Beer and Pasta in Bamberg

I was initially unable to download my photos of Bamberg from my phone to my laptop, but thanks to some stronger internet connections since then, I am have now been able to add some photos in below, and to other posts.

We left Salzburg on a cloudy day but the view of the surrounding Alps was the best we’ve had throughout our entire trip. The mountains stood out blue and distinct, looking almost like a painted backdrop, rather than the real thing.

View of Alps from Bavaria

We kept the mountains with us until we were well past Munich. Once beyond there, the landscape became flat and pretty dull, not helped by the torrential rain hitting the windows of the train. However, after we’d changed trains at Nuremberg, the scene through the window became easier on the eye and the rain stopped and we saw our old friend, the sun, albeit in a  more diluted form than we’d become accustomed to.

One thing I’ve really struggled with has been mentally making the shift from the Italian language to German, which might say something about my inner feelings about leaving behind the lovely weather we were lucky enough to enjoy in Italy and which is already beginning to feel far behind. In terms of language it’s rather ridiculous as I have no Italian apart from what I’ve learned through holiday travel and some transfer across from a reasonable working knowledge of French and a little Spanish, whereas I do have A’ Level German (that’s over 40 years ago, mind you!) and did manage to use it reasonably well when we were in Vienna in 2014. At the moment, despite preparing myself for each encounter in shops, bars & restaurants by internally rehearsing “Guten Morgen” and all the rest of the greetings, as soon as I get past that bit of the conversation I’m saying “Si” rather than “Ja,” and then totally floundering, I must say that most of the Austrian and German people I’ve met have been extremely patient, either coming back to me in flawless English or like the waitress in the cafe this morning, helped me with the German words I can’t retrieve with good natured patience. 

We reached the historic town of Bamberg around 2pm and the apartment we’d booked was a very short walk from the station. We’d been in touch with the reception team a couple of days previously to provide our ETA so we were surprised when we got there to find it all locked up and no-one about. A phonecall to the number on the email informed us that someone was on the way but was stuck in a traffic jam, so to go and find a cafe and return in half an hour. We discovered a couple of minutes away an unusual coffee shop with lots of signs ending in exclamation marks written on blackboards outside that we couldn’t understand, but once inside we found a nice atmosphere, lots of pretty things for sale and very good coffee and cakes, served to us by a friendly young woman.

On returning to the apartments, our host had arrived and we dealt with the formalities quickly, including receiving a complimentary bottle of Bamberg beer each, of which more later. We were given the choice of two empty apartments, both of which were modern, comfortable and well equipped, and we chose the biggest one overlooking the main street. I have to say that the bed in the apartment was probably the most comfortable we’ve had so far on this trip although most have been pretty good.

We wasted no time in taking the 10 minute walk from the apartment to Bamberg’s old town. This involves crossing a bridge over the right arm of the river Regnitz, walking through the town centre which is on an island, then a bridge from the island across to the old town of Bamberg. This is a UNESCO world heritage sight and it is a very beautiful and traditional fairy tale Bavarian town. 

Saint Kunigunda

Grey clouds over Bamberg

Lock in the old town

The old town hall

The shop window of a lacemaker

My husband likened it to the town in the film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” where the children are running away from the town’s sinister Child Catcher and there was a statue of a figure in the old town centre that looked like he could have been a Child Catcher!

There are apparently 11 breweries in the town itself and a very large number of bars, bierkellers, etc and the whole of Germany seemed to be in Bamberg for the weekend, drinking the puzzling range of beers, often accompanied by little glasses of schnapps, in vast quantities. What is surprising is that we didn’t see anyone falling around drunk or making fools of themselves (present company excepted maybe!). The most famous beer of Bamberg is called Rauchbier, or smoked beer. It is made of barley that has been smoked before it’s added to the mash, and tastes like a bitter beer which has had a smoked sausage dipped into it. It’s not unpleasant, but slightly bizarre to our taste. I am not a beer drinker myself so left that side of things to my husband, who has been known to partake of ale now and again. I was able to tell him that dunkel is dark and hell is light, so that helped a bit in differentiating between the different beers, although we got it very wrong on one occasion when he ended up with a bucketful of lager shandy! Lost in translation, obviously! I stuck with wine and tried the local Frankish offerings, mainly white, which were pleasant and the prices were reasonable for both the wine and the beer.

Well, you have to try it

So while we were happy with our accommodation, the beauty of the sights of the town, the beer and the wine, there was one area that didn’t quite work for us, and that’s the all-important area of the food. We like to think that we are quite broad-minded about what we will try, e.g. tripe, nettle pasta, horse stew in Italy; fondue and raclette in Switzerland; Subway sandwich in Austria (well it was a first for me!) but I’m afraid we couldn’t come to terms with the food in Bamberg. All of the bierkellers were cooking and serving the hearty local Frankish cooking and most of the drinkers were enthusiastically tucking into white sausages, pork in every form, massive potato dumplings the size of tennis balls(and looked to be of a similar consistency), sauerkraut and vegetables that tin my husband’s words, “had had the arse boiled out of them,” so the overwhelming smell was of potatoes that had been boiled to a pulp, not really our cup of tea. Writing this, it seems obvious that there is a link between the large-scale drinking, the hearty eating and the exemplary behaviour of the local imbibers as opposed to two amateurs from the UK. We did manage to find something we could both eat but let’s just say that it wasn’t our favourite meal of the trip so far.

Our second, and full, day was grey and we decided to take advantage of not having to rush around as much as we have been doing. We strolled into the town centre and found a very busy bakery/cafe for breakfast, seating ourselves on the only seats at a large table. When some of the seats were freed up, we were joined by a young child accompanied by her Grandparents, clearly out for a Saturday morning of grandparental treats. What she was given to eat was a large bread roll, inside which was what looked like a thick slice of gingerbread, which I thought was a bit odd. However, we realised that it was a 1 inch thick slab of pate or liver sausage balanced between the two halves of the bread. Yum! I was pleased, for her sake that she managed to eat less than a quarter of it and the grandparents had to finish it between them - quite an ordeal! She was then given an apple strudel which hopefully cleansed her palate of the rich meaty treat and she polished off most of that without any help from her elders. 

The rain fell heavily from lunchtime until around 4pm, when the sun came out so we spent the early part of the day working our way around bars (but drinking very slowly this time!) with a couple of coffee stops interspersed, then went further up into the old town to see the cathedral, a beautiful old Abbey and some lovely medieval buildings.

In the grounds of Michaelsberg Abbey

Sunshine after the rain

The town towards dusk

By this time, we were feeling rather hungry but we decided to take the easy way out and headed for an Italian restaurant, which was very crowded, so that must say something, and opted for spaghetti with meatballs for me, pizza for Pete and a glass of house merlot each, before walking back to the apartment to FaceTime my Mum on her 86th birthday, including joining in the cutting of the yummy cake(shame FaceTime doesn’t also enable Tastetime) and Happy Birthday singing, and catching up with other members of the family.

We are now exactly halfway through our trip and next stop is Berlin, so lots to see and do there.

Bamberg: picturesque and hearty

We stayed at the Morello Apartments in Bamberg, which were very comfortable and would be great if you wanted to stay for longer than a couple of nights as you could self-cater. The bed was even comfier than at the Ramada in Salzburg

Food tip: we were there for Friday and Saturday, so during the week might be different, but the bierkellers on both nights were packed and getting a table was a challenge. Many people had pre-booked, so I would advise that making a reservation would be wise. Even in the Italian restaurant we could only have the table for 1.5 hours as it was booked for later on.