Bamberg

-
We visited Bamberg two days prior to my birthday. It is a Bavarian town honoured with UNESCO for its authentic medieval appearance.  It is also called Bavaria Rome as it has seven hills around.
It took half hour to 45 minutes by train from Nürnberg to Bamberg.  It's quite some distance to walk to the town centre. Never mind, the buildings on the way are beautiful.

Our first important tourist spot is the town hall (Rathus), built on River Regnitz.  Originally it's Gothic style but later added with Baroque and Rococo elements. The Fachwerk part hanging over the river is the point which most photographed.  But the main building is also very beautiful.  Don't overlook it.

 

We soon moved to the square where the Cathedral stands.  The square is huge. Surrounding are the old court (Alte Hofhaltung), New Residenz and Rose Garden.  The Cathedral was founded in 1004 by the emperor Henry II.  Inside stand many gorgeous sculptures.  Of the most importance are the tomb of the founder with his wife and the Bamberg Horseman.

 

After visiting the Rose Garden we ascended towards the Michaelsberg Abbey.  If you want a more comfortable trip, you can opt for a short bus ride.  But we walked as my companion always prefers walking, like his feet conquering all the difficult paths.

 
 

At time the abbey was closed.  The view over the town was nice and so as the abbey with its surrounding.   We settled at a opened cafe nearby to appreciate the beauty.   I had a humble vegetable soup and my friend luxurious ice cream with banana and rich cream.



Good food came with a cost: next is to walk to another hill - Altenburg.  It was barren, hot and exhausting!  Descending to the town and then ascending to Altenburg. And it's quite steep. But the view back to the town was gorgeous.  Yes, one can drive up but will not enjoy the great views and burn energy.

The castle is quite small.  Walk around, climb the tower to have a panoramic view of the other side of Bamberg - green, green and green.  There is no cafe but vending machine for drinks or ice cream. 


We still visited a few churches before we headed back to the town centre.   The most memorable one is Carmelite Monastery St. Theodor.  The Romanesque columns and arches dated from 14th century are beautiful art pieces. Next to the it is a shop selling the produce from the monastery, the city and nearby.  The scent was nice. Other churches visited are: Kirche des chem. Chorherrenstifts St. Gangolf u. Maria, Obere Pfarre and St. Stephen.



We had an early dinner at Schlenkerla, a popular local and traditional restaurant.  Its smoked beer is among the 50 best beer in the world. Our table is in the biergarten.   Both of us ordered meat: pork knuckle and shoulder.  Our food was served super quick.  They were lovely, with sauerkaut.  But fries were around at time, July 2015.


The last tourist spot of the day is the Little Venice (Klein Venedig).  It's romantic!  A row of houses dated from 17th century stand on the eastern side of river Regnitz.  We saw residents there using small boats to move around.




Time flied.  We had to hurry back.  Here is almost the last big square we passed through. And I always like the German shop signs, very characteristic and sometimes cute.








Location: Bamberg, Germany

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Croatia Trip - Split - Baptistery & Mt. Marjan

-
Image
In the 5th morning we visited the temple of Jupita (Baptistery), Meštrović museum and hiked up to Mt Marjan.  The baptistery is for total immersion.  It is beautifully crafted.  Next to it is a statue of Saint John the Baptist.  Meštrović museum is detailed in another section.  Please refer to Day 5 Split - Ivan Mestrovic We started the climb of Mt. Marjan around midday.  The sun was high.  The ascend was quite steep.  But the view over the town was spendid.  The path was barren.  We hardly saw any people, perhaps one workman who was on duty.  There were some Romanesque churches along the way.  The first one looked bright white under the sun.  It's beautiful.   Continued on the white 'sandy' path, second and third churches came into view.  Hu hu, destination reached!  For a while the sky turned cloudy.  It did not rain, fortunately.  We went to a public swimming place to immerse into the water after the sweating walk.  Yeah yeah we did not know previously
Read more

Kbal Spean

-
Image
Kbal Spean is a unique archaeological site situated 50km from the Siem Reap.   Religious stone cravings sit on the river banks and bed, 150m stretch of the Stung Kbal Spean River.     Kbal Spean is commonly known as the "Valley of a 1000 Lingas " or "The River of a Thousand Lingas". Lingas are phallic representations sacred to Brahmanism.   It is a symbol of fertility.   Hundreds of them are carved into the rock of the river.   Other carvings include gods such as Vishnu , Shiva , Brahma and animals. To appreciate the beautiful carvings in the nature, one has to climb a trek for around 30 minutes.   Exhausted but worthwhile. Reclining Vishnu is often the theme of carvings.   Others include Shiva and Uma mounted on the bull, Brahma on a lotus petal and still others which I can't figure out exactly. Animals, lingas, yoni dot here and there.            Downdream is a waterfall. On the way is another spot with carving
Read more

Marshal Zen Garden Beitou 北投少帥禪園

-
Image
Marshal Zen Garden was built during the Japanese-colonised period of the 1920's.  It was renowned for the hot spring and was used as the entertainment hub of the Japanese pilots during the end of the World War II. In the 1960's, it was used to confine Marshal Chang Xue-liang and his wife Zhao Di. We checked in in our hotel Double Inn and was driven there.  The environment is very soothing with a lot of green, flowers and typical Japanese set up. We first enjoyed our afternoon tea after travelling straight from Alishan to Chiayi to Taipei. You can visit the Zen Garden if you hold a booking of  the tour, hot spring or restaurant. It was very nice to enjoy the afternoon in its tea house  小六茶舖. It's cosy and the food was superb, good value for the money. NTD900 for two. Marshal Chang and his wife were detained at the Zen Garden for decades.  Though it was years ago, the exhibition of his room, photos and his life made me feel the loss of
Read more