After the exhaustion and anticipation regarding our apartment move-in (update: The kitchen countertop and cabinets won't be installed until January 13), we had to keep our cabin fever in check-- there was far too much going on here to go road tripping, and we still haven't checked out all Nuremberg has to offer. But with an enforced-- by German law-- vacation period for B and a lull in the construction visits, we decided to check out this here Germany place on a couple day trips.
First off was the city of Bamburg, a UNESCO World Heritage site, owing to its near-intact status (as opposed to destroyed in the war and rebuilt, or new construction posing as old construction). We went on something informally called "the castle road" for a little while which was a winding slow trip through the countryside... with no castles. Hmmm, somebody needs to have the Rick Steves' truth squad look into that-- mind you we weren't on the route all that long. Earliest references of Bamberg date to the 900's, and it's a very nice town indeed. While we went to the equally old and well-preserved city of Rothenberg back in August, I prefer Bamburg-- Rothenburg, for all of its positives tends to come across as an aggressive tourist trap-- think of Colonial Williamsburg with chain mail. No, Bamberg seems to strike the happy medium between working modern city while keeping its well-preserved heritage. We had a late start to the day, so we got there near dusk and marched straight up (up, and up) to its most prominent landmark, the 12th century Michaelsberg monastery on one of the seven hills that surrounds the city. It was in the low-30's when we attemped this, but the good workout was all worth it when we got these great pictures. By the time we got back down to the city proper, it was REALLY cold and dark, so a local dinner at the hipster restaurant frequented by the local university students, and we were on our way back home, but not before we got lost leaving-- yes Virginia, in-car GPS devices don't know when the bridge is out. A few wrong turns later we got straightened out and were back home in 45 minutes. We'll definitely be back.
The following day we went to Munich specifically to see the Deutsches Museum, the European equivalent of the Smithsonian. Hate to say it, but it is all sort of a blur right now. We got up early to catch the earliest train permissible, and it only took 1:46 station-to-station. The Museum was exactly 3 subway stops away (and the subway system connects with the train station), so all we had to do was go downstairs and hop the next U-Bahn, then walk 300 yards to get to the place. Quite impressive-- mix up Chicago's awesome Museum of Science & Industry with Seattle's (Boeing) Museum of Flight, add a pinch of NYC's Museum of Natural History and you're almost there. The place was a zoo however-- lots of folks seemed to have the same idea and took the whole family (bored teenagers too!) along. By 3:00 and after hours of walking through authentic-looking mineshafts, futzing around with Guttenberg printing presses, exploring a recreation of caveman-era dwellings, and enjoying close-ups of all manner of ancient sailing vessels, spacecraft and airplanes we were pooped, and finally took our leave at 4:00-- plenty of time to make our 5:06 train back. We then had the it-was-a-bright-idea-at-the-time to walk back to the train station in 28-degree weather. Now, maybe I'm just an ol' country boy from Nuremberg (population 500,000), but the Munich sidewalks and thoroughfares were utterly packed, probably the densest I've seen in a long time-- mind you, I've been to/lived in New York, DC, Los Angeles, Boston, etc., but this was... really starting to tick me off. We made it back in time alright, but the experience left a negative impression of an otherwise great world city-- I expect that it was a function of everybody being on vacation more than anything else. Finally, a word on European trains: they are some of the cheapest and efficient ways to get from one city to another, and often faster than going by car. We purchased a single "Bayern" (Bavaria) ticket for 28 Euros, and that is good for same-day round trips of up to 5 people (!) per ticket anywhere in Bavaria, plus all surface/local transport (bus, subway) when in the city-- a hell of a deal. Unfortunately, no pictures-- even though we had the "good" camera with us, it was too crowded wherever we went, and I believe we suffered a bit of sensory overload. Sorry everybody-- I have to go back to Munich in February for a work thing, so maybe I'll get a few pics at that time. And we'll also be back to take in the sights of the Munich rather than just one overcrowded destination as well.
