We cruised overnight and through the next morning down the Main going through many locks on the way.

Bamberg is a beautiful city. The architecture is a mixture of Medieval and Baroque.  We arrived at around noon, after packing our bags in the morning.  After lunch, we boarded the bus and headed out for a walking tour.  We have been in the G (gentle) group for the walking tours.  It tends to be shorter and moves more slowly which is fine with us. We were dropped off in Schillerplatz and then walked past the ETA Hoffman theater.  Hoffman, author of the Nutcracker and the Mouse King, lived in Bamberg for a while, but didn’t like it and was not liked by the theater company he had been hired to direct.

Then we walked through what had been the Jewish quarter before they were expelled in the fourteenth century.  They came back after the Thirty Years War and became quite prosperous, but then were caught and transported in WWII.  Now the community has as many members as it did in the early 1940s, and has a new synagogue, which we didn’t see, to replace the one destroyed by the Nazis.

We continued on and stopped outside a brew house that had been there since medieval times, and again saw the symbol for brewers, which is the same as a star of David, but has alchemical significance marking the three ingredients of beer, malt hops and water, and the three elements involved in its production, earth fire and water.  The local beer is called Rauchbier or smoke beer.  The malt is dried over a wood fire imparting a very smoky taste to the beer. Then we walked to the Obsplatz or fruit market and were given an hour and a half to explore.  We started with the bakery-café and had a fantastic cake and some coffee in the outdoor café on what was a beautiful 72 degree day. 

Smoked beer

Then I walked up to the cathedral while BJ sat and read. 

On the way back down from the cathedral, I had just enough time to stop at the brew house and sample a Rauchbier.  I liked it and would not be averse to drinking it again, despite what the cruise director, our tour guide, and our chef said.  Hurrying, I made it back to our meeting point just in time to head back to the bus and the ship.

Tomorrow we have to have our luggage outside the room at 8.  Then Nuremberg for the WWII tour followed by a 3 hour bus ride from Nuremberg to Passau and our new ship.