As part of my recent trip to Nuremberg in Germany (you can read all about it here), we made a couple of day trips to Bamberg and Munich which are nearby.
BAMBERG:
I’d never been to Bamberg before but it was only a short drive of 45 minutes by car from Nuremberg but you can also catch a train there.
My favourite part of Germany is the fantastic Christmas markets, each town has its own and they’re so quaint. Bamberg’s market was no exception, the market was in the newer part of town and there were some fantastic stalls of food, drinks and products. German Christmas markets are a fantastic place to get gifts for Christmas, many of the decorations are simply stunning.
We normally sample lots of gluhwein when we visit a Christmas market but this was the first time I’d tasted Feuerzangenbowle which is very similar to gluhwein but slightly more alcoholic but absolutely delicious. It’s also necessary to drink a warm drink to warm up because it was minus two degrees when we visited! Most stalls offer a non alcoholic version for children or if you’re driving and can’t drink so you can still warm up. We ate so much fantastic food while we were in Germany that it warranted it’s own blog post so you can read all about it here.
We also visited the Alte Stadt which is the older part of the town- the buildings are absolutely beautiful so this is quite a nice to explore. It’s also where the Cathedral “Dom” is which is quite nice to visit – it’s at the top of the hill and offers lovely views of the town. Just opposite the Dom, quite tucked away there is a rose garden and this is supposed to be beautiful in the summer and this offers really nice views across the town too. Can you spot the wonky roof in the photo below?
MUNICH:
As Nuremberg is in Bavaria, southern Germany it would have been a shame not to visit Munich which isn’t far away at all. Munich is only an hour away on the fast train from Nuremberg but this can be quite expensive. We travelled by train using the “Bayern Ticket”.
Bayern Ticket
The Bayern Ticket gives you unlimited travel anywhere across the Bayern region of Bavaria which includes your train journey (the slow trains only unfortunately) and it also acts as a travel card for bus and underground journeys too. This cost us €31 for both of us. Yes that’s right, I said both of us so it’s fantastic value for money.
We’d been recommended to visit Brezen Kolb at the Nuremberg train station before we left, who sell the best pretzels in Nuremberg so we picked up pretzels and coffee for the journey.
The train journey was really easy- it took two hours in total and we changed trains on the way but got a direct train on the way back. We downloaded the DB Navigator app to plan our journey and look at train times so this was really easy.
When we arrived in Munich it was a short walk to the main square “Marienplatz” but you could easily take the u-bahn (underground) as this is included in the cost of the Bayern ticket. Marienplatz is where all of the Munich Christmas Market Stalls are, and it’s also where the “RatHouse” (Town Hall) is located. This building is so beautiful and similar to Nuremberg, at 12 there was a mechanical clock that rang bells and had music. Later on in the evening, there was live carol singing in the square too which was magical.
Deutsches Museum:
While we were in Munich, we visited the Deutsches Museum and although this was located in the town centre, we took the s-bahn to Isartor which is only four minutes away from Marienplatz as this was included in our Bayern Ticket. The museum was really interesting and well worth a visit.
The museum cost €11 each to enter.
Have you visited Bamberg and Munich?
