IN PROGRESS
Bamberg – a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Main purpose: This photo course with Artistravel.
Before going to the course, I walked along the river for a couple of hours. I did not see as many birds as I had expected. I had read somewhere that there was a good chance of seeing Kingfishers there, but there was no sight of them.
I then had a quick breakfast in a very nice little café – Café Cador – on the way to the course venue.
If I had read the course description properly, and more than once (or even just once – I can’t honestly remember), I might have realised that it was about ICM – something I do now and then, enjoy in small doses, but often end up finding a bit kitchy.
Never mind – the first morning was a good refresher course, and a reminder to use the in-camera double exposure more often, and to sometimes use Photoshop and not only Lightroom.
And this freed up some time for me to go and do my own thing. And Bamberg had been on my list for a while anyway.
The – very many here – stumble stones often have different texts than I am used to from Berlin. I had to google Izbica – shows how much I know.
The centre of Bamberg being much too crowded for my taste – streets and bridges choc-a-bloc with tourists – drove me crazy, so I took another walk along the river. This time I did see a Kingfisher twice, but was unable to get a decent photo. They are now on the fast track to the top of my bucket list.
By the way, I am in one of those annoying German hotels that have not joined the 21st century yet and take it upon themselves to decide whether and when guests need a functioning internet, and Sunday morning is clearly not one of those times, in their opinion. (Also on Sunday morning, breakfast is not till 8.00 – “so people can sleep longer”. (????). Perhaps because we are in Bavaria and they think they are still living in a dictatorship? But seriously, I guess that is because most visitors are not here because it is a UNESCO World Heritage site – and certainly not for the birdwatching – but for the beer – there are hordes of noisy beer-swigging-burping tourists everywhere.
On day 2, having made the final decision to not return to the course, I escaped the tourist hordes and went to Stocksee and Schloß Seehof.
What I liked best about the castle was that they are letting wildflowers grow all around instead of those awful, unsustainable mowed lawns. The wildflowers find their way there because they are made to grow under those precise conditions. A lawn, which is not indigenous to the area, needs fertilizer and an inordinate amount of water in order to grow, just so that they have to be mowed using fossil-fuel guttling machines. Lawns are absurd and ought to be banned everywhere.
There is also an excellent café with real food. And a couple of interesting (manmade I guess) ponds. I saw many birds, including several birds of prey, but only managed to photograph various waterfowl, some of which I have yet to identify.
And finally, a church in Memmelsdorf while waiting for the bus back to Bamberg:
Moving on to Nürnberg – less than an hour on a regional train from Bamberg. Which is kind of the only reason I am here – and because I have never been here before.
After visiting the Nuremburg Trials Memorial, I walked along the river Pregnitz to the Kaiserburg and then down through the centre back to the hotel.
Day two walked up to Kaiserburg, for the pre-brunch exercise :-), the view, and because I had read that a pair of peregrine falcons are constantls to and fro the tower feeding a couple of offspring, but all I saw were a bunch of pigeons.
I then went out to Wöhrder See, a short busride away. A lovely, and very interesting, man-made area with wetlands, an information centre, and many waterfowl. After brunch in lake-side Strandcafé, I spent a couple of hours walking the shores. In addition to the usual suspects, I saw a green woodpecker (still not happy with the photo – must keep trying).
Back in the centre, I visited the impressive Neues Museum für Kunst und Design.
