Dec 03/12: Bamburg and Complaints about Dad

Hi all,

 

Today I have to complain about Phil, which he says is not fair- so there!

 

We are in Bamberg, and all would have been fine if Phil hadn't come this close to missing the bus for the city tour. By itself, this would not have been a problem because he would just have gotten back on the boat. However, the boat was leaving the dock and moving to another location further upriver, a town further away, where we were to have the bus meet the ship at the end of our excursion and free time in the city. So you can see the problem...

 

Anyway, luckily I spotted him way at the end of the peer, taking pictures of... birds. I yelled and yelled and waved  since the bus was ready to go, and finally he saw me and started to run back to the bus. He was the last one on... Really, I can't take him anywhere!

 

We are having a great time. it has snowed the last 2 days, but it does tend to melt in the afternoon. So today we had a tour of the hold historic city , and then a  cathedral & castle (again - there are loads of them everywhere!). Everything is medieval here. Of course, surrounding the old walled town outside it is more modern. But we are inside the old town ( think Quebec city) , so many small narrow corridors, cobblestone streets, quaint buildings, and... in this town... breweries!!!! This town has the highest concentration of breweries in and around the city then any other place in Germany. There are 2 very old  `rival` breweries  that we saw and they are side by side, across the street from each other. One is called the `Schenkla` brewery because of its owner. Apparently he was hit in the foot with a cask of beer, and it never healed correctly so he would  drag or `schenkle` his foot when he walked. They are famous for their `smoky beer` which is brewed there exclusively. The story is that one day there was a fire in the brewery and the hops and grains became `smoky` as a result. The owner was too cheap to throw them out and replace them with fresh grains, so proceeded to use them anyway and this resulted in a beer that apparently tastes like drinking  beer with BBQ sauce or as our guide said, `drinking liquid smoked ham`. We did not try it because we ran out of time, but some of the others on board did and it seems that after a few sips they said they  quite liked it. 

 

Beer was a staple in the medieval ages because the water was too polluted to drink, so they drank beer instead - but it had a very low alcohol content, not like today!

 

It is very interesting hearing the history of the various houses as we go on these tours, and the time goes very fast. The walks take anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours, so we feel we are getting our exercise.

 

Today our bus left the ship  at 1.20  for the town which was about a 25 minute ride. The  tour finished at  around 3.45, then until 5.20 we were on our own. I lost Phil at least a half a dozen times, and in between  he managed to behave like a `dickopf`  and made me really mad. Then he spent ages taking a million pictures of ducks by the river... he filled up his entire camera with them!

By then he complained that he was cold, hungry and had to go to the bathroom. Of course, the bathroom issue was a  sore point because I went when we visited the castle (paid my 0.50 E) and he didn`t, so now it was about an hour later, and he was a crab. Of course I didn't have to go now... and he complained that I had taken forever at the castle and he couldn`t even have 0.50E to go to the bathroom when he needed to. Meanwhile, I had wandered around while he was busy being a dickopf and found a very nice local restaurant which had cafe & kuchen for 3.90E  (a great price since just a mug of ghuwein is 3E) but, he was being a dickopf and we and an argument about going. He said he was going to stand on the street corner for 2 hours waiting for the bus in the snow  come pick him up and take him to the boat and I could just go away to the market and take pictures  because he always claims he turns around an then I am gone!

 

Finally, with much complaining all the way, especially about bathrooms, we went. Wasted at least half an hour with his arguing.... Anyway, when we got there, he went to the bathroom and it was free!!!! We had a great piece of chocolate-orange torte which was moist and delicious and Phil had a cup of coffee. The he was OK again. He admitted that he had never eaten lunch, so that explains a lot since he gets very crabby if he gets hungry, especially if he has to pee too! I had had a very nice lunch, so I couldn`t understand why he was so upset about everything- well, now I know, but it`s still his own fault and he shouldn't have been such a dickopf about it all.  So there !

 

Anyway, went to the Christmas market, and found out that this year`s mug was a boot shape - either in red or blue, so we took one in blue. I asked if there were any mugs, but the man said last year everyone wanted boots, so this year they made boots and now everyone wants mugs (like last year).

 

Had very little time left, so did not do any other shopping, but tomorrow is another day and we have another market to go to. The bus took about  a half hour to get to the new port where the ship was waiting for us. Then  had port talk for tomorrow, supper,  downloaded pictures (of ducks!) tried to email  you (but it didn't go so don`t know when you will actually get this...). Finally went to bed. No laundry tonight. We are tired.

 

(Phil said he might skip the tour of the next town tomorrow- he needs a `sea day`, and besides wants to wander about in hopes of getting more bird pictures. )

 

Hope all is well with you.

Will tell you more tomorrow.

Rosie & Phil

 

PS - are you getting  these emails ? Can you send us a note to let us know please ( a fresh note, don`t just `reply` as the file will be too big and it jams up the entire email since there is limited internet (but at least it`s free).