Bamburg

Wednesday June 6th we are in Bamberg, Germany.
This is one of the loveliest German towns. Because there were not big industries here it was almost untouched by WWII. Bamberg is magnificently situated on seven hills, each crowned by a beautiful church. Bisected by rivers and canals, the town embraces an atmospheric jumble of crooked lanes, medieval buildings and a skyline punctuated by church steeples'

Our buses were on time as usual and we were transported into town where we met our guide and began to explore. Our guide was a university student studying English. He is a very good student.
He told us a lot about the history as he walked us over the old bridge to view a community called Little Venice. He said it used to be the neighbourhood of poor fishermen but now it is one of the most expensive areas of the city. He said they have a system which controls water flow and the city does not flood.

We walked through town and we headed for the Old Town square and the city hall . We entered the square through a very old arch way. Washrooms costing .50 Euros were available here.

Next stop was the Rose garden. They have 4500 bushes and 42 varieties of roses here and iit was in full bloom when we were there. Wonderful.

We got an amazing view of the entire old city from the walls of the Rose Garden

Our next stop was the Bamberg Cathedral. This is a magnificent 11th century cathedral, and it is beautiful and steeped in charm. It is UNESCO listed and it earned the title of Franconian Rome.

After leaving the cathedral we came to another one of the squares memorializing victims of the Holocaust.

Walking back we got beautiful views of the city.

We walked a couple of blocks to the Green  Market square. It is another beautiful square. It has many stalls and they have very attractive red and white awnings. We found another one of those wonderful ice cream places. We gave in this time and we had a banana split. But at least we shared one.

The market is anchored by the beautiful Saint Martin"s Parish Church. It was an old Jesuit university church. It is lovely. We liked it more than the cathedral.

We walked slowly to get back to the meeting point. We stopped at a local park to have a rest because we were early. This was a green area with a cute little fountain.

We returned in time for lunch.

Lunch was later than we are used to but we enjoyed it. We continue to find that 3 or 4 hours of walking is all we can manage comfortably. The cobble stones are very hard on our feet and legs and we are finding this unseasonably hot weather also tires us. So we happily returned to our cabin to rest.
We really enjoyed the company of Bob and Leah and Darian and Jean. They are 2 couples from California. We seemed to really hit it off. Bob knew of and likes Avions so that sewed up the deal :-)

After dinner we returned to the cabin and enjoyed the sunset.

We will be happy when we are finished with low bridges and they can open the sundeck to the use of the passengers

Tomorrow we are in Wurtzburg.