Dresden ~ Bamberg ~ Nuremberg

Today we left Saxony (of which Dresden is the capital), and drove for Chemnitz, the third largest city in Saxony (after Leipzig & Dresden). Chemnitz was heavily destroyed by bombing during the war, and as a result, lost almost in its entirety the town centre. Without the great historic worth of its buildings (like Dresden), a decision was made to reconstruct the town in the Socialist-Realist Style. In a word, Chemnitz is ugly. Monolithic communist buildings rise from the ground like dictators, and Chemnitz lacks street activation and any real attractions for the international visitor. We didn't even stop in Chemnitz, preferring to drive around and see the buildings. It was also snowing pretty heavily, and was below zero, so we hardly felt like walking around. Alas - I have no photos of Chemnitz to show you - but you can do some more research for yourself once Wikipedia gets back online!!

After 3 more hours of driving, we arrived in Franconia (part of the Free State of Bavaria), and made our first stop Bamberg. Bamberg's old town is UNESCO World Heritage Listed (clap, clap), and it is all original, as Bamberg was one of the few cities in Germany not bombed extensively by war.

The old town of Bamberg essentially covers three main areas - the left bank of the river, the central island, and the right bank, with most of the attractions to be found on the central island and the left bank. The symbol of Bamberg is its Altes Rathaus, which the citizens constructed in the river after the Prince-Bishops told them that they were not to use his land to construct their town hall. So - enterprising citizens that they were - they simply built and island on the river, and put their town hall on that!

We enjoyed lunch in Bamberg, before walking around the old town at leisure - eventually finding ourselves at the Dom, Bamberg's enormous cathedral. Bamberger Dom is around 800 years old, with continual restoration work required to maintain it so that it does not fall to ruin!

Across the square from Bamberg is the Residenz of the Prince-Biships of Bamberg, which later became one of the palaces of the Bavarian Wittlesbach family once they occupied Franconia. The Residenz is housed on a large hill overlooking the town, and offers expansive views across the city. From the palace, you can see various other sites, including a nursing home that looks like this...

I am not joking. That is a nursing home. There is also a rose garden in front of the Residenz, but considering we were there in Winter - there were no roses...

But there has been some snow around the place, and in the photo above you can see some of the snow that has fallen on the trees. We had great weather today, which made exploring Bamberg a lot more fun than it would have been in the snow.

We then walked down to the River, and across to the place where we had parked, after enjoying the afternoon in the city.

It was the last little bit of driving for the day, but 45 minutes later, we arrived at the largest city in Franconia - Nuremberg!! More to tell you about Nuremberg tomorrow!!