SPLENDOURS OF EUROPE - Part 4

"Bamberg, Germany is built on seven hills and is often compared to Rome, also built on 7 hills and with its mixture of religious and administrative buildings dating back to the Middle Ages."   germansights.com

Bamberg is a UNESCO World Heritage site which has very diverse architecture.

Bischofspflatz - The Renaissance Old Court 15th C

The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. George  1237 AD

Ornate city gate

The Rose garden and statues at the 17th C. New Bishops Residence. The rose garden has over 4500 bushes which were just beginning to bloom. What a gorgeous, perfumed sight it would be mid-summer.

It was fun to read German signs and do our best to interpret them.  In the Middle Ages the signage was often characterized with figures as many people could not read. Here we have Scheiners Gaststuben which would be guest rooms.

The area around Bamberg is known for its beers with this city having its specialty of

Rauchbier (smoke beer). There were groups of men standing outside taverns with their beer steins snd the favourite accompaniment of Bavarian Weisswurste (white sausage)

                                                         Frescoes on the Old City Hall

Walking through a shopping area I noted these modest cotton dresses.

The Old slaughter house built in 1742 is now a building of the University of Bamberg

The origins of Nuremberg go back a 1000 years. The' Golden Years' of the city were a symbol of German culture through the expression of Renaissance artists such as Albrecht Durer and composer Richard Wagner.  Nuremberg also was an important centre of the Reformation in 1525.

Nuremberg also attracted Hitler's Nazi party for its annual rallies resulting in the merciless Allied bombings reducing the city to rubble. After the Nuremberg trials in 1942 the city began a major reconstruction program to restore the city to much of its former glory.

A glimpse of the bridge over the Pegnitz River

The Imperial Castle of Nuremberg

 

Overlooking the city from the castle wall.

The hike down from the castle wall over varied cobblestones.

St Sebaldus Cathedral 

Famous clock on the church of Our Lady 1509

At 12 noon the Glockenspiel plays while the seven Imperial Elders file past the Emperor

My video did not translate onto the blog post.

Grotesque statue remembering the Black Plague

The beauty of a flower market to brighten the sombre mood of the black statue.

Leaving Nuremberg with this pretty setting.

Back on the ship there were preparations going on in the lounge and we soon understood what it was to be. We had arrived at the Leerstetten lock, the highest on the Danube River with a rise of 81 feet. We were all invited up on the sundeck where we toasted the occasion with Blue Danube champagne.

The construction of the Rhine/Danube canal with it's 68 locks was completed in 1962. My hand behind the camera looks quite old and wrinkled much like the flow of the Danube. 

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