Bayreuth, Bamberg and everything Wolfgang.

Malcolm Frost
Sep 12, 2016
9 min read

(above photo - map of old Bayreuth)

A strange title I know, but all will be made clear soon.

After our few days in Regensburg we took the train to Bayreuth to meet up again with our friend Franzi. She and her friend Steffi visited New Zealand a couple of years ago and stayed with us for a few days in our home. They left with the promise of a stay with them should we ever visit Germany. We caught up with Steffi in Berlin so now......here we are arriving at Bayreuth train station to be met by Franzi's mum Ingrid with a "When Frosty" traffic sign (made by Franzi) - so we'd recognise her.

Franzi was otherwise engaged so mum got the job of collecting us from the station. And so began four absolutely lovely days staying in a family home with Franzi, her mum Ingrid, dad Wolfgang, Franzi's sister Susie and her husband and 3 children (who were visiting for Franzi's other sisters wedding) plus Martin - Franzi's boyfriend. A full house.

We were up on the 4th floor of this huge home. Lots of stairs again, but at least we didn't have to worry about lugging our luggage up all those stairs. Wolfgang had rigged up an electric hoist which carried anything heavy from ground level up to the 3rd floor. Simple, brilliant and very "Heath Robinson."

After settling in, we went for a walk into town for a bite to eat and a drink of juice.

(Photo above - Bayreuth)

An easy walk, we were just a few short blocks from the pedestrian precinct in the city centre. It's a nice town. I can't put my finger on anything in particular that made it different from other towns in the area (churches, fountains and statues once more) but it just FELT right - and sometimes you just have to go with that gut feeling.

(photo above - ornate and beautiful church interior Bayreuth)

The composer Richard Wagner had strong ties with Bayreuth. In 1871 he moved to Bayreuth which was to be the site of his new Opera House. The town council donated a large plot of land - known as the Green Hill - and a year later the foundation stone of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus ("Festival Theatre") was laid. It finally opened in August 1876.

(photo above - Wagner's Festspielhaus - Bayreuth)

Since Wagner's death, the Bayreuth Festival, which has become an annual event, has been successively directed by his widow, his son Siegfried, the latter's widow Winifred Wagner, their two sons Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner, and, presently, two of the composer's great-granddaughters, Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner. Since 1973, the festival has been overseen by the Richard-Wagner-Stiftung (Richard Wagner Foundation), the members of which include a number of Wagner's descendants.

I don't want to get into the history or the politics surrounding Wagner in any great detail - suffice to say that he was a philanderer and an anti-semite, who's works and ideas had a great influence on Adolf Hitler.

(photo above - front of the Wagner house)

Many performers at the Festspielhaus were of Jewish descent and during the years of WW2 were removed from the stage to one of the many concentration camps. Very few made it out again. There is a memorial to these performers lower down the hill in front of the theatre. It's a very sombre and sobering place.

We visited the Green Hill on one of our days out with our guide - Franzi's dad Wolfgang.

Ingrid and Wolfgang were brilliant towards us during our stay. They are a selfless couple who put everyone else's needs first. All the family were very welcoming and friendly towards us. We owe them a great debt of gratitude - Ingrid in the home - for feeding us and doing our laundry.... and Wolfgang for taking us out and about and giving me in particular some good photography tips.

Wolfgangs business is photography, so he knows what he's talking about. The family business is now in it's 3rd generation and specializes in postcards and promotional flyers for businesses along with a raft of other kinds of photographic services.

(photo above - our host, guide and friend Wolfgang joking around)

He has a great sense of humour - laughs readily at his own jokes and is an all round nice guy.

We've been so fortunate on this trip in finding really nice, genuine people.

So it is under Wolfgangs guidance that we discover Bayreuth, Bamberg and everything Wolfgang.......hence the blog title.

The second day of our stay we go on a walking tour of Bayreuth with Wolfgang in the lead.....we get used to the phrase "we go now...or now we go" as we move from one photo opportunity to the next. He has so much local knowledge, facts, figures, names etc - most of it goes right over our heads. I'm not going to even try to repeat any of this information in my blog as I am sure to get most of it wrong.

Local knowledge is wonderful though and he helped us find little nooks and crannies in Bayreuth that we would never have found on our own. For example he took us into an apothecary shop to show us its painted vaulted ceiling - several hundred years old.

Photos above and below - the Apothecary shop (chemist) outside and the vaulted painted ceiling inside.

He knew that Liz played the piano as a child so took us to a piano makers Steingraeber & Sohn. It's little things like that, that make an ordinary day special.

(photo above - outside the piano factory - amazing doors - look at the workmanship!)

Bayreuth is yet another medieval town with its fair share of historic buildings and churches, fountains and monuments.....and Wolfgang walked us around most of it. It was a tiring but most enjoyable day.

(photo above - back of the Wagner house - Wagners grave in foreground. His dogs grave is the stone on the left hand side)

We visited the Wagner house and the grave of Wagner (and his dog). Strolled through some peaceful gardens behind the Wagner House and dipped in and out of several churches. Most of which had gorgeous interiors. Such detail on the ceilings and architraves. Quite lovely.

(photo above - gardens behind the Wagner house)

Wolfgang knows the town inside out and had made postcards of every historical or pretty building, fountain and statue. It became a running joke as we passed shops selling postcards.

"Look postcards!" Wolfgang would remark.

"Yours?" we'd ask.

"Yes", he'd smile and laugh - "now we go".

And so our day ended and we descend on Ingrid's dinner table for food and cold Radler (lager shandy).

(above photo - Bamberg Rathaus - sitting mid stream with arched bridges linking to either side of the river.)

Next day we're off to Bamberg - yet another picturesque medieval town. This part of Germany - of Bavaria - is really something special. Not just the towns, but the countryside in between. It's absolutely beautiful - Wolfgang knows it and has a lot of pride about this land.

Franzi and Martin are able to join us for at least some of the day, which is nice.

Bamberg was built at the confluence of two rivers - the Main and the Regnitz. and like Rome is built on seven hills.

(photo above - the leg bursting out of the mural - see text below)

The buildings in the old town date from anywhere between the 11th and 19th centuries and include the muraled Altes Rathaus (old town hall).

They say that the Germans have no sense of humour - this is a total fallacy. Wolfgang can be hilarious and some wag has glued a false leg to the outside of the Rathaus mural looking like someone is bursting out of the painting.

The Rathaus is mid stream in the Regnitz river and is joined to each side of the river by an arched bridge. Down below......is a Venetian gondola complete with boatman in striped shirt and two passengers. Hold on.....this is Germany!

(photo above - is it Bamberg or Venice?)

Up on the hill, the Romanesque Bamberg Cathedral is a huge 4 towered building, begun in the 11th century. Begun in 1004 by Emperor Henry II, it underwent several changes including two fires. The current Romanesque form is from the late 13th century. Inside are many art works and statues including the Bamberg Horseman - the symbol of Bamberg.

Wolfgang showed me the best angle for a photo of the horseman and moments later grabbed me again for another shot as the light was more favourable. "We make photo.....and now we go".

(photo above - The Bamberg Horseman - inside the Cathedral - we made the photo....now we go)

Across the courtyard from the cathedral is the Neue Residenz (New Residence), which was initially occupied by the prince-bishops and later by the deposed King Otto of Greece. The Residenz has a lovely Rose Garden. The light was not great when we visited the Rose Garden and in the background there was yet more repair work being done to a part of the building so the obligatory scaffolding and tarps were on show, but I think I managed to squeeze off a couple of good shots.

(Photo above - Rose garden at the Residenz complete with statues - I just managed to squeeze the scaffolding into the top left hand corner)

(photo above - Wolfgang being Wolfgang just parks his car where he pleases - this time in a courtyard surrounded by buildings like this).

(photo above - typical Bamberg scene - shutters and flowers - quite gorgeous).

You'll not be surprised to know that Bamberg is yet another Unesco world heritage site.

(photo above and below - ornate splendour of the rich and royal.

We visited a very ornate building with blue and gold mosaic tiles and a huge fountain out front. I can't for the life of me remember the name of it but it was built as a plaything for the nobles and these days a lot of people come here for wedding photos.

Due to the fact that I am fast running out of time I have to cut this short. Just one more strange fact though before I end the Bamberg section of the story. Bamberg has a brewery (or is it several breweries?) that makes a distinctive dark beer. Nothing strange about a brewery making beer I hear you say......BUT this beer is smokey. It tastes like you're drinking liquid smoked ham. It's called Rauchbier (literally smoke beer) and its certainly an acquired taste. We called in to a beer garden at the top of one of the hills overlooking Bamberg and tried to avoid the smokey beer by ordering a Radler (usually made with lager and lemonade) only to be thwarted when a smokey brew landed in front of us in earthenware mugs. It took some getting down I can tell you. We just had the one and left.

(photo above - Wolfgang, Franzi and Liz about to sample smokey beer)

Our final full day with Franzi's family and its another road trip with Wolfgang. This time to the Fränkische Schweiz.....yet another area of outstanding beauty and another chance for Wolfgang to point me in the right direction for some nice photos.

(photo above - a reflective photo on our road trip to the Fränkische Schweiz - we interrupted an artist making his painting here to squeeze past him on the path in order to get this photo).

We drive, we make photos.....now we go. We drive, walk a bit, make photos and we're off again. It's another full on enjoyable day with our amiable guide. He's self depreciating about his English, but its really very good and way better than my smattering of German. I understand much of what is spoken here in Germany, but am having trouble speaking it....and the dialect in southern Germany is so different than anywhere else.

Wolfgang knows all the best spots for photos and pretty much parks the car where he wants to because he's "a special person" and we're on a mission to get good photos. This can be on someones private land or a pull in at the roadside meant for emergencies.......who am I to argue? I'm getting good photos....I hope.

(The hilltop that this photo was taken has a bit of a story to it. A local was trying to outrun the soldiers of an invading army he got to this clifftop and jumped. Crashing through the branches of trees below and through a rooftop - this broke his fall and he survived.)

I don't even remember the names of most of the places we visited - it was a bit of a whirlwind tour and sometimes road works and road closures put us in places that we hadn't initially intended going...but I got the photos.

One place we pulled off the road at was a campsite with a restaurant on site which specialized in the local produce such as locally hunted wild boar. Slow braised in a creamy mushroom gravy, with potato dumplings, it was delicious and reasonably priced. A big plateful for around 9 Euros and a couple of Euros for a big beer. Excellent.

We climbed hills, we walked through woodland and over rocks to get the best position for a photo. Wolfgang is keen and helpful and eager to help me improve my photos.

And suddenly it's time to head back to Bayreuth for dinner. Our last full day here done.

We leave for Innsbruck in Austria in the morning. It's going to be a sad time saying goodbye to Franzi, Wolfgang and Ingrid. That's the downside of travelling. The upside is you get to meet lots of interesting, warm and kind people but the down side is saying goodbye. Neither Lizzie or myself are very good at goodbyes......neither it seems are our hosts.

We are farewelled from the house by Ingrid and Franzi - like us they are fighting back the tears in their eyes. Poor Wolfgang has the task of taking us to the station. We say our goodbyes on the platform of the railway station and he beats a hasty retreat.