Bayreuth

6-10 July

Bayreuth (rhyming with My Hoyt) is a very open city with lots of wide streets and squares. Even before war damage the streets seem to have been very open with room for markets. There are several palaces , a ‘Hermitage’ on the hills behind the town, an opera house being refurbished, a free animal park in a lake area where you can find white donkeys, deer and some small kangaroos which look like wallabies but we think their tails are too big. There are other birds and animals. There are also interesting scientific things toppled with in the main street - an Archimedes screw is just one water 'device' - the water course can also be dammed, and there is a small water wheel which allows water to be brought up and emptied. nearby is a very heavy stone. Hard to turn but once it is moving, momentum keeps it going for a long time.

There are also huge gardens attached to the 18th century ‘new palace’ in town. The old palace (17C) is only a few streets away but it hasn’t been restored. Up on the hill the Hermitage (Eremitage, 1715) is a sort of country palace with fountains that play every hour, huge garden and forest areas…and a totally over-the-top ‘new palace’ from the 1750s. We caught buses to see the out-of-town things - a family day pass  cost less than two return tickets! The bus driver thought it so amusing that he had sold us family tickets (his initiative)  that he came up to us on his way to the back door to tell us with a wide grin that we could take four children with us!

The Eremitage

This is Wagner country and there is a Wagner festival every year, a 'Wagner walk' and lots of Wagner references. 

Speaking of musicians, there is also a museum in the house where Liszt died. The opera house is a UNESCO heritage site and under restoration for about 4 years at a cost of over €18 million. Visitors are allowed inside for a small fee, to see what is going on and there are exhibitions of the history and on-going restoration. 

Mock-up of the interior of the opera house while it is restored

Our (first) highlight, though, was exploring the ‘catacombs’ under one of the big breweries. Bayreuth is known for having ‘a city under the city’. No-one is entirely sure if they were built deliberately or used for excavating sandstone blocks. They cover almost all the ‘old’ city and are used particularly as cellars for beer, as the temperature is constant - between 7 and 11 degrees. There is a tour which takes a walk through some of these underground passages, taking the opportunity to teach us about beer brewing and some of its history. 

Map of underground passages

In addition, there are displays of how the passages were used during the war bombings. People took shelter there, as their own cellars were too shallow. Various helpers (now heroes) came in with bread, milk, broth and other food, which kept the people alive and in good heart. Parts were used as a hospital and even an operating theatre. 

At the end we were all treated to a free glass of beer, which effectively reduced the price of entry, as we all would probably have had a beer about then. There is so much beer drunk here, of all types, varying with region, and drunk by all except children.

The second highlight: We stayed an extra night, as our host had told us about a performance of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, put on by the Year 12 students of the local Gymnasium. She was going and thought we might enjoy it. Well, what a performance! Although it was all in German and we didn’t understand much of it, the play was totally alive and the story came across really well. They had updated the costumes to the present - which worked -and had put in a few modern references (e.g. playing golf!). The acting was just superb. Extremely professional. they must have worked hard on it for months. A credit to the hard-work of their teachers and coaches as well. It was such a treat. And we were in the front row, which was pretty special. So glad we stayed.

We used any spare time to talk with our lovely host, Doris, and to catch up on writing and putting together the blog - not a task for the tired! We became adept at finding places with [free] wifi - the library has an hour, the department store, Karstadt, 3 hours, McDonalds 1-2 hours, Deutch Kabel 30 minutes...

Huge thanks to Doris for hosting us and for making such an effort for us. 

In the animal park 

Not the animal park

Overview of the Main River cycle path from Mainz to Bayreuth

Bamberg to Bayreuth

3 - 6 July

The bike ride back into Bamberg from the camp ground was gloriously pretty, through a forest path and alongside waterways right into the city. There used to be what they called ‘fish basins’ in this inner area, where, from 1450, they dug out seven special holding tanks through which water could flow freely. Fish were kept fresh this way during the winter. These belonged to the town until the 19th century after which they were held privately. Apparently since 2001 they have started using three of them again for the same purpose.

Moving out from the city was harder than getting in, as it usually is, with a false start, missing a left arrow that wasn’t actually there. We are getting much better at detecting false starts and don’t usually waste much time now on the wrong track. Several years ago we went 20 km off track, also due to a left arrow that wasn’t there… A fellow cyclist spent two hours trying to get out of Basel. As an American girl once said to us in Nantes, ‘getting lost is all part of the adventure’.

The cycle track doesn’t follow the waterway very closely on this part of the trip. The barges and cruise boats now follow the Rhine-Main-Danube canal and the Main has no more traffic. There are huge shingle pits which have supplied fill for the vast motorway systems and are now full of water, like little lakes. A number of these have been turned into swimming areas, some quite well developed, with camping grounds and other facilities.

Wheat, maize, barley, sugar beet and other crops grow in the land between us and the river/train track/road - no wasteland here. It was about 60 km to our camping place at Lichtenfels - not too bad a day, except for the heat, which was somewhere over 34º. We were very glad to reach somewhere with shade!

We met a lovely couple in the camping ground, biking with their two year old in a trailer/chariot. Piet, the little one, so enjoyed his time there, and we chatted a lot with the parents. The temperature was about 38º and predicted to be the same the following day, so both parties opted for that day off. A lovely place to be. Plenty of shade, both inside and outside. Piet sleeps in a little tent inside the bigger tent and has always done so when they travel. It works well.

After our rest day we set out early for Bayreuth, intending to take the shorter route that follows the river, more or less. However, a fellow biker persuaded us to take a longer loop, which he said was prettier than nearly everywhere, and we feel he was right. Going via Turnau was really very nice, with forests, castles and plenty of ups and downs!

It was on a forest track that an 80 year old gent on an electric-assisted bike rode with us for a bit, then invited us home for the evening to go to the local festival. We knew that there was also a festival in Bayreuth too but by that time we were quite hot and tired and his idea of a swim in one of the converted shingle pits was attractive, so we followed him back to where his wife (75) was helping with the festival.

The swim was amazingly good and there are changing areas and showers there. The water was warmer than anywhere we swim in NZ and we really enjoyed it. Heaps of people there. We know the population of Germany is large but we don’t quite get used to the number of people everywhere, nor the closeness of each village to the next.

The festival was for locals and people in the region, with music, food and beer, probably wine as well. (No dancing, which we had expected.) The music was just one man with an accordion and quite a bit of technology. Somehow he sounded more like a band than a one-man show. Gradually the light faded and we all biked home. A bit of local colour like that gives us a different glimpse of the culture.

Next morning, after sharing a copious German breakfast, our man insisted on accompanying us to the very edge of his area, being guide and team-leader. Without him we would never had made the little detours revealing yet another special place in this already delightful area. Sad goodbyes. Perhaps we will catch up with them at Cuxhaven, the end of the Elbe at the North Sea, where they will be at the end of the month. The ups and downs of this last part of the journey to Bayreuth made us exceptionally glad that we had accepted the previous evening’s offer. Between the heat and the hills we would have exhausted ourselves.

The day before we had come to the place where the two Main rivers come together - the White Main and the Red Main, and from there followed the Red one, (except on the alternative path). The river was in our sight but the path is not beside it in the countryside. Suddenly, we were out of the countryside, beside the river and in Bayreuth. The Red Main flows under small bridges and its source is only 15km further on. 

Minutes away, in the centre of town, was our accommodation, with Warmshowers host, Doris. She was home and welcomed us with a cool drink. And we rested. We had done 1100km, through Alsace, across Germany, west to east, moving also north and south to follow the river’s course. We take a bus for the next bit.

Maypole marks city centre - our host lives nearby

Bamberg

30 June - 2 July

Bamberg indeed lived up to expectations. It is a very pretty town, with water running through it to the extent that there is an area called 'Little Venice’.

View from the Youth Hostel terrace

We made our way first to the Youth Hostel in the centre of town, as we had asked for our cards to be sent there from Karlsruhe (they had accidentally been retained there). Slight anxiety when the receptionist said no, they were not there. Found the email that confirmed that they were. A  call was made to the writer of the email. No reply. And he had two days off in a row. We were hopeful that someone the next day would know where they were and decided to stay the night, without first asking the price. City centre locations are great for exploring the centre on foot but you do pay a premium - €90.00,including two evening meals and two breakfasts. The situation was great though and were able to explore the centre during the evening and the following day. And first thing in the morning there was someone at the desk who produced our cards in a matter of seconds. 

View from our bedroom window

Bamberg was about walking around, so photos will probably do it better than words.

We found a very well-priced lunch in an organic supermarket and took it out to their sun-umbrella area to eat! I like this idea.

One of the (inevitable) churches (there are heaps in Bamburg and I have more photos but this is the most ornate)

Around the old Rathaus (town hall)

And a few more...

Benedictine

View from the Benedictines

And some of their vines

Our second night in Bamberg was spent at a lovely camping ground about 5km south of the city. Tents were situated along the river bank and in the reception/restaurant there was a great covered area where you could sit in the shade. (By now temperatures were soaring.) We stayed there an extra night, to catch up with ourselves and do some writing.

And so to the last leg, Bamberg to Bayreuth