While we were spending an extended weekend in Nuremberg, I couldn’t resist a quick trip to this Bavarian-Franconian hidden gem – Bamberg, a town inhabited and flourishing from the 1000 CE. A major part of the town is marked as a UNESCO World Heritage site and quite appropriately so with its magnificent half-timbered houses and beautiful views across its waterline. Its just about 30 mins from Nuremberg on the high speed ICE and 40 mins on the slower RE trains.
Quick transport tip in Germany
Try to avoid the S-bahn when in Germany as these are the slowest ones and stop at every stop on the way.
Read about my entire stay in Nuremberg in a separate blog post coming up soon.
More on Bamberg.
Right after alighting from the train, we headed straight for the Bamberger Dom (the Bamberg Cathedral), which is about a 25 – 30 min walk from the main station. The walk was completely worth our time because it crossed right through the city centre and helped us orient with the city right away. Right before we entered the city centre we crossed the Kettenbrucken or the Chain bridge (almost every major city in Europe has one by this name). Although of no particular historic significance, this bridge almost serves as a gateway into the city centre.
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On the way we passed the beautiful statue of The Human face by Igor Mitoraj, the Maximilian Fountain in Maximiliansplatz with the centre statue of King Max I Joseph flanked by statues of other important figures of Bamberg history, the statue of Neptune with his Trident. And then as we entered the main market square, we couldn’t but find one of the oldest breweries in Germany – Brauerei Spezial, brewing a special smoked beer for the last 500 years. If you fancy your beer, you cannot miss this place and unmissable it is, as it is always pouring with people, pun intended. Just round the corner from there and a short climb up a flight of stairs, we finally came to Dom Platz, housing the Bamberger Dom, Historisches Museum and the Neue Residenz.
The Bamberger Dom is a treasure trove of art with the life size equestrian statue of a Bamberg Horseman and the amazing carved tombs of the founders of the cathedral so don’t forget to spend some time marveling at its splendor. We then walked up the Kolster St Michael, which is about another 15 mins of walk but unfortunately much of it was under repair so we didn’t have a very good look.
Before we knew, it was already time for us to get back to Nuremberg and so we made our way back to the rail station but not before soaking in the views of the river Regnitz across Bamberg’s beautiful bridges.
