Cities of Light Prague to Paris Bamberg

---

Today we visited the historic town of Bamberg. This ancient city is a peaceful, quiet example of a quaint German city. We did not sail overnight but remained in our berth in Bamberg. This gave us a chance for a morning tour of the city.

Our first order of business was breakfast. We rose early after a very restful sleep and headed to the lounge deck for some fresh fruit and a cup of coffee while we waited for the main breakfast to open at 7. Cathy and I sat on the open deck, enjoying the cool morning air, sipping an excellent brew. We knew this would not last long as the temperature was expecterd to hit 90 sometime today.

After breakfast we boarded our bus for the 15 minute trip to the historic center city. Here we met our local tour guide, a young college student studying to be a high school teacher. Her English was good and her knowledge even better. We had our Quiet Vox and listened to her in our ear as we traveled on foot through the market square and into the old quarter.

Our path took us across an ancient bridge through the brewery district and into the heart of power, the Catholic Church. The rulers of this area were under the reign of King Henry the Second. His princes and bishops lived in the main area around the Cathedral and ruled under the eyes of the King. Much of the area is now a museum and, due to decay, no one lives in these historic buildings. We were given some free time to shop and buy beer.

There were once many beer breweries in this city, but now there are only two. Both are famous for a beer that has a smokey flavor. The story goes that the brewer suffered a catastrophy. His barley caught fire. Rather than take a total loss, he decided to brew the beer anyway and came up with a completely new product, Smoky Beer. This dark beer has a taste that some describe as bacon, while others say that it tastes like you licked an ashtray! Not too appealing but you gotta try, right?

So after our grand tour we headed to the oldest brewery and sampled a brew. I am not a dark beer drinker, but this was not too bad. There was a bit of bacon and a bit of ashtray at the finish. We enjoyed a pint between the two of us. We also enjoyed a bread pretzel for a snack before we had to go back to the bus.

We headed back to the bus by 11:30, which turned out to be a good idea as the heat was now over 80 degrees. The only saving grace was the complete lack of humidity and the shade offered by the tall buildings. Even Cathy survived.

We headed back to our floating hotel and headed to our rooms for the mandatory safety drill. When the bell sounded, we were to get our life vests from under our bed, put them on, and head to our muster area, which was the right side of the lounge on the second floor. All 140 passengers and crew arrived within 20 minutes. With all in place, we were released and sent back to our room to prepare for lunch.

Lunch was in the main dining room for a sit down meal or the lounge area for a more casual dining. We chose the main dining option. Our waiter, Gianny greated us and gave us a very wide choice of options. There was a soup, a salad, several main course options, and a variety of desserts. I chose a salad, followed by veal schnitzel and a pesto pasta plate, followed by a dessert of fresh fruit. Cathy enjoyed a salad, the pesto pasta, and rice pudding in a strawberry "sauce". As I said earlier, they will give you as much food as you want and any combination you ask for.

During lunch, our boat departed the dock and we started sailing to our next stop Wurzburg. The view was spectacular, the breeze was cooling, and the day just could not get any better. Cathy went to a lecture on the history of the river and its locks. Unfortunately, I started to fall asleep so I came out to the outer deck to finish the blog!

So far today, we have traveled through one loch and are about to enter the second.It is fascinating to watch the process. First, the boat pulls into a fairly narrow channel. A traffic light tells the captain when the loch is safe to enter and when it is safe to leave because the process is complete. We stood on the deck for part of the time, watching the ship "sink" lower and lower until we reached our new depth. We began above the concrete side walls and finished about 40 feet lower, the massive concrete walls now surrounding us. Since we are just entering the second one, I'm not sure yet how far down this one will adjust our ship's water depth although I can tell that we will be "dropping" again to reach the new water level beyond the loch. There are 53 of these lochs on our route.

The rest of the day is casual. We have high tea at 3:30 PM with local sweets, followed by a lecture about our port of call for Sunday, then followed by dinner and entertainment in the lounge. Cruising on the river is just plain perfect!

---