We arrived in Bamberg fairly early in the day, around 11 am. As we entered the city, the GPS instantly became our guiding light. The roads turned from asphalt to cobblestone, the lanes narrowed and roads began to merge and diverge with greater frequency. Finding our hotel was the number one priority, so at this point we were pretty much skimming over the beautiful scenery.
We wound through the streets, completely ignorant of where we were and waited with baited breath on the GPS to give us the next command. We eventually saw our hotel, Hotel Weierich, at the end of our street, and began to wind around it. This is where we encountered problem number one - no parking spaces. We continued past the hotel and eventually found an area with designated street parking. Our guide book research told us that there would be an automated parking machine somewhere nearby, but not necessarily next to our spot as we are used to in Indianapolis. We identified the machine and I approached it in hopes the German words on the machine would be found in our phrasebook. No such luck. I did manage to figure out what the fee was, but we had no Euro coins and it didn’t appear to take bills or credit cards. We got back in the car and started to drive around a bit more. This is when we recalled that there was a symbol in our guidebook that denoted the ability to park on the curb. These signs were nowhere to be found, but people were parked on the curb anyway. Later we learned that in a small town such as Bamberg, if you’re going to be a short time, it’s entirely acceptable to just pull onto the sidewalk and park. We pulled up on the sidewalk, blocking the entrance to the hotel, and went inside.
View from our room
Completely afraid of the imminent German conversation, we quickly asked if the attendant spoke English (in German of course). Luckily she spoke very good English! We had a nice conversation, she gave us a room key and we unloaded the car. I then inquired about parking and she informed us they had free parking, but they park the employee cars in the spots to make sure no one takes them. She then ran outside and instructed me to follow her in the car. I proceeded to drive through many areas marked as pedestrian zones (the attendant seemed ok with this, so I was too) and swapped our car into her parking spot. I then headed back to the hotel to meet Jess and we went up to our room. An interesting observation was made - we didn’t have to provide a credit card or sign anything. We were simply welcomed in. I can’t say we’ve ever encountered that in America.
Another view from the room
The room itself was smaller than an American hotel room, but quite spacious given all the horror stories we’ve heard of rooms the size of closets. The decor was quite modern despite the old age of the building (600+ years!). The bed was a platform bed, which we later discovered was standard in Germany. The TV was a bit dated but it didn’t matter since we weren’t intending to watch it much. The room was decorated with dark woods and orange walls and was quite charming. We were informed that the front door to the hotel locks after 7 when the staff goes home, and that if we are staying out late our room key would unlock the front door. While this sounds odd, it really completed the home-like feel of the hotel.
Jess in front of the old city hall
We decided to run out and grab some lunch since we were both starving. There was a small restaurant called Hofbräu just around the corner so we decided to stop in. This was the first time we encountered another cultural difference - at every restaurant we went to you would seat yourself. We also had our first taste of the leisurely lifestyle that many people in Bamberg enjoy. We each ordered a beer and relaxed on the outdoor patio. Almost all the dining and drinking we did in Germany was outdoors and the weather was typically gorgeous. I immediately relaxed completely. For lunch, I had some sort of sliced roasted pork dish and Jess decided to immediately get the infamous schweinshaxe - pig’s knuckle. Our dishes each came with sauerkraut and kartoffelkloesse, which we later found out was a potato starch dumpling. The pig’s knuckle had to weigh at least 3 pounds. When the waitress expressed fear that Jess did not like the schweinshaxe, Jess had to explain to the waitress that, while it was good, it was simply too much food.
At the Hofbräu - the beer on the left is Radler - a mixture of Hefeweizen and lemonade
After our meal, we both began to feel the negative effects of getting only a couple hours of sleep on the plane and decided to go take a quick nap in our hotel room.
