A Peek Into Small-Town Bavaria
Weekdays around here are starting to feel a little normal. We might be living on the other side of the world, but we still wake up early Monday through Friday. We work from 8 to 5, try to muster up the self-discipline to go to the gym, then head to bed and tackle the next day with the same routine. That’s just life. But the weekends are when we get to enjoy living abroad the most.
While travel fares in Europe are cheaper than that of the US, they still cost money and not every single weekend can be an elaborate vacation. Nonetheless, we’re in a new country and we’re surrounded by new places to explore, whether they’re in Germany or abroad.
That being said, we decided to check out another nearby town. We’ve heard from a lot of people that Bamburg is a fun and beautiful city and, arguably, the best day trip from Nuremberg. Regardless of their horrible hiking advice, we took their word for it. Without a Google search or any planning we bought a train ticket and took off for the day.
Without a map in our hands, we stepped off the train and walked in the same direction as the largest other group of people. That tends to be our go-to. If there are multiple groups of people walking in same direction, they’re probably going somewhere we want to go. Sure enough, the crowd led us right to a beautiful walkway along the river, which led to the downtown area. There were tons of shops, restaurants, and beautifully cliche Bavarian architecture.
We wandered up the cobble stone streets to a castle with a rose garden and a view. While we sat among the beautiful roses with a breathtaking view of the city, we spent more time watching the tourists pose with roses and take a million pictures as their tour spent 5 minutes in the garden and left. Just long enough to snap a photo and move along. Let me tell you, people watching (especially tourist watching) is the best free entertainment you can get!
The best people watching we came across was kayaks in the river. (Look closely at the image above.) There’s a pretty slow moving river that runs right through the middle of town. In one area, right under a bridge in downtown, there’s a small dam that creates the smallest little white water rapids for about 100 feet. The kayaks would paddle up along the side of the rapids and take turns paddling into the white water for about a 10 second ride before the current slowed back down. It reminded us of the bunny hill at a ski resort. I guess that’s what you do when you can’t make it out of town for the weekend, huh?
Not taking a map to this beautiful town was the best decision we made that weekend. Without any idea of what there is to do or see, you wander upon the greatest places with complete awe and surprise. We had no idea where we were going, but we had the best time in Bamburg. I’d easily say it’s been my favorite town we’ve seen since we arrived in Germany.