October 9-10 Wurtzburg yo Bamberg

Oct. 9-10

 Wurtzburg, Rothenburg  and Bamberg

Awoke in Wurtzburg on the 9th to a foggy, cold day, so Gay and I did not join the morning tour of the Wurtzburg Bishop’s palace filled with Tiepelo frescoes and lots of rococo gold, pink and beige.  Instead, we waited another few hours, and then joined the group in the late morning to go through the lush, green farm land of Franconia.  

We were told all about crops, farming and how one hunts wild boar and deer before we came to the lovely town of Rothenburg.  With our guide William we walked through the thick city walls and walked in a leisurely manner up the hill to the main market square.  Things that were pointed out were the inner walkway on the backside of the city walls, which one can still use to circumnavigate the town.  We sampled various food specialities including: dried apple rings, a medley of sausages and something called snowballs which are a sweet large dough the size of a baseball coated in chocolate or sugar or honey.  

We learned about the history of the town which was only slightly bombed in WWII because the Americans made a deal saying that if the Germans would give in within five hours their city would be saved, otherwise it would be bombed to smithereens.  

Once in the market we had a lunch of bratwurst and beer in a lovely old pub, did a bit of shopping at the christmas shop which had every known type of ornament, nutcracker and nativity scene and then walked slowly back to the bus and ‘home’ to the ship.

October 10th

We arrived in Bamberg in the afternoon but the beer tasting  tour had been canceled, so while one could walk through the rain to enjoy the town which had NOT been bombed, I chose to stay onboard and read quietly.  In the afternoon we were given a short lecture about the ship itself, I talked with Bob, played scrabble, and then listened to the plans for the next day.  It would appear that around Regensburg there are few locks and over 100 kilometer of river without locks, and thus the water was too low. As a result we will have a slight change of plans, getting off early in the morning and being bussed ahead while the ship without the 90 people, and in daylight goes slowly down the shallow river.  I don’t know how our weight can make that much of a difference, but there you are.

It’s now the morning of the 11th – a Sunday – and we are off on a sunny day to re-live WWII.