Thursday, Nov 1st.  Lazy morning.  Locks are taller, which is exciting.  Your balcony is 10 inches from a stone wall.  Morning briefing about how to do a ship swap.  Nothing unexpected.  Most people are taking it in stride.  After lunch a bus ride to Bamberg.  Fun tour, though the city’s market was closed due to All Saint’s day.  Spied a cemetery with dozens of well dress people paying their respects.  Bamberg was spared any bombing, one clearly false reasoning being that the allies knew that the best breweries were in the city.  I tried their acclaimed Smoke Beer.  Smelled like bacon, tasted like burned IPA.  Pass.

Their history was not unlike Wurzberg.  Many churches, a palace modeled after the Louvre, but no fort.  The consistency helps my memory retention of both.  There were several very lovely legends about the rulers, which sound great be are historically dubious.  I enjoyed their enthusiasm for undocumented facts.  I saw a lot of casual leaning against buildings, drinking beer, conversing and enjoying the day.    Excellent river bridge to congregate around.  Pleasing to watch.  The tour guide laughed a lot at her own jokes.  I’m getting the feeling that either Germans are a lot more fun than expected, or that they’re told to laugh a lot to offset their reputation.  I hope it’s the former.

Tomorrow will be interesting, what with a tour of Nuremberg, lunch, and long bus ride to Passau.