Bamburg

This morning we had a ship's demostration on making the popular pastry which once belonged to the Austrian-Hungarian empire, apple strudel. I am not sure if I could replicate this yummy dessert once I arrive back home, but will give it a go.

After a Bavarian lunch on board the ship we explored Bamburg on foot. Countless architectural and artistic treasures have made this city memorable. I had actually lost track of where we had been and which towns/cities' interesting attractions would be next. So when we arrived at Bamberg I had the surprise of finding it was the place with the Old City Hall constructed on a bridge. It is quite quaintly situated with a fresco painted on the side of the building. When we stood at the front of the building we could see how a kayaking course  'mapped' out over the river which flows on either side of the Old City Hall. Opposite is a group of former fisherman's houses lining the bank called 'Little Venice'.

The city has ten independent breweries. The popular Bamberg speciality is the 'smoke beer', an almost black ale made using a smoked malt recipe almost 5 centuries old. White sausages and liver dumplings served with sauerkraut are the areas specialities.

Once we had finished our walking tour we headed back to one of the marketplaces we were to regroup before returning to the ship.  DH settled down to enjoy a local beer and myself a cuppaccino. The large coffee was huge, too much for me to finish, the beer was served room temperature which caught DH off-guard, but he did finish it over, what I considered, a fairly long period!