The Albino Squirrels: Bavaria Expedition: Bamberg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber

When I first found out that I was spending my summer in Europe, I wanted to go everywhere. My last visit to Europe as an eight year old left me with limited memories and a whole lot of awkward family photos. Despite knowing that it was not feasible, I came to Germany wanting to travel all over Europe. After arriving in Germany, I realized that…Germany – there are so many beautiful cities to see in Germany. Since then, I’ve spent a good majority of my weekends exploring Germany.

The weekend after our Berlin trip, a few of us had decided to go on a “Bavaria Expedition.” After talking to a lot of my lab-mates about traveling within Germany, they had all suggested cities in Bavaria. We picked two cities: Bamberg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Bamberg: It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz. Its historic city center is listed UNESCO world heritage site.

Our first stop was Bamberg. With my slight obsession for Venice, all I really wanted to see in Bamberg was Klein-Venediga, which is a colony of picturesque fishermen’s homes from the 19th century along one side of the river. A trip is not complete without going the wrong direction and/or getting lost for quite some time. In our attempts to find Klein-Venedig, we found a graffiti wall with some pretty interesting graffiti. But we did it – we found Klein-Venedig, and it was absolutely breathtaking.

“I’m free” – Bamberg Graffiti Wall

Klein-Venedig

We then visited the Bamberg Cathedral, which holds the tombs of emperor Henry II and Pope Clement II. I was very fascinated by the architecture of the cathedral. It was beautiful, like most cathedrals I’ve seen here, but it was different. Usually, I’m pretty decent at figuring out the style a building has been constructed in, but I was having a hard time trying to pin down a style for this one. Later, I looked it up and learned that due to the long construction process of this cathedral, several styles were used in different parts of the cathedral, in particular, Romanesque and Gothic.

Bamberg Cathedral

Heading back to the train station, we came across this little…antique bookstore. We initially went inside for postcards and other souvenirs, but towards the back of the store, we found a bookstore. It was a bookstore worth mentioning.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber: It is a well-preserved medieval old town located in Franconia. From late Middles Ages to 1803, Rothenburg was a Free Imperial City.

Our next stop was Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Most of the people I had talked to around here told me to make sure that I went to Rothenburg for it’s historical importance and beauty. It was described to me as “Germany’s Fairy-Tale Town.” Our first destination was the Rothenburg Town Walls. We walked most of the way around the walls getting a good overview of the little town. Brief history lesson: During World War II, Rothenburg’s medieval town walls were destroyed and the mayor of the town asked for donations from town citizens and visitors to rebuild the wall to its former glory. The wall in its entirety, approx. 3 km long, is covered in plaques to honor people who made the donations.

Walking along the Rothenburg Town Walls

While walking along the Town Walls, we discovered the Spital Bastion. Disclaimer: I didn’t actually know what it was called until five seconds ago. Stepping into the bastion was like stepping back to a medieval time. It was a very elaborate tower/gate, and certainly had its mystical charm with wheeled canons.

After our little medieval adventure, we wandered around the town a little, going into random shops. We finally stopped for a traditional Franconian dinner. As wonderful as the food was, the service…not so much. We ended up having to wait over 40 minutes for the waiter to bring our check after asking him multiple times. While we were waiting, we went through my coin purse (a coin purse is very useful in Europe) to see if I had enough pennies to equal 1 EUR. Turns out, I did. So we left the restaurant an abundance of pennies.