May 14, 2024
As we approached Bamburg we marveled again at our good fortune with the weather. Research done in preparation for packing had suggested we would be experiencing 60-degree temperatures during this portion of our trip, but we’ve had nothing but sunny 70’s since we got on the boat and today is no different.
We reminisced about the last time we were here with our friends Keith and Kathy Snider (could it really have been 10 years ago?!) and tried smoked beer (😝).
Pulling into the dock we were surprised to see these guys hanging out in an industrial area, but they seem pretty comfortable.
After a short bus ride into town, we met our guide and began making our way to…wait for it…the Bamburg Cathedral (you were expecting something else?). Here are some of the sites along the way.
Welcome to Bamburg’s “Little Venice.” Those of you who’ve been will agree that it looks nothing like the real thing, but it’s called this because, like Venice, the homes are built on wood above the river. There was a time when this was the worst part of town to be in. The long building with the boat parked in front of it was once the local slaughterhouse. It had a trap door in the floor where all of the waste from the day – blood, internal organs, fat – would be deposited into the river. Eww! Today this is some of the most coveted real estate in Bamburg. Beautiful views and you can boat right up to your house!
Bamburg’s Town Hall has a unique location. The original Town Hall built in 1386 burned down in a fire in 1460. The townspeople, who had recently attempted an unsuccessful uprising against the bishop and were looking to reconcile, generously offered to rebuild it. The bishop was worried the townspeople would use such a building to plot another uprising. He gave them permission to rebuild but refused to give them land. The clever townspeople said, “Fine! We’ll build it in the river!” And they did!
Note the cherub’s leg sticking out of the painting of the façade. These people certainly had a sense of humor.
There’s a slalom course laid out in the river next to the old Town Hall. Kayakers use it for training on Sunday mornings.
And here we have The Blue Lion, a brew pub operation since 1405 and famous for its smoked beer. We still haven’t gotten the taste out of our mouths from 10 years ago. No need to stop in again this time. 😂
Finally, we arrived at the Cathedral!
Built in 1235 the cathedral has two big claims to fame:
1) It houses the only Papal tomb north of the Alps. Pope Clemente II was a local bishop who so enjoyed Bamburg he asked that he be buried there. When he passed away after having been pope for just 12 months his wish was granted. All other popes are buried in France or Italy.
2) It contains the remains of the only imperial couple to be canonized. Henry II and his wife, Cunigunde are buried here.
A couple of interesting this about their crypt…normally the most powerful person is shown on the left, which you would expect would be Henry. In this case Cunigunde is shown on the left and Henry II is on the right. Cunigunde was a very influential woman in her own right. Even today she is held in high regard by the German people, and it is said Henry II had great respect for her. Maybe he placed her on the left to show his esteem for her, or maybe, since he died first, she exercised some of her power and put him on the right herself!
The other thing that stood out to us is the story told on the side of the crypt. The first scene is of Cunigunde being tried after having been accused of being unfaithful to Henry while he was away. She was made to walk on hot coals and over the tips of trowels (think of a garden spade). If the wounds healed within a week everyone would know she was innocent of betrayal; if they did not her guilt would be proved, and she would be put to death. Cunigunde did all these things and remained unscathed. She was clearly innocent. The men who accused her were humiliated and ashamed, and the next scene shows them begging her forgiveness. That’s what you get for spreading rumors!
Below is the door that only the bishop could enter through. Notice the plaster artwork above the door.
A Christ figure sits in the center. Tale a close look at the faces of those on the left vs. those on the right. See the figure on the far right with the chain? It is the devil, pulling the folks on the right into Hell. The people on the left are more serious and prayerful; they’re following Jesus to Heaven. The people on the right appear to be really happy to be going to Hell and you might wonder why. The answer might surprise you. At the time this art was created it was considered inappropriate to smile or laugh in public. Only a crazy person would do that, so obviously all those people being drug into Hell by the devil himself are totally insane.
The Old Prince Bishop Residence is no longer inhabitable, and we couldn’t enter the area because they were preparing for the summer concerts that are held there, but a famous movie was filmed in its courtyard – remember the 2014 version of The Three Musketeers?
The New Prince Bishop residence was built in 1646. It was intended to resemble the Palace of Versailles (wasn’t everything?), but the bishop ran out of money and was never able to complete the third wing. If you look very closely at the corner of the building on the far left, you’ll see stones sticking out all down the corner. These are called “waiting stones,” because they’re waiting to be finished. Ha ha.
The rose garden behind the new residence is home to more than 4500 roses. Not many were in bloom when we were there, but it is still very pretty.
This completed our tour. We were now on our own. We could hang around town and catch a bus back to the boat in another couple of hours, we could take a cab back to the boat or we could walk back. We had been told it was a 20-25-minute walk. As you can see in the pictures it was a beautiful day, so we opted to get a few more steps in. Well, we got a few more than we planned!
We headed back to the place our tour had started and checked Google maps to be sure we were headed in the right direction to get to the boat. Odd…it seemed to be sending us in the opposite direction from what we expected. Hmmm…well, let’s follow it and see what happens. It led us to a path with a locked gate. Back to the starting point. Ken’s map told him to go one direction; mine told me to go another – but again, both went the opposite direction we thought we should be going.
We decided we would each follow our own map and hopefully meet in the middle. Ken made it to the destination first and discovered that what Google Maps thought was Bamburg Port was actually a place to catch boats for a tour of the river. Meanwhile, Pam had had a brilliant idea. We have tags in our luggage that are connected to a “Find My” app on our phones. What if we looked up where our bags were and followed the directions to them? Genius! Once again, we found our way back to the starting point. This time the map sent us the direction we’d expected to go all along.
As we made our way down the street, we ran into the Hospitality Manager from the boat who invited us to join him for a drink. We regretfully declined his offer – we were trying to get back to the boat ahead of everyone else and take advantage of fewer people being on the Wi-Fi to download pictures for the blog – but were grateful to hear we were, indeed, going the right way. Pretty soon we ran into some other folks from our ship who were also a bit lost. “Follow us!” we said. “We know where we’re going!” (we hope!)
Our new friends Chuck and Deb are on Ken’s left and Barb is on Pam’s right.
Finally, there in the distance, we saw our boat. A walk that should have taken 30 minutes had taken closer to an hour and our aching feet had completed 5 miles of walking!
The day was topped off with a delightful dinner with a couple from Japan. Isao (the husband) and Kimura do not speak a lot of English and we speak zero Japanese, so it was challenging to have a conversation, but we were trying. With much effort we learned that the two had been friends in college, then went their separate ways and married other people. Fifty years later they ran into one another in Tokyo and discovered each had been recently widowed. Romance bloomed and they’ve now been together 15 years. Isao climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro at 72! He’s 83 now, and Kimura is 81. Then Ken had a stroke of genius – we could use Google Translate on his phone and have a real conversation. What a great idea! He ran to the room to get his phone and we spent the next hour trying to figure out how the app works! It was hilarious. We never did figure it out but ended the meal in good spirits with plans to dine together again. Of course, as soon as we got back to the room Ken saw right away what we were doing wrong.
Life is an adventure!
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