. What made this cathedral unique was not its ornate decorations (you can see that in most cathedrals) but the cool lighting effects. One altar was lit up in bright yellow and red, and white light illuminated strips of white material hanging in the main chapel. The cathedral also contained a sarcophagus of an emperor and his wife with relieves on the side portraying scenes from their life and death. Above them stood a statue of a man on a horse, known only as the Bamberg rider. No one knows exactly who he was - they think maybe a king, but I guess no one ever bothered to write it down. There also were no signs (in German or otherwise) in the basement where you could view a series of dramatically lit tombs and some saint's knuckle bone, on display in a pretty little box.

We ate lunch in a very authentically German tavern. I ordered a Hellerbier and it came in a clay mug with lots of foam on top. It made me very happy, as you can probably tell by the photo. David ordered another kind of beer that wasn't quite as good. Poor David.


With all the highlights of the walking tour visited, we stopped at a cafe after lunch for coffee and pastries. We then window shopped for awhile before heading to the Spezial Brewery, which makes a different kind of smoked beer. The three of us agreed it was not as good as the beer we had had the night before (and which we eventually bought bottles of to take home to friends). It reminded me of Killian's and didn't have much of a smoky taste at all. Still, we stayed several hours and played cards.


We ate dinner at a nearby restaurant, where Alexia and I shared a German dish that resembles pizza. David ordered what we thought would be fish but ended up being white asparagus wrapped in a crepe and topped with a Bearnaise sauce and ham. He was in heaven. For dessert we had apple strudel and fruit. We drank our last smoked beer (the good kind) as we enjoyed a leisurely three-hour meal. Before bed we packed our bags and paid the hotel owner in preparation for our train ride to Prague the next day.

I almost forgot - Badadada! While in Bamberg, we also found The Big Key!