Germany by rail. Destination #11 - Bamberg
Bamberg
Location of photos:
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1. About a half hour after leaving Nuremburg we arrived at Bamberg.
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2. We dropped off our things at our hotel and, as usual, began to explore the Medieval heart of the city. As usual, it was magnificent - in fact, it was a UNESCO World Heritage City. But . . .
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. . . By now they were all starting to look pretty much the same, and their impact on me began to lessen. I was almost disturbed by this feeling of mine -- it was like, "Ho hum, another fantastically quaint city center." I was no longer awed by all this beauty. If you're surrounded by constant beauty, does it cease to become beautiful? As we walked about, I asked Hans and Frans.
"Don't you guys ever get bored of all these quaint towns? I mean, they're quaint, but there's so many of them. I feel like I'm going from one Disneyland fairy tale place to another, and it almost doesn't seem real, and I'm not so awed by them anymore as I was the first few places we went to. It's only when we get to the modern areas and the industrial areas do I feel like these are real, working cities and not some theme park!"
They pondered my question a bit, then finally Franz said, "I suppose you get accustomed to them, but that doesn't mean I don't think they're beautiful, because they are."
Hans then remarked, "You probably have a point. I don't think I truely appreciated how quaint German cities can be until I went to America!" He chuckled, as did Franz and I.
3. Anyway, this was a small city, so we foresaked the car rental and decided to get around via public transit and walking. We walked a bit south of the city center, exploring some more neighborhoods.
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4. After having an early dinner, we then got onto a random bus which brought us to the southern parts of the city. We went by a park.
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5. The bus then went west and passed through some residential areas.
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6. And some more.
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7. And then ended up in the small town of Vildensorg. We had coffee at a cafe here, then took a bus back to the city center and our hotel, and we called it a night.
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8. The next morning we ate breakfast at a cafe near our hotel and decided to rent a car after all. We first drove west and passed through some more newer residential areas. After this there was nothing but farms to the west, so we turned around and headed back east.
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9. And passed by some new construction north of downtown.
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10. And we also drove past the port. A barge was unloading its cargo.
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Scenes like this, as I said, did me the service of reminding me that Bamberg was a real, working city. Perhaps that's why I derived so much pleasure in seeing the large industrial areas!
11. To the north was a sewage treatment plant and some more industry.
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12. But, alas, the mundane landscapes could not last forever. We passed over the river and encountered still another quaint little town.
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13. We continued west for some while but there was only farms and woods. So we headed back over the river, taking the freeway to the north side of town.
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14. We took an exit off the freeway and encountered - you guessed it - another quaint little town.
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15. Heading west on a rural road we saw another.
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16. Beyond that town there was nothing but more farms, so we got back onto the freeway, passing by a large industrial area.
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17. We got off the freeway shortly afterwards and got onto a country road.
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18. And encountered - surprise! - still another cute little town. It was lunchtime now so we stopped at a restaurant here for a bite.
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19. After we finished lunch we drove farther east on the country road and encountered - *yawn* - yet another cute little town.
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20. We drove south across the freeway and passed through yet another one.
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21. Finally we got to one place we had wanted to visit - Seehof Palace, which dates from 1686. We spent about an hour touring it. Beautfiul!
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22. After touring the palace, we drove back toward the center of town, passing by some new apartments that had solar panels on their roofs.
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23. And, farther in, some mundane residential areas. At this point I remarked to Hans and Frans that I noticed a large Bosch plant on the south side of the freeway that we had passed earlier in the day, but I did not get a picture of it. So we made a detour north.
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24. And I got my picture of it to add to my industrial facilities collection. 
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25. It was late in the afternoon and we didn't want to drive around too much anymore, so we headed back to the center of town, passing through some more residential areas.
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26. It was warm that day, and even late in the afternoon there were still people in the swimming pool.
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27. And almost back to our hotel we passed by a strange grain silo. Or, at least it used to be a grain silo. I couldn't tell if it was still one or not! Anyway, we retired to our hotel and Hans and Franz watched another football game that night while I wandered around downtown, window shopping.
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28. The next morning we were looking at a map of Bamberg as we ate our breakfast. I noticed there was a town called "Bug" to the south of the city. I just *had* to see what a town called "Bug" looked like! Well, no surprise, it looked like a zillion other small towns in these parts.
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29. Today was a momentous day for Hans - he was due to get his casts off his that he received in his Munich accident. So we stopped by the hospital so that Hans could undergo his procedure. It turned out that he only sustained a few minor fractures, hence, why the casts could come off so soon!
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30. While me and Franz were awaiting Hans to finish his stay at the hospital, we decided to drive around some more. We first drove through some farms north of the city.
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31. And then passed through a cute neighborhood north of downtown. We then went to pick up Hans at the hospital, ate dinner, had beers at a pub downtown and hit the sack for the night.
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The next morning we handed in our car rental and headed back to the train station: It was now time to go to Erfrut! Bamberg was our 11th city, so we're halfway through our tour. And now, for most of the rest of the trip, we leave what used to be West Germany and head for what used to be East Germany. This should be interesting.
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