Just when you thought you’d seen them all, along comes another old Bavarian city with even more unique features. This morning we docked in Bamberg, founded in 902, and famous for its symphony orchestra (which we didn’t get to hear) and a specialty smoked beer, called Rauchbier which we didn’t get to taste. I wonder if that is the origin of the word “rauchy”.
The old homes along the river which were once the “bad part of town” became the most sought after homes after the river was cleaned up (kinda’ like Brooklyn, NY). This city was basically untouched during WWII, because it had no strategic significance during the War.
Used to be, this was where all the waste water was dumped making the river very polluted and the smell only added to the unpleasantness. But as you can see, these homes are now lovely and quite hard to buy and are beautifully maintained.
As with so many of the countries we visited, the old town sections have very narrow cobblestone streets. 
Building at end of street is Town Hall of Bamberg
In Bamberg, we noticed very little delineation between sidewalks and streets. In fact, in some places, the only clue you had that you were walking in the street were these metal discs identifying the “curb”.
It was raining on this day, and we were leaving at 2 PM, so we only had a few hours to explore Bamberg and all its rich history. The one site very much worth seeing was the 11th-century Cathedral of Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich II. Like so many of the Cathedrals in Europe where they boast of housing the bones and relics of saints and clergy, this church houses the tomb of Pope Clement II. This seemed a little creepy to me, but what do I know being an unsophisticated American.
One of the entrances to Cathedral
Emperor and wife buried in the Cathedral
The second highlight of Bamberg is its city hall. Since the city lies on both sides of the Regnitz River, when it came time to build it in the 14th century, they could not decide which side to build it on and at the time, the taxes being charged for a new building were exorbitant.
Bamberg Town Hall built in middle of Regnitz river
They came to a perfect solution: They built a bridge across the Regnitz and a city hall on a manmade island in the middle serving both sides and not subject to the taxes. Seems to me there were clever, greedy Capitalist even in the 14th century.
The Schlenkeria is the brewery tavern where the smoked beer was created and is still tapped from wooden barrels. We were told it tastes like smoked bacon and I did regret not tasting it.
Oh well, next time!
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