Day 07 - Wurtzburg arrival, Rothenburg sights, Wurtzburg Castle

Today had two unique sights: a medieval walled city and a palace.

Last night we sailed from Bamberg to Wurtzburg, arriving this morning at 9am. Since our tour did not leave until 9:30 we did not have to wake as early as on previous mornings. Michele was a hungry girl today and had two breakfast courses: the omelet and the french toast. Despite Rob ordering the blueberry pancakes for her, they brought out french toast. No matter, she happily consumed them. Roy and Gwyn joined us and we had a leisurely breakfast. The maitre’d, Jerome, talked to us awhile. He is the relief maitre’d for another staffer on vacation, but prefers his regular job mixing drinks at the bar. He worked on the big cruise ships for 8 years.

Our excursion today started with a one-hour bus ride to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the best preserved medieval walled town in Germany located in the Franconian region of Bavaria. The drive, considered the grandfather of Germany’s scenic routes, the “Romantic Road” from Wurtzen to Fussen, was beautiful through rolling hills and farmland.

In the Middle Ages, Rothenburg was Germany's second-largest city with a population of 6,000 compared to 11,000 today. There are very few places elsewhere in the world with so many of its original buildings dating from the Middle Ages as in Rothenburg.

A brief history: Settlement occurred in year 970. The first castle was built in 1070. The first fortification was built around 1170. The city became a free imperial city in 1274. The 1600s were especially turbulent with the 30 years war and other battles. In 1802 the city lost independence and became part of Bavaria. Artists discovered the town in the 19th century and their paintings beautified the town, attracting tourism for the first time. 

Our tour guide gave us a brief overview of the city layout and major sights. Then we all went to a local restaurant for an authentic Franconian lunch. It was lightly peppered meat wrapped in boiled cabbage with mashed potatoes. Dessert was creme caramel.

After lunch we were on our own. We spent time walking a portion of the top of the 1.5 mile fortified wall that encircles the city. The wall connects five medieval gates with guard towers dating from 13th to 16th centuries.

The whole of the walled town is a museum, scarcely changing in appearance for hundreds of years. We walked the streets and enjoyed the characteristic half-timbered buildings, whose attics were once filled with grain and corn to enable the town's inhabitants to survive any siege. The cobblestone streets and mix of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque houses and fountains offered us something to see at every turn. 

This is the most photographed spot in town. 

About 2,000 of the 11,000 town inhabitants live inside the walled portion of Rothenburg. It is a touristy town and most shops were open even today, Sunday, just for the tourists. Roy and Gwyn went in search of the best chocolate shop in town, while Rob and Michele went in search of the aqueduct. 

We met our guide before 2:30pm to walk back to the bus together. Next up was an hour drive, partially on the Autobahn, to the Wurtzburg Residence. 

It was begun for Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn by a young and unknown architect at the time Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753). The shell of the palace was built from 1720 to 1744 and the interior completed in 1780. By the time the massive building was finished, the gifted architect had also served the brother and second successor of Johann Philipp, Friedrich Carl von Schönborn, and the two following Würzburg prince-bishops. The building costs amounted to a total of around 1.5 million florins – at a time when one florin represented a week’s wages for a day laborer. This was a massive sum.

The interior of the Würzburg Residence was the finest of its age. At the Würzburg court three generations of artists and artisans from all over Europe produced an independent variation of the rococo style. The staircase, in Baroque style, was part of a formal reception room. The staircase spans its vault, an area of 18 × 32 meters, without pillars.

The first flight…

And the 2 second flights turning back on and flanking the first flight.

The highlights of the interior decoration were created by the Venetian Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and his son with the ceiling frescos in the Imperial Hall and above the staircase, completed from 1751 to 1753. It is the largest fresco in the world. The ceiling represents four continents: North America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Each continent is represented by a typical landscape and animals (or the painter’s vision of these animals) and a female allegorical figure. This ceiling is one of the only ceiling frescos to survive the Allied bombing of WWII. Although the roof of this section of the building burned down, the vault below held and protected the fresco.

This one represents the African continent.

The European continent.

The Asian continent.

The American continent.

The White Hall in Rococo style was used as a ballroom and for playing cards and is dominated by the stucco decorations of Antonio Bossi. 

What look like flowing curtains of fabric in the ceiling are molded plaster and painted. 

The white stucco works on a light gray background are composed of a large quantity of rocailles, a French style of exuberant decoration, mixed with images of military items and even a dragon. This room is surprisingly the only ballroom in the nearly 400-room palace. The lack of gold and color allows the eye to rest between the splendors of the staircase and the ornate Imperial Hall beyond.

The Imperial Hall was used to receive visiting dignitaries, including the Emperors-to-be on their voyage to Frankfurt and on the return trip to Vienna. It was created in 1749–1751 at enormous cost. The walls of the Imperial Hall consist of stucco work marble in shades of red, white and yellow. Our guide told us the marble is synthetic to better control the placement of color.

The dome is decorated with golden stucco work and also frescoes by Tiepolo, showing an idealized history of the diocese of Würzburg. 

We walked through a few other rooms, seeing historic furniture and impressively large tapestries. 

Plenty of 23 karat gold decorates this room.

The palace was heavily damaged by Allied bombing during WWII and 20 million Euros needed for restoration. Since 1981, the Residence has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its outstanding Baroque art, design, and architecture.

We didn’t have time to visit the gardens. A quick drive back to our ship and we relaxed for two hours before dinner. A couple from Florida joined our table and we shared experiences in travels. Tonight we all enjoyed the schnitzel main course. 

At 9pm a local German glassblower joined us as guest speaker. He brought his beautiful creations for sale and demonstrated creating two objects. 

One object was a candleholder with an unusual teardrop edge that he invented. He surprised Michele by giving the finished piece to her. Boxed up, she will hand carry it home on the plane. (Here it is safe at home!) 

Another lady received a blue sphere, seen here as he is blowing the hot glass. The maitre’d Jerome said he always gives a creation or two to ladies on the ship after his demonstration. 

We were all so tired from the day that bedtime was right after. Tomorrow we visit Heidelberg. 

Day 06 - Bamberg, Germany Highlights and Setting Sail

We had a quiet night’s rest on the first night in our stateroom. We were docked in an industrial area on the river for the night and would begin our voyage downriver this afternoon, starting the second phase of our vacation. Roy and Gwyn met us for breakfast at 7:15am in the restaurant. We had a choice of fresh omelets, yogurts, fruit, pastries and breads, as well as a full ordering menu of pancakes, french toast and more. No one goes hungry on a cruise ship, even a small one. We’d have plenty of energy for our walking tour of Bamberg today.

After breakfast we got our tour tickets and boarded one of the five waiting buses. A quick drive into town and our tour guide, Chris, a local student/actor/musician, was waiting for us. Bamberg was one of few cities not destroyed by WWII bombing. Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In year 1007 Emperor Heinrich II made Bamberg the center of the Holy Roman Empire and the capital of his reign. He wanted the city to become a second Rome, and like Rome, it was built upon seven hills, each with a church on top. He ordered a new cathedral be built. It is a superb example of late Romanesque architecture. 

The emperor built a new palace because he found medieval architecture unattractive, as in the third picture below.. He intended to have an additional wing but ran out of money.

The back facade of the palace facing the rose garden was painted in trompe l’oeil (fake) style, to save money.

After the tour we had a little over an hour of free time to explore. We each got an ice cream before 11am and walked around the historic areas. Rob and Michele went back to the cathedral only to be told it was closing at 11:15am. We got a few quick pictures of the interior. 

Supposedly this statue was life size, but we thought it was more the size of a small pony. Maybe people and horses were smaller in the 1200s?

In the 14th century the town built Bamberg City Hall on the river on a manmade island to serve both sides of the river. It was rebuilt and updated 1746-1756. This building has colorful frescoes. On one is a plaster leg sticking out, purportedly because the artist wanted everyone to see his signature and to leave his leg-acy. Click and zoom on the second pic below to see it. 

Rob noticed it was 11:30am and we had to meet at our bus at 11:45. Google maps said it would take 17 minutes. After serious speedwalking, we met up with part of the group heading back to the ship. 

Lunch was at Noon upon our arrival. Rob got spaghetti carbonara and Michele chose tuna nicoise salad. The ship also departed at this time, smoothly pushing away from the dock.

After lunch we sat in the lounge area. Roy and Michele attended the Main-Danube river lecture. Main is pronounced “mine.” The modern Main-Danube river canal was built from 1960-1992 with over 30 locks, most of which have hydroelectric power. Way back in 793, Charlemagne had the idea to dig a channel. In 1837 a canal was built and expanded in 1921. During our cruise we will go through 40+ locks and descend in water elevation by 500 feet.

At 3:30 the ship offered afternoon tea (only Michele had tea) and we all shared the tea tray treats. After, we rested in our rooms until dinner. During this time we went through more locks, some of which were a tight fit.

The captain undergoes years of training and advancement to be a captain. He is only certified on specific rivers, and steers the ship by joystick through the locks. There is no fee for passing through the locks—the German people pay for it through taxes.

We enjoyed watching the novelty of moving within the locks. Dinner was 7pm tonight. At 7:03 we showed up to find everyone already there. We all started off with the minestrone except Roy who ordered two different salads. For the main course, everyone went with the beef brisket except Rob who chose the risotto. We all had the vanilla bonbon.

After dinner we made our way up to the third deck lounge where we participated in a music trivia game. Based on a song played, we had to guess the title, original artist, and a bonus question. Each team member that got up and danced when the song was played earned an extra point for that trivia question. We did pretty well between the four of us, but not enough to win.

Tired from all the dancing and fun, we turned in for the night. Tomorrow we have an all-day tour of Rothenburg, a walled city. 

Day 05 - Prague to Bamberg, Germany

Today we departed the Czech Republic and traveled all day by bus to meet our ship, the Alsvin, in Germany. We started very early with a 5:25am alarm. We had to put our luggage outside our room in the hallway by 6am so it could be loaded on the bus for us. We got our bags packed up and headed downstairs to get in line for breakfast before it opened at 6:30am. Everyone else on our ship had the same idea. By the time the restaurant opened, there was a crowd of hungry people. 

While we were eating our food, a lady at the table next to us exclaimed “OH NO!” She had cracked open an egg and discovered the hard way that it was not hard boiled. Needless to say, she had raw egg all over her pants. We gave her our napkins to help her clean up. Michele told her that things could only improve from here for her today. She wasn’t too amused.

We finished up breakfast by 7:15am and returned to our rooms to collect our carry-on bags. Viking divided the ship passengers into four groups: orange, grey, green, and blue. We were in the blue group scheduled to depart at 7:45am.

At 8:04am we departed on the E50 west out of Prague. E50 is a major highway that starts in the east at Brno, runs north through Prague before turning west and ending in Brest, France. 

The highway runs through Nuremberg. East to west it also passes by the following cities before reaching it’s end: Heidelberg, Mannheim, Saarbrucken, Metz, Reims, Paris, Chartres, LeMans, Rennnes, and Saint-Brieuc. The route took us through the western Czech countryside where we saw fields of blooming rapeseed. 

The crop’s yellow bloom lasts just a few weeks. We stopped for a quick 20 minute bathroom/leg stretcher break around 10am. Back on the bus at 10:20am we crossed over into Germany 10 minutes later. There was a small border station, but the guards didn’t stop the bus so we continued on.

Michele was last in Germany in 1991 when she took a trip to Italy via Germany with her friend’s family. Rob was last in Germany in 1985. Back then the Czech Republic was Czechoslovakia and the Iron Curtain was well intact. This trip would not have been possible (or likely desirable) back then.

While the terrain in the Czech Republic was mostly rolling hills with farmland, crossing into Germany we saw the size and number of hills increase with woodland and evergreens. We were also greeted with the site of an idyllic German hillside town.

The other notable change was the speed limit. In the Czech Republic the speed limit was 100km. Now in Germany and on the autobahn, the speed limit signs disappeared and cars were zipping past the bus at high speeds.

At about 11am, the bus driver turned off of E50 onto U85 (a secondary road). This was not expected so Rob took a quick look on his GPS and noticed that E50 was closed in the west-bound direction between Ursensollen and Schwend. The detour took us through Amberg and Souzbach-Rosenberg where we turned south on ST2164 towards Schwend where we got back onto E50.

We arrived in Nuremberg around 12:30pm.The cruise director, Jen, led us to the historic downtown square and to sightsee on our own until 2:15pm. We found an Irish pub with plenty of indoor seating and ordered lunch. The bartender/waiter spoke such good English that Michele thought he was Irish. Rob, Roy, and Gwyn all had the fish and chips while Michele had a ham and cheese toastie with a small salad. Roy and Rob also ordered a Pilsner.

In the late Middle Ages Nuremberg ranked as the most distinguished, best located city of the realm (the Holy Roman Empire). Today it is a modern, bustling area for locals and tourists. 

We drove to a few historic sites and met our tour guide. First stop was Zeppelinfeld, the Zeppelin field used for large-scale Nazi party gatherings from 1933-1938. Crowds were an astounding 1.3 million during these gatherings and the venue was used for propaganda.  This is what it looked like in those times.

Later, the Allies paraded down the same area and blew up the Nazi symbol atop the main stage. This is today’s view of what remains.

Michele felt that the place had a very bad vibe about it.

Next was a visit to the Imperial Castle of Nuremburg. 

The rampart. Note the curve of the rampart and the incline. These made charging at the gate more difficult as well as transporting large gate ramming “machines”. The curve also put the attackers back to a fortified wall allowing the defenders of the castle to shoot arrows at their backs.

These stones are original. You can see little holes in the center of each block. These holes (one on each face of the stone) were used by pincers to grip the stone so they could be lifted into place.

At the top of the rampart, you enter this gate which requires you to turn sharply to your right, making progress forward more difficult since you have to turn. This passageway was one of the defenses against enemies. It had a surprise defense mechanism.

This tunnel had no windows save for three ports in the ceiling. There was another set of doors at the other end making visibility very poor inside. Using the ceiling openings, boiled poo would be dumped upon intruders to keep them from advancing further into the castle structure. No enemy ever made it this far in this castle while the empire existed to test out that defense. 

We were shown pictures of the before and after WWII of the area around the castle. It was built in 1200 and represented the importance and power of the Holy Roman Empire. Nearly 90 percent of the city center structures were destroyed in WWII in a one-hour bombing run by the Allies. Subsequent bombings of the entire city would see 75% of all structures destroyed. Reconstruction after WWII was done to put everything back as it was pre-Nazis. So, while the city looks old it is not.

Perhaps most famously, Nuremberg is known for the Allied trials against defeated Nazi Germany for crimes committed during WWII. In the east wing of the Palace of Justice there is Courtroom 601 in which the Nuremberg trials took place. That room is located on the second floor behind the large windows on the building to the far right with the red tile roof.

After our tour of Nuremberg we drove about 45 minutes to Bamberg, arriving at the ship at 5:30pm. Check in was a new experience for us. Each crew member was assigned to each couple and walked us to our stateroom. We knew immediately this would be a more personalized type of cruise experience. We got checked into our room 321 on the third level, just below the sundeck on the top level.

Shortly after checking out our room, we went to the lounge located forward on the second deck for cocktails and the welcome presentation. We were introduced to the captain and his senior crew, and were told about the rules of the ship. A woman was rudely talking loudly near us so we could not hear everything being presented. Gwyn stared very intently at her with the evil eye and a disgusted look, but it did not work. Michele was considering how to tell her to shush without being rude herself, but the lady eventually shut up. From that point on she’d be known to us as “Loud Lady.” There’s at least one in every group, and so far most people have been friendly and kind. We learned there are just 186 passengers on our ship. 

Viking has a video on the room TV for the mandatory safety training showing where the life vests are located and the exits. In the past on the big ships we all had to show up at the muster station with our vests on and listen to the safety briefing. Michele told Rob should we need to abandon this ship, why can’t she just put on her vest and jump overboard? The ship and our balcony are very low to the water. 

Rob said he would opt to go up to the sundeck and wait until the ship sinks to the bottom, then he can just walk off it because the river is not that deep. Let’s hope neither of us need to test out our strategies. 

Before dinner we got organized and unpacked. All of our meals are at a set time, vs. large cruise ships that have a long span of time in which to get meals. Tonight’s dinner was at 7:30pm. The menu includes regional dishes, nightly specials, and an everyday menu. There are plenty of choices and we can mix and match. We can sit at any table and got one for just the four of us. Most tables seat six and some are much larger, encouraging people to mingle. The starter was pumpkin soup. Roy and Rob got the pork tenderloin, and Gwyn and Michele chose the chicken and vegetables. Dessert was New York cheesecake with raspberry drizzle.

Tomorrow we have a half day tour around Bamberg from 8:30-12:00 before we set sail down the Main river.