Day 86: Schweinfurt to Bamberg

May 14, 2025

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The motorcycle manufacturers Sachs was founded in Schweinfurt, in 1898, maki ng it one of the oldest. Our hotel was proud of this, and had several engine models on display. And wallpaper in our room was based on the Sachs brand.

Sachs was part of an industrial base in Schweinfurt that cause it to be targeted for bombardment, in 1943. Although we read that reconstruction was based on the old designs, we really did not see much evidence of this. That left Schweinfurt as just a plain modern town. Our hotel was slightly out of the centre anyway, so our start off in the early morning looked plain indeed:Ther

As we drew more into the centre, I was looking for a shot that would show a lot of charm, but I didn't get it.

The place to roll our any charm would be here in the pedestrian zone.

Here is the rathaus, about the only building with a somewhat elegant older design.

Schweinfurt continued to not wow us, as we had to fight traffic to get to the riverside cycle path.

Part of the fight was in getting across railroad tracks. We were thinking that this would be tough if we had our pigs with us, and would be needing to get directly to the ford.

Finally we found the best place to cross. Do pigs swim? If not, they would need a ferry landing. Nothing like that here. Schweinfurt did not live up to its billing, I decided.

Well, we did see a barn swallow - that's something.

and Dodie picked up at a great distance, that the third bump on this light fixture was actually a bird (White Wagtail).

This left us waiting for the next town, Hasfurt, to produce some photo excitement. The town did have a pretty nice main street, with a tower gate at each end.

There was also a chapel, called the Ritterkapelle. This featured some very old looking fresco, and also stained glass at the front that told its stories in bright colours. There were also some diorama style statues, or at least they seemed to interact with each other. Completing my list of noteworthy features were arches at the back, underneath the organ, that seemed like a bit of a different touch.

Out front, another dragon bites the dust - so mean!

And quite a lot of story telling built into the arch over the door.

The trail continued good, with crops to look at, though I think vines had faded out. One prepared field demonstrated some really effective machine for making raised rows. It was all so ground so fine and shaped so accurately. Not sure what crop is involved.

Zeil was the next town in line, and here the radweg started to fail a bit. Signage some kms in advance of Zeil was confusing, and the way included some on road and some sidewalk riding. We were just a little miffed when we reached the town, but I was looking forward to a central square, pedestrian street - car free ambiance. But no, the "altstadt" consisted of a single street, through while a steady stream of through traffic passed. It was also on a hill, making it uncomfortable for us to stop and look almost at all.

Determined that this would not be a bust, we struggled up the hill, to the small area in front of the church. And I composed some shots that put the whole place in the best possible light:

Zeil. Looks pretty good. But if you don't cross at that traffic light, through traffic will run you down.

Once we had made it to the church, we went in for a look:

We always note figures with coquilles St. Jacques.

We were heartened to see the road signs giving the distance now to Bamberg at just 20 km. That would make the day's ride not much over 60 km. That would be great, because the long rides of past days were starting to wear me (anyway) out.

About 5 km before Bamberg, the Main River heads off on its way to Bayreuth, leaving us with the newly arriving Regnitz River and the Main-Donau canal. These two contribute to a Venice-like canal area at Bamberg. There is also an island - a bit between two branches of canals - and also the Dom and the former residences of ruling bishops, which are on a hill or hills a little to the east. All this givers Bamberg several sections or neighbourhoods of interest.

Our plan has been to hop a train from Bamberg, on in to Leipzig, since we are rapidly running out of time for being allowed in Europe. We couldn't remember whether our hotel had been chosen to be near the train station, or instead near the downtown action, not that we knew where either the train or the action was. So we just followed our track on in, and landed closer to - the action!

Our hotel is near the Dom, plus a pile of restaurants.

This photo from near our hotel mentions beer and wine, but another sign offered spargel, with bratwurst or schnitzel!

We dropped our gear in the room, which turned out to be French style - pretty small - but still with those great duvets, and headed out to locate the train station. We would need a good fix on that before being able to enjoy any touring of the town.

The station turned out to be across the big island in the canals and a little beyond. There were some interesting things to photograph long this way, but Dodie was eager to nail down that station location. So "no photos", she declared. That didn't work of course.

Close-up of one of the panels. The little guy is holding something in Hebrew?

We found the station easily, and decided no need today to go in and understand the tracks and possible elevators. We'll show up well before our train tomorrow to make sure on those parts.

We turned around, and showed up back near our hotel. It's a pretty active area!

GPSMyCity lists 11 basic places for its Bamberg city introduction walk. The Dom and its precinct are numbers 10 and 11. Dodie would always prefer start things with 1, but I wanted to jump to 10! Well, ok, ok. So Dodie looked at her map and said "This way". "No, no, I see the towers, it's this way", said I. Reluctantly Dodie again said ok. But of course, she was right. The darn Dom is up on a hill, and you can't just walk from here to there. After I got dead ended, like a rat in a maze, we had to double back. What a trial some members of our team can be!

We did reach the Dom, and made some photos of what I thought was a rather dull exterior. It does have not two but four of those towers!

On entering the Dom the first thing is a stall where for a few euros one can get a guide to what to see inside. Dodie explained to the staffer that such guides are usually too much information for us. So instead we came away with a pamphlet titled "Bamberg Cathedral for Kids". And yes, even that was too much for us, but it still helped as Dodie read from it and I tried to spot what they were talking about.

The first thing to see was the effigy of Pope Clement II (1005-1047). Clement was the only Pope that wanted to be buried in Germany. That includes Benedict, I guess.

Next up, The Bamberg Horseman. A mounted statue is rare in a church. This is thought to be King Stefan of Hungary, who lived 1000 years ago. He was married to Gisela, a sister of emperor Heinrich, who had the first cathedral built.

Emperor Heinrich has a tomb beside the Horseman. He is with his wife, Kunigunde.

It's hard to get up and photograph the top of the box.

Kunigunde and Heinrich. The marble tomb was sculpted only between 1499 and 1513, by Tilman Riemenschneider.

The side of the tomb depicts scenes from the lives of the occupants. IKn this one, workers receive their wages from the Empress.

In the east choir is a painting depicting Christ embracing the world.

At the main altar, a statue of a very glum bishop is seen. The child's guide identifies this as the Bishop of Bamberg 650 years ago. He is worried because of the Plague.

Encouraged by the Child's Guide, we descended into the crypt. There in the dark, but illuminated by my (probably disallowed) flash is a pretty scary figure.

And beyond that, the tombs of the Bishops of Bamberg.

Back outside, we were in a large plaza surrounded by buildings. This is known as the Cathedral Square.

The "New Residence" of the Prince-Bishop

The Cathedral square - with the cathedral, the Old Court, the New Residence, etc.

It's possible to get car onto the cathedral square, though they are rare. Even so, we came upon two nuns parked in the middle, with one trying to clean the windshield of gunk that had been falling from a tree. Dodie observed that she was making do progress, and always resourceful, produced a superior cloth. She also did not like the nun's technique, and pitched in to show her how it's done!

The "Old Court" and its Gateway:

The New Residence has an extensive rose garden, most of which is not yet in bloom. We did notice a variety there called "Schneewitchen" which strikes a chord with us veterans of Lohr a Main.

A view down to part of the town from the rose garden.

Tomorrow we will visit some of those lower numbers in the Intro Walk, though in truth we have already passed by many - like the Little Venice and the bridges. No matter, there are actually almost 30 sights in the total list, so we'll find something to look at!

Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 3,240 km (2,012 miles)

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