Bamberg

The Saturday after we got to Germany, we drove up to Bamberg. Bamberg is a cute little Bavarian town with little cobblestone streets and cute old-world buildings. It was one of the few medieval towns in Germany not destroyed during WWII. Zach's sister and her boyfriend both used to live in Bamberg, so we met them up there so they could show us the town. Our hotel, the Hotel St. Nepomuk, was formerly a grain mill and actually hangs out into the river running through town. The room was a little old, and warm (see previous post's discussion re: no air conditioning), but it was clean, reasonably priced, and included breakfast. Plus, you couldn't beat the view!

It would have been hard to find the hotel, if not for the GPS software Zach bought for his PDA. It kept telling us to turn onto increasingly narrow streets until we got to a dead end. Turns out this was the entrance to the "parking garage" at the rear of the hotel. I doubt we would have found it any other way, since all other approaches to the hotel are pedestrian only--GPS rocks! The garage was ridiculously small and had lifts so they could stack cars two high. Our car fit into a space with inches to spare. Zach had the attendant park it, and he and another hotel guest directed. I swear it took them about 10 minutes to get the car perfectly positioned. I stood outside; I couldn't bear to watch! Later that day, we moved the car to a municipal parking garage that was a 5-minute walk away; better to have a short walk than a bleeding ulcer everytime you park!

Bamberg had its share of World Cup fever (some games were played in nearby Nuremburg). Flags from all the participating countries were strung across the street near the marketplace. Germany was playing Sweden that afternoon, and we saw some folks escaping the heat of the indoors by bringing their couch, tv, oscillating fan, and coffee table (oh, and some extension cords) out onto the sidewalk to watch the game! After walking around Bamberg and a quick trip to America (AKA the Army base shoppette for water, a couple toilettries, a couple plug converters, and an ATM), we had dinner outside a little Italian restaurant. Right before dinner Germany won over Sweden, and pandemonium erupted in the tiny streets of Bamberg. During the whole two hours of our dinner, we were treated to an impromptu parade of cars and motorcycles honking, yelling, singing, and flag waving. Even the polizei got into it (normally, honking your horn for no reason is a ticketable offense). After dinner we walked to another cafe and watched Mexico lose to Argentina. I was rooting for Mexico, but oh well. I also drank a Rauchbier, the local smoked beer. The other Stephanie described it as "ham in a glass", and it kinda was. Not undelicious.

Pictures here. Next entry: Nuremburg.