Bamberg, Germany - October 18, 2015

Amazing!  Yes, this is definitely one of Germany's most beautiful cities, as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with over 2,000 buildings listed as historical monuments and its old city center is Europe's largest  existing group of historic buildings. Our tour was fabulous, but the highlight of my day was the Bamberg Lace Store.  Alan suggested exploring a street, and as we began our stroll, we came upon this famous lace store.  During WWII, Bamberg was not severely bombed, so most of the stores were frequented by the U.S. soldiers. Since the war efforts back in America were consuming most of the factories, lace wasn't a priority.  The GIs found this lovely lace store in Bamberg to purchase gorgeous lace to send back home.  It was chilling to stand in this store, purchasing lace products just as the WWII soldiers had done back in the 1940s. Most of the stores were closed because it was Sunday, but I was so ecstatic over the lace purchases, that I didn't even mind.  In fact, I found their "Closed" signs absolutely adorable.

 We opted NOT to try the famous "smoky" beer since the locals described it as drinking beer from an ashtray - ewwwwwwww!  We wondered, why would anyone drink this concoction? The locals response was, the first pint is disgusting, the second is okay, and by the third you really like it.

Afterwards, we enjoyed pretzels and (a lighter version) beer, probably like most of the WWII soldiers had also done, before returning to our ship.