It was time to leave Rothenburg and get on the train for the next segment of our journey. After another hearty breakfast at the hotel we walked our suitcases and backpacks over to the train station for the 10:05.
On to .. Steinach for the 1st leg.
Boarded the 10:31/RE20 for the next leg to .. Wurzburg, then the 11:39/RE54 to Bamberg, arriving at 12:32.
Arrived in Bamberg ready to start discovering this beautiful city.
The hotel was a 1.4 km walk from the train station, approx. 15-min. After leaving our luggage with the hotel we started touring. The hotel is located in the heart of the downtown area and very close to their old town.
Bamberg is a very interesting city! Henry II, Duke of Bavaria, became king of Germany in 1007 and he wanted to make Bamberg the '2nd Rome'. Bamberg extends over seven hills, each crowned by a church. You'll see several in this post.
oh, by the way, the weather was fantastic today !
We were lucky in our reconnoitering and found a market square with a very interesting church ..
The church in the background is the .. Church of St.Martin, the city's only baroque style, built between 1686 and 1693. It has an awesome interior!
Afterwards we headed across another river to more sights. The following pictures are of Bamberg's most famous sight, the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall), which sits on its own island in the River Regnitz.
Both sides of the building are covered with murals.
Then we started the long ascent to see how many of the hills and churches we could see before dinner. The first one was the Romanesque Bamberg Cathedral of St.Peter and St.George, construction completed in the 13th century.
Inside on the left is an intricate carving by Veit Stuss made in 1520-23, the Altar of the Virgin Mary, which originally was the high alter at the Carmelite Church in Nuremberg. When Nuremberg turned protestant, the altar was brought to Bamberg in 1530.
Continuing up to another hill we saw .. St.Jakob Church, originally finished in 1109 but restored in Gothic style in the 15th century.
With our heads still spinning after viewing all of these gorgeous interiors we went outside and started up the hill and looked across and saw ..
This is the Michelsberg Monastery, a former Benedictine abbey. It was closed undergoing extensive repairs and restoration. We trekked up there to find this out! Yikes!! We enjoyed some great views of the city!
Looking across to the Bamberg Cathedral :
This is what the complex looks like when it's available to visitors :
Down the hill we trudged .. back to our hotel, a few last pic's :
Annelise was very impressed with the carving by Veit Stuss.
ReplyDeleteMatt and I enjoyed seeing your Bamberg pictures; we were there in 2009! The kids say "We love you Grandpa. We enjoyed the blog!" Matt says "be sure to try some rauch bier - it's unique to Bamberg."
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