After lunch, the Avalon Tranquility docked in Bamberg and we boarded two buses for the short ride into town. We strolled the ancient streets of this quaint town of about 70,000 with three guides and the audio devices. Mom and I had been to Bamberg before, but it was in late October, so the town looked quite different. The river was still very high, so we had to dock outside the city. Our walking tour passed by some of the movie sets used the previous week to film some of "The Three Musketeers" scenes. Our guide said that one large courtyard had over 200 horses in it for almost a week, and the cobblestones certainly smelled like horses had been nearby! We didn't have any celebrity sightings.
After touring around the town for about 1.5 hours with a guide, we had 2 hours free time for shopping. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes into our free time, it started pouring rain. Mom and I ducked into one of the breweries (with many other people) to try and wait out the storm. After about 15 minutes, we decided to go ahead and have a beer so we could sit down. We ordered a sampler of 3 beers (we both liked two of the beers, but not the third). The piping hot fresh pretzels were delicious.
We strolled a little more, but it kept getting colder and sprinkled occasionally, so we were early back to the bus, returning to the ship at 5:30. Our last dinner on the ship was another good one. I had fish, but mom's vegetarian dish was exceptional. It was carrots rolled in a sesame seed meal and fried--crispy/crunchy but delicious. Accompanying her carrots was an orangey sauce, Thai rice, and broccoli. Stracciatella (chocolate chip gelato) with a Bailey's sauce was dessert.
After dinner, we had a 3-man swing band who came onboard (like the others by joining at one lock and disembarking later at another). They were excellent. Katalin said their total age was significantly greater than 200! These 3 old guys enjoyed a good dinner and were sipping tall beers while entertaining us. Many of the passengers danced--and danced well!
We had started our packing before dinner and finished it after the show. It's much easier when you are just packing everything in the cabin, isn't it?
The next day we were to drive to Prague.
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