Bambergers bragged about it being as important as Rome, saying their city also had seven hills

~~Never Stop Traveling

I was in Bamberg on June 10. I’m writing this on June 11 from the city of Würzberg, more than a day upstream from Bamberg. Two day ago, June 9, we spent the day in Nuremberg. That city will be covered a blog post or in the next few days.

Our trip is nearing the end. We end the voyage in Amsterdam. I will be starting a new set of blogs at that time. So bear with me.

Yesterday’s tour had some issues so there is a back story your need to hear.

Yes, bear with me. Yesterday, our walking tour in Bamberg was more of a game of catch-up. Our local guide was very good, very thorough and, as a resident, quite knowledgeable. But, she was also very fast on her feet. Mariam, who hung back with me, and I were usually the last ones to catch up to where she was pointing out something important. Consequently, I did not get to fill my little Moleskin notebook with too much in the way of local history. And there was plenty of history I wanted to learn about.

I didn’t need my brain yesterday as much as I needed strong legs, a sturdy back and dependable feet…none of which I possess. Don’t ask me to go into my personal health problems, I’m not saying anything about that. It’s my own secret. It’s HIPPA. It’s…okay, I had back surgery years ago which never really provided me with that much relief. I’ve had two foot surgeries, the first was a failure of the hardware and the second was a repair job. And there are other minor things not worth going into.

I’m telling you all this because it plays into the narrative of this and the next blog or two. And it’s simple because of my efforts in trying to catch up with the tour guide. I ‘ran’ when I should have been walking. So, this morning I woke up a swollen left leg. and when I stood up in the light of dawn, I found myself shocked by an angry rash below my knee. To shorten a longer and interesting story (like how the German health care system treated me and what the final cost was) short, I spent most of the day in the Würzburg hospital. As I type this, I’m lying on the bed with my laptop actually on my lap and my legs elevated with both legs wrapped and bandaged like the third cousin of King Tut.

Please click “like” on this blog…I’m going through hades to get it out to you in all it’s ugly honesty.

Good. All that is behind us. It’s time for me to tell you about the part of the Bamberg tour that I found the most interesting and that will stay in my mind longer than a statue of any Queen.

I’m talking about the Stumbling Stones of Bamberg.

I was just catching up with the group. They were gathered around something in the cobblestone sidewalk and the guide was pointing out something that the sun glinted off. The group moved on and I caught the last person and asked what I had missed.

“Oh, the Stumbling Stones,” he said.

I looked down and saw a brass plate about four inches square embedded in the pavement. I tried to read it but out of the corner of my eye I saw the group had moved on. They were a half a block away, so I grabbed my walking pole and we tried to catch up…again. At the end of the tour, our guide told us we could visit the Cathedral (which we had passed about an hour ago) and mentioned that perhaps we would like to go into one of the hundreds (it seemed pubs) that sold the famous smokey beer. I immediately declined to make the climb up the hill to visit the Cathedral. I wanted to, but I knew I couldn’t manage it and it would damage my left leg even more than it already was.

We were free for about three hours so we ducked into a cafe and I ordered a lemonade. Well, it was not simply a glass of water with some ice and some lemon juice…it was so much more. I counted three strawberry slices, two lemon slices and another fruit I couldn’t identify, but it was sublime in it’s flavor. Simply the best thirst quencher I have ever tasted.

There was a large farmer’s market in the town square and a man playing the piano by a fountain. This is civilization, I thought. As I passed by a fruit stand I noticed a pyramid of peaches. I love peaches but I have not had a truly ripe one since 1962. I bought two and we sat listening to the piano and eating peaches, wiping the juices from our lips. These were ripe peaches and tasted like those in the good old days.

It was time to head back to the bus that would take us to the boat. We joined up with a few others from our cruise. Then we found another few fellow passengers standing and looking down at something on the sidewalk.

More Stumbling Stones. Four of them. It was then that I heard exactly what these small brass plates on the granite stones were depicting.

They are places on the sidewalk outside the front door of the last known address of a single Jew or Jewish family…and what their fate was. Where they were sent…Dachau or Bergen-Belsen or the extermination camp of Auschwitz. The rest of the group moved on to the buses.

But I stood riveted to the pavement. I stared at the door, the door of their home where they were taken from and trained or trucked off to their fate.

It was a profound moment for me but I had to catch up, yet again, to the group.

I didn’t sleep well last night. My leg and ankle hurt, my foot hurt…but most of all, my heart hurt.

To spend hours thinking about the horrific ways that some humans can treat other humans sometimes will numb and erase all other mundane thoughts.

[Four Stumbling Stones. Photo is mine.]

[Close up for those who can read German. Photo is mine.]