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| Inside of Bamberg Cathedral |
On Saturday, March 29, we headed back to our apartment. However, we decided to stop at Bamberg on our way there. Bamberg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its medieval appearance. It is also a university town, so we saw a lot of students and other tourists there. It was really a beautiful town, and it was fun to walk around for a bit.
After finally finding a place to park, we walked over to the Domplaz and visited the imposing Bamberg Cathedral, which dates from the thirteenth century.
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| Relief Sculpture inside the Bamberg Cathedral |
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| Alte Hofhaltung (Old Court)/Alte Residenz (Old Residence) |
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| Bamberg Cathedral (left) & front of Alte Hofhaltung (right) |
From the Domplaz we could also see the Alte Hofhaltung (Old Court)/Alte Residenz (Old Residence), which began as a fort. In 1003 Emperor Henry II built it into a palace, which he made the seat of the first Bamberg Bishop. It was added to during the 16th and 17th centuries. Today it houses the Historical Museum of the city of Bamberg. We didn't go inside there, but we did visit the Neue Residenz across the way. We only had time there to walk through the State Gallery to see some of the artwork before it closed.
From there we stopped by the rose garden, which of course wasn't in bloom at that time of year.
After adding money to our parking meter, we headed up to the Michaelsberg Abbey, which was up on another hill. (Bamberg actually extends across seven hills, each topped with a church.) The church was closed, but we walked around it and enjoyed the view and gardens around the side and back. It was a beautiful day with spring flowers blossoming on trees and great weather for being outside.
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| Michaelsberg Abbey |
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| View from the side of Michaelsberg Abbey |
After that we walked back along the river and back to our car. The area along the river was particularly picturesque. We saw the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) there and the Klein-Venedig (Little Venice), which was made up of quaint seventeenth century fishing houses along the river.
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| Alte Rathaus |
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| Alte Rathaus from across the way |
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| Klein-Venedig |
So, that concluded our two week tour. We went to our German ward one last time Sunday, then washed our clothes, packed, cleaned, and left our apartment Monday afternoon. We were thrilled to leave with our full security deposit, which we really weren't sure we would get given the number of problems and run-ins we had with our landlord while we were staying there. We stayed in a hotel close to the airport Monday night so that we didn't have a long way to go to get there in the very early hours of the next morning. Our flight home was better than the flight there with the exception that we were forced to check all our bags, including all three of our carry-on bags that the gate attendant insisted were too big (even though they were the same ones we took with us on the same airline there). Luckily we were eventually refunded the large checked bag fees that we had to pay for our carry-on bags, but not having them on the plane was still inconvenient. We caught our connecting flight at the CDG without incident, and Austin even slept a fair amount on the way back. We were particularly grateful to our neighbors who were caring for our house since they provided us dinner for when we arrived home.
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