Sailing Away

Sailing Away

Monday, June 29, 2015

Würzburg and Rothenburg












Photo 1:  Entrance to Residenz Palace
Photo 2: View of the Palace
Photos 3 and 4: Typical views of the Palace interior
Photo 5: Bridge with its own selfie stick :). There are many village churches along the river like the one in the background
Photo 6: Street scene in Rothenburg
Photo 7: Town Hall in the Square with high school band in foreground
Photo 8: View of the Square
Photo 9: Street running off the Square

Würzburg
On Sunday morning we docked in Würzburg and visited the Residenz Palace (the Prince-Bishops’ Palace) which was built in the 18th century. It was inspired by the Palace of Versailles and it has to be one of the most beautiful buildings we have ever seen. There is no way to describe it in words – just look at the photos and you will see why.

On the lighter side, the Palace has a wine cellar holding about one million litres of wine! It figures, as this town is the centre of a major wine industry and has a university with 27,000 students. Students + wine equals ……. :). There is a magnificent fresco painted on the vaulted ceiling in the centre of the Palace which depicts the four continents known in the 18th century, so it does not include Australia. However our guide assured us that Australia is well represented by the wine cellar ‘down under’. Good save!

Rothenburg

In the afternoon we took an excursion to Rothenburg, the best preserved medieval town in Germany. We travelled through a major farming district of low, rolling green hills with huge vineyards near the river and then other crops such as maize, sugar beet, rapeseed (canola) and wheat in abundance. Southern Germany is certainly very beautiful in summer.

Old Rothenburg within the original city walls is wonderful. The photos give a good idea of what it is like. We had free time in the town square and had the unexpected treat of listening to the North View High School Band from Grand Rapids, Michigan playing Big Band music and show tunes while we enjoyed iced coffee and chocolate. We didn’t really need to indulge but it was a good excuse to sit in the courtyard in the shade and listen to the music. The Band is so good they are invited to visit Rothenburg every four years. 

It was the Chef’s Dinner last night.  Each of the chef’s had to prepare their course with 3 options reflecting the passage through the river cruise.  It was highly entertaining and delicious too.  But I swear some of the chef’s looked about 10!!! Tomas (the maitre’d in the restaurant) comes to our table every meal to let Phil know what is gluten free, and how he can adapt things to suit his needs.  He always says “Surprise Dessert for you tonight”. And he always delivers!!  A really tough day at the office guys :).

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