Bamberg Day Trip

And a day trip it was! As our time in Germany is winding down, we have been trying to maximize our weekends with day trips. Bamberg is a town in Bavaria that we have heard great things about, but have yet to go there, until now.

We had a naturally late start to our day because we had to cancel our internet and the shop didn't open until 10:00 a.m. After we took care of that we grabbed some breakfast since we knew our train wouldn't be leaving for an hour and a half. Theoretically we should have had plenty of time to eat and drive to Freihung, where we would then catch the train. Little did we know it would take the bakery about 30 minutes to make our hot breakfast, so we were now a bit behind schedule. Have no fear, GPS will lead us right to the train station, we can buy tickets and hop on, no problem, right? Not so much. Freihung decided to have 2 Bahnhof streets in its town, which confused our poor GPS, so we arrived at the wrong address with what would have been plenty of time to catch the train, and then had to frantically search for the right address. Once we arrived there the train had just left minutes earlier. So, we took a walk around Freihung waiting for the next train. Once we were safely on the train, all was not well yet, because now the railway decided to have delays and track changes. So, when we finally arrived in Bamberg, we didn't have as much of the day as we would have liked, but we were determined to make the best of it.

Our first stop was the Fassla Brewery, the oldest brewery in Bamberg. It has been around since 1649, and it had some delicious beer.

We had 2 choices, lager or pils. I chose lager.

Prost!

Brewery Fassla

After enjoying a few beers we walked to the Domplatz area. Along the way we found several landmarks.

Brauerei Spezial
The second of 11 breweries in Bamberg

Representing the Buffs for Rocky Mountain Showdown weekend!

Bamberg University

Rathaus

Hofbrau (third brewery)

Bamberg Cathedral

Alte Hofhaltung (courtyard)

In the distance, Altenburg (a castle)

Walking back to Domplatz

Neue Residenz

Walking to the gardens

Garten

Michaelsberg Abbey in the background

Gasthausbrauerei Ambrausianum
(Guest House Brewery and the fourth one that we saw)

We decided to eat at Ambrausianum, and it was a wise decision. I had spatzle (again) and bratwurst, while Justin enjoyed some flammkuchen (we have to keep soaking up our German food). We also tried rauchbier, which is smoked beer. It is the type of beer Bamberg is known for. The overall smokey flavor was a little heavy, and quite honestly, it was not my favorite beer, but Justin liked it.

Delicious!

Rauchbier

After dinner we had to beeline it back to the train station so we wouldn't miss our train back to Freihung. We double checked the times, the schedule, the platforms, etc. to make sure we knew exactly what to do to make it home. We even printed off a schedule from the ticket counter to make sure we didn't forget anything. Despite being as prepared as possible, somehow we never made it to Freihung via the train. The trains were delayed again, and even though we boarded the train that was supposed to stop at Freihung (according to what we printed off and to the charts in the station), for some reason it didn't. In fact, it missed a few other stops along the way too. We weren't sure exactly what happened, but we ended up getting off the train at Amberg and taking a taxi to our car in Freihung. Not a big deal, but it makes public transportation seem a bit less desirable. And it made our trip home from Bamberg much longer (and more expensive) than it needed to be. Regardless, we still had a great time. German food and beer trumps most problems!