February 14 , 2009

Written February 21

Dear Friends and Families,

We live in "Kreiss Bamberg". A "kreiss" is a German equivalent to "county" in America and it defines where all important beaurocracy is handled; taxes, driver's license, even work visa. The city of Bamberg is also our closest big town, closer than Nuremberg and bigger than Erlangen. All this means we visit Bamberg several times every week.

However, when we have guests, we get to shift viewing Bamberg as a tourist destination and it certainly is as worthy a destination as any other Bavarian town. Over the years, we have seen, and written about in these diaries, a number of parts of the medieval town. (See the "Germany" index, if you want to see more.)

Today, we enjoyed taking Robin and Art on a several-hour walking tour, mostly in areas we'd seen and photographed before, but the new highlight for us was a visit to Michaelsberg.

	Walking up to Michaelsberg we passed the "normal" scenes on Cathedral Hill.
Up ahead, Michaelsberg Cloister sits atop the highest of the several hills in Bamberg. Nowadays, the Cloister buildings hold a pair of restaurants, a Brewery Museum (closed for the season), an old folks home, and assorted city offices. And, of course, a church.
Inside, St. Michael's church was the ornate style we've become accustomed to. This particular cloister dates from the 12th Century and hosts the crypt of Otto, the Bishop of Bamberg who built the Cathedral, 38 Cloisters, and other assorted local churches. Bamberg largely avoided destruction during WW II and thus it has a wonderful collection of these historic buildings.
St. Michael's has a number of wonderful details but my favorite was the skeleton monument to a long-forgotten bishop. The imagery was supposed to remind proud people that, no matter how powerful in life, we all end up bones in the end. A valuable lesson, perhaps, but mostly I imagined how many generations of young boys and girls would look away when they had to pass by.
The best part of Michaelsberg may be the view from the "berg" (mountain)

So, one more Bamberg tour. Not the last one, I'm sure, since we at least have to come back when the Brewery Museum is open!

John and Marianne