Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Christmas Markets 2018: Day 5...Bamberg

Bamberg.  We had deemed it the unicorn city.  We attempted a visit in 2016 and failed to get there.  We went last year and it did not go at all as planned.  In all honesty, we were just waiting for something to happen to keep us from getting there on this trip.

We thought fate was going to keep us from Bamberg yet again when I could not find the confirmation for our train tickets.  As it would turn out, my credit card declined the purchase due to it being international and I needed to repurchase them after I gave my credit card company the okay.  The confusing part was the transaction appeared to go through online so I did not repurchase.  Alas, we were able to buy tickets to Bamberg with the Bavarian ticket.  It was just a little slower of a train ride than an ICE train, but waaaaayyyy less expensive.

So, we were on our way to Bamberg.  In the daylight.  We were both pretty sure something would happen and keep us from finally making it there.  Imagine our surprise when we got off the train and realized, we had made it!

We left the train station and started walking towards the old town.  Our plan for the day was to visit a few breweries and visit the Christmas market.

Our first stop was Schlenkerla for their famous smoked beer, the Maerzen.  Ken enjoys this beer, but I do not really care for it much.  It has a very strong smoked taste, but this is the famous beer of the Franconia area.

Schlenkerla

I love the signs of the breweries in this region

We left the brewery and walked around the river.  We found some really adorable houses near the water.

Some of the darling houses in Bamberg

Wandering around the old town

We finally got to see the old town hall in the daylight.  This was one of the best parts of the day.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip.  I am so glad we finally got to see Bamberg during the daylight!

The buildings are so beautiful and elaborate

The detail on these buildings are unreal.  Bamberg was untouched during WWII, so it is all original. 

Some of the Christmas details around town

We wandered our way all the way to Klosterbrau, which is one of the breweries we wanted to visit and did not get to.  


Klosterbrau

This was my favorite brewery of all in Bamberg.  I am not a big beer drinker, but I really enjoyed the beer I tried at this brewery.

Cheers from Bamberg!

Ken was very happy to be spending the day in Bamberg.

The funniest part of the day were the men behind Ken in the picture above.  They were having so much fun at the brewery and laughing so hard.  At one point one of the guys clasped his hands together like he was praying and was leaned over the table looking at me shouting "bitte, bitte!" (please, please) while his friends were all turned and staring at me.  Now, I know just a bit of German, but I have no idea what was going on.  Ken and I started laughing so hard and I told them that I speak English.  

They continued their antics and when we left, I spoke a little German to them.  I have no idea what was going on, but I think they kind of liked me just a bit.  

We left the brewery and went to the market for food.  The breweries in Germany usually stop serving food after a certain time and we were unable to get lunch so we were starving!

Seeing the streets of Bamberg made my day

The details of the signs is something I wish we did more in the US

The Bamberg market winds around the old town.  These were some of my favorite stahls

The Bamberg tree.  We saw this in the rain and the dark last year, so it was quite spectacular that we could see it again before the sun went down.


We chose market food for dinner.  Ken got some delicious fish and I chose curry wurst.  The market food is so amazing.  We had a little gluhwein and gingerbread for dessert.

Loving Bamberg so much!

We spent the rest of the night wandering around the market drinking gluhwein.  It was all we could ever ask for.  We ended the night back at Schlenkerla for Ken to have one final Maerzen.



The Bamberg Christkindlmarkt




Ken and his love for beer.


We left Bamberg feeling so grateful to have gotten to truly visit.  It was such a great day to be in Bamberg.

Up next, Mittenwald!

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