Arriving in Bamburg we went to our hotel named “Welcome Hotel” – the name didn’t seem very German but it was a brand new building with cool slanted walls. Our room was the top one on the slanted end… It was situated directly along the Regnitz river running through town. Photo below is of the dining room. There was an incredible breakfast for us in the morning.

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We saw lots of these “eyes with rays” in our travels. “The Eye of Providence (or the all-seeing eye of God) is a symbol showing an eye often surrounded by rays of light or a glory and usually enclosed by a triangle. It is sometimes interpreted as representing the eye of God watching over humankind (or divine providence). In the modern era, the most notable depiction of the eye is the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, which appears on the United States one-dollar bill. In Medieval and Renaissance European iconography, the Eye (often with the addition of an enclosing triangle) was an explicit image of the Christian Trinity. Seventeenth-century depictions of the Eye of Providence sometimes show it surrounded by clouds or sunbursts”. (Wiki)

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Bamburg has an area of old half-timbered houses with tiny porches and gardens lining the Regnitz river, leftover from Medievel days when the area was a fisherman’s settlement called “Little Venice”.

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“Little Venice” (Klein Venedig)

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The “Old Town Hall” sits on an island at the location of a bridge dating back to around the first Millenium. The Town Hall has burned and been rebuilt several times, what remains today was rebuilt around 1750 in a Baroque/Rococo style.

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Cool shop signage.

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Pfarrkirche St. Martin on Maxplatz (parish church St. Martin) on a large square near the Old Town Hall (1693). That’s Deanne walking towards the church. She was always moving faster than me…

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The trompe d’oeil dome by Giovanni Francesco Marchini. Not really a “dome” at all; a really well done perspective painting of a dome on the simple vaulted ceiling.

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The Altar

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It was a beautiful evening so we walked around looking for a nice outdoor dining spot and ended up here.

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Not much of a photograph but after getting a chance to sit down, when the food and beer came to the table, I remember relaxing and thinking, “Yes, this really is going to be a great vacation.” Meals are: Currywurst (top left), Nuernberger Bratwurst (bottom left), Kartoffelkloese (potato dumpling-upper right), Wild Boar with Kartoffelkloese (bottom right).

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Sunset lighting on the Old Town Hall

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Couple of cool doors

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End this day with a “May Pole” we saw on the walk back to the hotel. We saw several of these in our two weeks of travel. Some are erected on May 1 and taken down soon after, others are left up all year. The history of the May Pole is widely debated. Possibly “a remnant of the Germanic reverence for sacred trees, as there is evidence for various sacred trees and wooden pillars that were venerated by the pagans across much of Germanic Europe” (Wiki). St. Boniface and other Christian missionaries made a point of destroying sacred trees and groves of trees worshiped by pagans in the 7th Century; the cutting of “Thor’s Oak” being an example. Other possibilities include phallic symbols or a general rejoicing in the new growth of plants in spring.