Joe's Day Gets Worse

After getting back to the hotel and listening to Joe try to explain just exactly what happened with the Uber that drove off without me, we finally get to bed. We have an early morning Thursday - we're going on a day trip to Bamberg, home of the Rauchbier.

We've been to Bamberg before (once quite awhile ago on a River Cruise), but we didn't sample the Rauchbier. We'd partied too hard the night before and were too hungover to even try. So visiting this time was nice - all new information. 

Part of our journey included taking a commuter train from the Osbahnhof station (right across the street from our hotel) to the main station (Berlin Hauptbahnhof) in order to catch the long distance train to Bamberg. It's just the the ticket was set up. But here's the thing: the connection time between the two trains is about 9 minutes. An eternity while you're on the train waiting to go, nano seconds while you're trying to navigate an unfamiliar (and giant) train station.

We easily made the train from the Ostbahnhof station, but somewhere along the six minute trip, we fell behind. Joe got a message on the train app that we might not make our connection with the long distance train. Miss Cleo must be running that app. Sure enough, we're delayed by almost 5 minutes. 

Now there are fewer things I'd rather be doing at 7:30 in the morning than running blind through a train station looking for Platform 1. No, 8. No, 1. Wait. Is it 8 or 1? Must be 1 because I see a train two floors down pulling away at 7:29. Yep. It left precisely on time from Platform 1. Too bad we were on Platform 8. It was the second time in less than 24 hours mass transit left me standing in the cold. Turns out, Joe had scrolled too far down on the app and was looking at our return tickets. Sigh.

Well, three options: Find a pub. Go find out when the next train leaves. Go back to the hotel and back to bed. The lady at the information booth was very kind...especially when she saw the red advisory that our first train was running late. HaH! Not our fault. Here's the next train, you can ride for free...you just have to got upstairs to the ticket office to get reservations. Sigh.

We finally boarded a later train - not by much - and made our way to Bamberg.

Bamberg is a great little town in south central Germany. Its in Bavaria, so it has that typical half-timbered houses look.

Just so cute.

Job One was to hit the two breweries in town famous for smoked and rauchbiers. These are lagers that have the unique flavors of meat: brisket and bacon, specifically. They are usually lower abv, but have great depth of flavor and a thick mouthfeel. They come off feeling like big beers. But I get it...it's a flavor that not everyone can enjoy. The two breweries are: Brauerei Spezial (smoked bier) and Schlenkerla (for the rauchbier).

Both were soooo good. And the food at Spezial was delish, too - of course we had schnitzel.

Checking those from our list, we wandered the old town. Just lovely.

The Rathaus - Old City Hall

Yep - it straddles the river. Back in the 1300s, the people of Bamberg didn't want to give up any of their hard-earned lands to build a government building. So the City fathers built an island in the middle of the river and the city hall atop it. Problem solved. 

Lots of old statuary around it.

Me: A) freaking out because there's a bird on my arm, or B) having trouble refusing just one more beer.

We wandered a bit more, had some hot chocolate and anxiously watched the clock so we wouldn't miss the train back to Berlin.

Which we caught without problem. The problem was catching the commuter train back to the station near our hotel. Ugh. I was so plagued by PTTD - post traumatic train disorder: fear of missing a train, that we (okay, I) thought the train that was on the appointed platform and just closing its doors was the one we were supposed to be on. Guess not.

We balked and hopped off at the next station. After some map reading, we figured out it was the right train, just the wrong time - the next train was in three minutes. We finally got to the right station, but...it was not a fun day on the rails.

Friday - SLEEP IN DAY!!