Thur 7th Aug.
This is the 3rd day of our proposed 2 day visit, and it’s going to be a beer-free, bike-touring day (perhaps!).
Bamberg is a wonderful town – UNESCO-Heritage listed. It’s also small enough to be able to get around by foot or by bike.
We want to have a leisurely bike ride around the area, taking in an Edeka supermarket along the way (see previous post about Internet Woes!). I *thought* I’d seen an Edeka near the “other” Stellplatz in Bamberg – the one we couldn’t get into because it was full. I was obviously mistaken – not an Edeka in the area.
But we did come across a nature reserve underneath the main road junction. At least a part of the reserve was there though it did extend beyond. Well beyond. A thoughtfully located map provided us with directions for a ride along the left arm of the Regnitz (the River Regnitz splits into Left & Right arms just to the South of Bamberg). So we followed the Regnitz, taking in the bathing area (pass on that) and the cafe (noted for Kaffee und Kuchen for later in the day). We soon found ourselves back in Bamberg despite the fact we thought we were heading in the opposite direction. Never mind – time for our sandwiches by the old lock before heading South once again.
We headed back S along the Regnitz for several miles, eventually reaching a village called “Bug”. Silly English humour I know, but I couldn’t resist taking photos of the Hotel there – The “Buger Hof”!
We crossed over from the Regnitz and cycled over to the aptly-named Main-Donau Kanal. This is – as you might well imagine – a canal that joins together the rivers Main & Donau (or Danube, to most Brits) and thus provides a navigable route all the way from the Black Sea into the North Sea. This is not a canal like (say) the Leeds-Liverpool canal. It is a modern (built 1980 – 1992), mighty, wide, deep & long piece of construction engineering, designed to take ships (barges) up to 190m long and 12m wide.
As we cycled up to the raised banks, an enormous hotel ship passed by heading North towards Bamberg. We cycled to the South, going for several miles further before we came to the mutual decision that – actually, it’s pretty flat and boring. So we turned around and headed back to the cafe we’d noted earlier for Kaffee and Kuchen.
Whilst we were in Bug, I spotted that increasingly rare object – a phone box. Even more unusual was the set of phone books hanging from the rack in there. Ah-ha – might there be an Edeka listed in there? Out of the five books hanging in there (all of which I was slightly reluctant to touch without rubber gloves!), I managed to find one who’s form of listing I could understand. And – yes; there’s an Edeka listed in it. It’s outside of Bamberg and not exactly on the way home, but worth a detour to get a phone top-up.