Now for Bamberg

Bamberg is built on 7 hills on each of which is a church.  It is relatively small with 70,000 inhabitants (of which a high proportion are students) and NINE breweries!  It is famous as a beer town, and like so many places is listed as UNESCO World Heritage.  It is known for "smoked beer", which came about in a very interesting way.  A brewer (who was quite a mean and frugal man) experienced a fire in his brewery.  He did not want to waste the ingredients for the beer, so brewed it anyway.  Today the beer is made to taste "smoked" on purpose.

The town hall was built in the centre of the river on stilts.  The reason?  The mayor gave the people permission to build the hall, but not on any of his land.  So they were clever enough to come up with a way around the problem!

The cathedral dates from 1012, and like so many others was partially destroyed by fire and then rebuilt.  Bamburg is one of the few towns which escaped major bombing during WWIi.

Walking on the pavement here is fraught with danger.  The pavement has a section designated as a cycle path, and cyclists rank walkers as well down the pecking order.  Just walking along the footpath is extremely dangerous because cyclists travel quite fast and do not swerve or stop.  No helmets of course, like everywhere else.

After lunch (yet more food!) we listened to a talk by a history professor about the political history of Europe leading to the EU today.  It was very interesting and informative.

Small rivers divide the town into several parts.

They call this area "Little Venice".

The old slaughter house where the left overs were thrown into the creek.

They take pride in colour on their houses.

The main church with a different location for the organ.

The town hall.

Another view of the town, built in the river !!

A peaceful resting place near the town square.

Judy looking at the Steins.

The Messerschmitt Hotel.

View from the church over the town of Bamberg.