Bamberg

We were laughed at by a bartender for pronouncing Bamberg this way: "Bam-berg." Apparently, you say it this way: "Bam-berg." I have no idea what the difference is. It's a very nice city, though, and that bartender was a jerk.It was a rainy day, but not soaking-wet. We were able to wander around and feel good about being outside as long as we ducked into a cafe or braueri every so often. The river was roaring through town - the water seemed very high - and there were a lot of people in the narrow streets. The building above is the town hall, and it was very cool. We went in and poked around their collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century porcelain, almost by ourselves.
There were lots and lots of tourists. They walked around in silent groups, all listening to little earbuds that were receiving some kind of signal from the tourguides, who were speaking into microphones. Some of the guides wore powdered wigs, which were getting very wet.
The buildings were really fun to look at and are all mostly original - Bamberg wasn't roughed up much in the war.
We stopped in at a restaurant for lunch and had some predictably heavy food and some rauchbier, or "smoke beer," which tastes exactly like what it sound like. It's a beer that's been smoked. More precisely, it's brewed with malt that's been smoked over beechwood logs. It's a local thing, and it was interesting. Rebecca didn't like it because it reminded her of ham.
We headed up onto the hill to see one of the cathedrals, the Bamberger Dom. It was quite ornate and it was full of people, including Pope Clement II. Actually, he was dead, but his remains are interred in the building. His is the only papal tomb north of the alps. We took quite a few pictures of a tomb that we thought was his, but it turned out to be some bishop. The real tomb was up behind the altar, where you couldn't really see it.
We were impressed by the organ, which was suspended up at the top of the space. We were sad to have missed the concert that happened half an hour before we showed up.

We got back to our gasthof and had a comforting dinner of things we'd gathered in Bamberg and Kipfenberg, plus wine from the Moselle valley. Blood sausage, some organic cheese from the Bavarian alps, apple, avocado, walnut bread and "winter mustard." The mustard is mixed with apple preserve and mulling spices - the verdict: it somehow reminds of Christmas.