Bamburg, funny name ‘cuz it rhymes with umburg.

Bamberg is an amazingly historic place: the entire old town (consisting of 2400 buildings) is a UNESCO World Heritage site (there are a lot of single World Heritage buildings and monuments, but very few entire towns have earned the distinction). Some of the existing buildings go back 1000 years, with many medieval buildings, and later ones (17^th & 18^th century) as well.

Let’s just start with the coolest site: The Rathaus (that word still makes me laugh), or Town Hall. It’s a building from the 1300’s that was built right over the river. The frescoes on the outside were done later, in the baroque style.

This is the view of the same building from the bridge that it sits on – there’s a tunnel through a building, on the bridge:

These frescoes on the exterior wall were done in the 1600's:

This is one of the hallmarks of the period: there’s a plaster leg protruding from the painting - strange.

Near the Rathaus is “Little Venice,” so named because there are pretty buildings right on the water – it’s close, except the building are much more Bavarian.

We passed through this beautiful square that shows the style of much of the city:

We passed through this beautiful chuch:

We also spent a little time in this cool shop with the original built-in shelves of an old apothecary shop – now they sell tea, spices, and lots of cute things.

We had an amazing Bavarian lunch in a beautiful old building:

Then we went “up the hill” (one of the 7 hills of the town) to see the Imperial Cathedral, with 4 spires. Sorry the picture is sideways, I can NOT get it to turn the right way.

It was founded in 1007 by Heinrich II, and contains the tomb of Clemens II. It’s a huge building with a lot of impressive carving…

…Including this “horseman.” It is dated to the 12^th century, and it is one of the best pieces of the time. The identities of both the subject and the sculptor remain a mystery.

Next we walked past the New Residence, in the baroque style:

Then we walked through the impressive archway into the Old Court:

Another Church –this one is part of a monastery – St. Michael’s

This church is really distinctive because it has 578 different plants/herbs painted on the ceilings. It is believed that each one has a symbolic meaning, but Vince’s theory is that the artist just like plants (and knew a lot about them).

From the hill, the view of the city is stunning:

And so ended another great daytrip with Cornelia. We tried to put on a brave face (and as many layers of clothes as possible!), but I think that these 2 California kids are pretty wimpy in the cold weather.