Bamburg, Germany

From Prague we took a bus to Nuremberg, Germany. Honestly, I think it was the most comfortable bus ride I've ever taken in my life. From Nuremberg, we caught a train to our destination: Bamburg.

Bamburg is a delightful and picturesque town that's famous for its smoked beer. This was my first exposure to Germany and I must say it set the tone for the rest of my stay in that country.

Bamburg is first and foremost a very cute and safe little town. It's a tourist destination, so its clean and has tons of places to eat as well as shop and all that. We had the added treat of getting to see a medieval feast go on in the restaurant adjoining our hotel as we tasted our first beer, so that was a hoot.

Yes, it was the smoked beer. My father had told me a great deal of his experiences of the Bamburg beer from his visit to this town, so I felt obligated to give it a try. Everyone and their cousins seemed to cautiously warn us that the smoked beer was pretty much an acquired (meaning largely local) taste.

We had it anyway.

I dunno how other people feel about it, but I thought the smoked beer was one of the best beers I've ever had. I consistently drank solely that when possible. It was delightful.

The people were nice, of course. While still a bit reserved (from an American standpoint), they were pleasant and polite. I found them a bit less... intense... than the Czechs, but that may have been a big-city vs. small-town thing.

We learned one important thing while staying in Bamburg: everything in Germany closes on Sundays except museums and restaurants. Need a drug store on Sunday? You're out of luck. Want to buy non-edible souvenirs on a Sunday? Too bad.

From an American standpoint, it was a trifle annoying, but that was the only thing "wrong".

Oh, that and the lack of pretzels. More on that later.