I took my time in the morning, getting in several hours of studying before going out to do some proper sightseeing. In the meantime, a few guests from the ground floor rooms came up to eat their breakfasts. One German girl freaked out when a bee took interest in her food. I haven’t mentioned this before, but every bakery is filled with bees and 80% of the time you are eating outside, there are bees aggressively pursuing your food. I suppose if I was allergic I would be more worried, but I smack them away and it doesn’t even faze them. There was also a pair of men who language I could not figure out, but apparently the Franconian region of Bavaria has its own language (as evidenced by the menus in restaurants. I may not eat in a lot of restaurants but I often look at the menus!).
Speaking of restaurants, I decided that my first stop would be the Klosterbrau, which claims to be the oldest pub in Bamberg (1533). It was a tough decision about what to eat, but there was no way I wasn’t going to order goulash with spaetzle, especially when the goulash was made with smoked beer. I went ahead and paired it with a kellerbier on the recommendation of the water. As my days in Germany wind down, I really need to make an effort to eat more of this delicious “real” food. It’s not much more expensive than the occasional street snack. If I’m paying roughly 2.50 for a bratwurst on brotchen, but I can get a plate of 3 bratwurst with saeurkraut and brot for 7.50, then the pub is a “better” deal, despite the cost of beer and the necessary tip.
Apart from the sum total of the old town as an attraction, the main tourist destination is probably the Neue Residenz, another one of Bavaria’s apparently infinite palaces. For the modest admission fee, there was a 1 hour tour (in German), which made for a tiring but informative German listening lesson (I understood about 50-60%, supplemented by some available multilingual fliers). If Würzburg had the epitome of Baroque palaces, Bamberg’s “new” palace was a prototype. The palace was not in the least impressive, but I enjoyed the visit nonetheless. Apart from the tour, there was a lovely (open to the public) rose garden, an art gallery, and a special collection on near modern Bavarian history, which gave me a headache to just look at. Just when you start thinking you’ve got the plot, you find out it isn’t even the same genre.
I walked up the hill to the monastery, despite it being both under renovation and its adjoining brewery museum closed (on account of it being Monday) before heading back down the hill to poke my head into the cathedral. I figured that was a pretty good amount of tourism to do for the day, so I returned to hostel and zoned out for a bit with some coffee and ate the last bit of rye bread (lasted 3 days!).
I went to check out some supermarkets–there were three on the main street (Turkish, Chinese, and German), but crossed through the train station to reach a decent sized Aldi on the other side. I’ve decided to step up my cooking game a bit by picking up rice (helpfully contained in individual cooking bags) and cheap frozen vegetables. I brought it all back to the hostel, threw it in the fridge, then headed out for a run.
Having crossed several bridges multiple times over the two days, I was aware of a path that looked like it might circumnavigate the island and I wanted to try following it. It was really nice, as the southern half of the island is basically just a forest. I didn’t make it all the way around the island as I got stuck in the maze of cobblestone streets, old buildings and canals halfway up the other side, but it was a long enough run for my tastes.
I had to wait for a while to cook my dinner as the hostel manager was boiling up a big pot of corn and the British girl was cooking her vegetarian dinner. Everyone was sitting outside on the patio, and I was a bit surprised to be served an ear of corn. I ate it while boiling up my rice and did my best to stir-fry the veggie mix (mainly peas and carrots, though supposedly “Asian”) that overwhelmed the pan with coldness and mostly just steamed themselves.
After dinner, though I had hoped to maybe watch a movie, I played some more Rummikub with J and while I had utterly destroyed her on the first night, she got her revenge.
| Goulash and beer (incl. tip) | 14 |
| Neue Residenz | 4.5 |
| Rice and veggies @ Aldi | 1.88 |
| Wine | 3.99 |
| Sriracha extra hot sauce | 1.99 |
| Total: | 26.36 EUR (205.6 RMB) (USD 29.13) |
Running Total: 27358.6 RMB (USD 3875.79)
Daily Average: 364.8 RMB (USD 51.68)