Something more than basketball

The only thing I knew about Bamberg before 2009 was that it has a remarkable basketball team: Brose Basket Bamberg (BBB in its funny acronym in English). But I was wrong because Bamberg has much more to offer. For example, it holds the tomb of the only pope buried north of the Alps in its cathedral, where also the famous (and simple) "Bamberger Reiter" is hosted.

River Reignitz crosses the city as well as the Main-Donau-Kanal. The old town hall is in a bridge on the Reignitz. It was decided that way because the major did not want to favour any side of the river, and therefore, he followed, from a certain point of view, the doctrine of King Solomon. Certainly, the view of the town hall is really impressive.

Going uphill from the town hall, one reaches the cathedral, where, as I said before, we have the tomb of the only pope buried north to the Alps. Moreover, the cathedral has other remarkable jewels, like the beheaded statue of Saint Dennis being received in heaven by an smiling angel. I find this a bit cruel, it is not fair to smile to a beheaded person, even if you are granting him the Kingdom of Heaven.

Close to the cathedral, on the way uphill, we find the Michaelkloster, which is really impressive and which allows nice pictures to be taken from the Rosengarten, close to the cathedral. Neither my friend Timo nor me could understand the purpose of these wooden boxes in the picture below. The stupid in me says they are the toilets, but it is not such a good guessing, after all.The city centre of Bamberg survived the Second World War without much damages and therefore most of the houses really come from the Middle Age. In most of the restaurants there, one can taste the "Rauchbier" (something like "smoky beer"), the typical beer brewed in Bamberg. It is so famous that I even tasted it. It tastes something different as the normal beer and I think that is why I did not find it so disgusting. In fact, the restaurant where I had dinner is the one in the picture on the right.

So, to sum up, I strongly recommend a visit to Bamberg, an extremely cosy and comfortable city in the heart of Germany, not crowded with tourists. My Lonely Planet guide of Germany mentions it three times as a must-see and I must admit that it is the German city I have enjoyed the most, probably tied with Heidelberg.