Bamberg on the Mein

We promised not to blog unless unusual......well, every little town is unusual and this one is no different.   Bamberg is larger than the last little towns.  Home to Bosch ( 7500 employees ).  They also are the beer capital of upper Franconia. They are known for a specialty beer called smokey beer.  Understand it is an acquired taste.  Mike let me taste his.  Since I am definitely no beer drinker, this smokey taste was actually nice as it covered up the beer taste!!

They export malt to over 132  countries, including the Guiness backup malt. Levi Strauss came from Bamberg....going to San Francisco to sell to the miners in middle 1800s.  Levi denim was designed to be rugged for the miners.  Well, the mining is definitely over, but not Levis!!!!

The town itself is over 1,000 years old, with a history to match.  Situated on the Mein River, this was a medieval trade route. Doubt that these houses are 1,000 years old, but take a look at the roof on the one in the middle house. Houses were like this all over town.

We took a nice guided walking tour as we do in most towns.  This tour finished with nearly 2 hours until the buses arrived to take us to the ship.  We enjoyed a very robust cup of coffee and wonderful German pastry.  Lois even managed to shop a bit.

We managd to tour the " mandatory " cathedral in town as we usually do.  ( ABC )

  

Upon returning to the ship, we enjoyed a talk by a local professor on the European Union.  When she finished, the ship pulled over to the side, she hopped on her bicycle and rode to the train station to return to Nuremburg.

After lunch, we are sailing the remainder of the afternoon and evening and we can enjoy a leisure time on the upper deck.....always watching out for the low bridges and ducking as the captain yells at us.  He can raise and lower the wheelhouse for all the bridges.

This was also a delightful time to check out the cabin balconies as Pat and Joy are doing.