CURRENCY EXCHANGE INFO: The currency exchange rate is nearly equal: €1 euro = 94¢ US.

Bamberg is just north of Nuremberg - See the Red Circle. This is where we camped out while in Bamberg.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

BAMBERG

Just before we departed on our European journey, I noticed my right eye was a bit blurry. I dismissed it as some junk stuck in my eye. About a week into our trip, it got worse. Then, my other eye blurred up. However, it was more than fuzziness. Everything was hazy, like when you swim too long in chlorine water.

It became intolerable yesterday. I could barely see. I mentioned it to Diane a couple of days ago, but today, I announced that I had to do something about my vision. We decided to watch out for an eye doctor. I needed to find out what the problem was and how serious it was.

Just as we got downtown, across the street from this small plaza, we found an eye doctor.

Lo and behold, on our way to the boat tour, Heinrich spotted a sign for an eye doctor located on the third floor of a cool old building. The receptionist squeezed me in at 11:40. We had to postpone our boat trip until 1 p.m. 

The doctor, a man in his late thirties, had two beautiful assistants and a very modern office - a nice setup. It turned out that my cataracts are re-cataracing. Unknown to me, this isn’t as uncommon as it sounds. A simple 10-minute, $900 laser treatment wipes the lens clean. This condition is not dangerous. I could put it off for months if I wanted to wait until I returned home. I didn’t want to wait. We made an appointment for next Tuesday. I am excited. Knowing what the problem was and that it wasn’t serious is very comforting. The bill will be sent to Diane’s house. We will work off what we owe them by paying for all the gas and food until paid up.

We made the 1 p.m. boat tour. The long, low-profile tour boat barely snuck under the bridges. All the tourists rode on the top deck, and we had to duck when passing under most bridges. In between bridges, a fraulein waitress brought half-liter beers to anyone with a couple of Euros to spare. We didn’t order beer. We were saving our drinking capacity for another trip to Schlenkerla for a Rauchbier.

The tour lasted 80 minutes. We started on the Regnitz River, passed through a lock that raised and lowered the boat nearly 20 feet, bypassing a hydroelectric dam that used to power a textile factory and entered into the Rhine Main Donau Kanal. The factory has been repurposed as a unique-looking fancy condo. The hydroelectric dam remains operational.

The houses and buildings along the canal through the downtown are wonderfully restored centuries-old stately manors. As we left the downtown area, forest and green spaces predominated, interspersed with an occasional floating restaurant tied up to a peer. We cruised into two more side channels, with one giving access to a modern industrial zone. Picturesque warehouses and factories? OK, picturesque might be pushing it, but these were not ugly rusting decaying blights on the waterfront. They were modern, clean, and sleek factories.

The tour boat leaving downtown.

The houses along the first couple of kilometers of the boat trip were beautifully restored centuries-old homes.

A view of the Dom from the tour boat.

Entering the lock. This lock brought us down nearly 20 feet.

Going down.

Leaving the lock downriver.

A side channel of the canal brought us to an industrial district. Cargo boats access these plants and can travel either to the Black Sea to the South or the North Sea to the North.

Away from downtown brought us to a more modern housing section.

The twin towers of S. Michael's from the boat.

Our return to downtown.

We explored the main tourist sites yesterday, so today, we just roamed, window shopped, and wandered in and out of shops. We enjoyed some delicious pastry from a tiny little bakery and bought some ugly knarled-up breads from another bakery. They turned out to be amazingly good. We even sampled a spectacular pizza-topped roll that rivaled Diane’s pizza concoctions. And, of course, we returned to the Schlenkerla Brew Pub for another Rauchbier.

This guy is a Zimmerman, a wandering handyman from Hamburg. After they complete their basic carpenter's apprenticeship, they go on a three-year 'wandering', hiring themselves out for odd jobs.

We returned for another Rauchbier at the Aecht Schlenkerla Brew Pub.

Descriptions of the three Smoked beers sold at Schlenderla (translated):

1. MÄRZEN. The original smoked beer and Bamberg's specialty for centuries. A dark, bottom-fermented Märzen beer, made with Schlenkeral smoked malt from the in-house malthouse. Since this traditional production method is almost extinct today, the Schlenkerla is a passenger in the ark of taste of slow food. (Old-fashioned 'slow food' as opposed to modern 'fast food').

2. SMOKED WHEAT. A wheat beer with a delicate, smoky taste. Like all typical wheat beers, it is brewed from a mixture of barley malt and wheat malt. The barley malt portion is the smoked malt from the in-house Schlenkerla malthouse.

3. HANSLA LOW IN ALCOHOL. For hygienic reasons, people mostly drank beer instead of water until the end of the 19th century. In order to keep a clear head, people in Bamberg prepared a low-alcohol beer using a special brewing process. Unfiltered, mildly smoky, the Hansl brings back this old brewing tradition today.

One of three artists on the stone pedestrian bridge painting the scene.

Hand-made trinkets.

The more knarled the bread, the better.

Apple-raisin pastry in the forefront. A chunk of knarled-up nut bread in the back.

Big buses venture down tiny twisty alleys.

Half-Timbered Buildings

A restaurant sitting on an artificial island.

With my appointment on Tuesday, we had to rearrange Diane’s schedule. Our new plan, which we’ll call Plan X, is to drive up to Dresden, stay for three days, and return to Bamberg for my laser treatment. After that, we patch together Diane’s original itinerary and continue on. We will return to Langenreichen in early November, just in time to go on our tour of Turkey. No grass will grow under our feet.

Dave and Wanda

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We are on an RVing adventure through Europe that could last as long as six months. Traveling with family, we will start in Germany and explore several countries. We are excited to explore all that Europe offers and share our travels with you through this blog.

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