Jul 31 – Wertheim, Germany

Last updated on August 2nd, 2019 at 05:38 pm

Today Viking had arranged for small choo choo trains to transport passengers to the city center on Wertheim. The train was transporting us in two trips. When we picked up our boarding passes we discovered we were in the second group. Marie had told us the day before it was an easy 15 minute walk to the center of the old town area, so we decided to walk. It was a very pleasant walk. We had about 20 minutes to walk around on our own before our group arrived on the choo choo.

Our local guide was a retired town hall worker. Wertheim is one of the smaller towns we have visited. The streets are narrow and cobble stone, like most of the others. Wertheim is located at the confluence of the Main and Tauber Rivers. They have had frequent floods as many of the towns we have visited, but since the Main and Tauber Rivers are smaller, their flooding has not been as bad.

• • Walking tour of the town

We walked through the shopping district, along the Tauber River, through a rose garden. We saw a butcher shop, a bakery and located the shop of the glass- blower that had demonstrated his craft the night before on our ship.

During our free time, we did some shopping. The prices in Wertheim seemed more reasonable than some of the other towns we had visited. Many of the shops had sale items on shelves and racks in the street. Joyce found a colorful dress and tunic she liked, on sale, which Alan liked. The fabrics were colorful and patterns we had not seen before. The shop proprietor assured us the clothing was fabric from Italy, make in Frankfort. The labels confirmed this. We also visited the glass blowers shop and found a couple item we liked.

We noticed on the map that the Jewish cemetery was on the way back to our ship. Our local guide had told us there was a Jewish community in Wertheim in the 17th and 18th centuries. The synagogue in town was destroyed, but on the spot of the destroyed synagogue there was an outline of the building in the put into the pattern of the cobble stones. We decided to see the cemetery on our way back. The cemetery stones were very old, made of sand stone, the letters difficult to see and we think written in Hebrew. The cemetery was located on a very steep hill. We walked partway up and sat on a bench. It was very peaceful.

We returned to the ship for a quick lighter lunch before our bike tour. We were not finished eating when Marie announce the tour guides and bikes had arrived. The bikes were city touring bikes with 7 speeds, coaster brakes with a soft hand brake. We were provided with the bike, helmet and the bike had a basket on the back to store our water bottle and any personal items. The guides adjusted the seat height for each biker and we rode around the parking lot getting used to the bike. One guide rode in front and the other brought up the rear. 14 passengers and one housekeeper from the ship participated. We rode a paved trail the roughly followed the Main River. The bikes were equipped with a bell and our guide taught us the hand signals he would use to show us to slow down, ride single file on the right or left and stop. He would ring his bell and give the hand signal and we were to ring our bell and repeat his signal down the line. The system worked pretty well.

We left before the ship did, but it would be leaving shortly and pick us up at the end of our journey. It was the perfect day for a bike ride, sunny with some clouds, mid 70’s, a light breeze. We rode a while and came to a bridge across the river we needed to walk our bikes across. We stopped in the middle of the bridge to wait for the ship to pass under us. We all waved, they waved back and the captain blew the ships horn. We continued to ride and soon came to a lock. We parked our bikes and climbed a steep set of stairs to a walkway above the lock and waited for our ship to enter the lock, and waved again. We continued on while the ship went through the lock.

About two thirds of the way through or ride, we stopped at a Biergarten. Our tour included one drink which we enjoyed at tables under the trees. While we were there, the ship had passed through the lock and cruised by us. We saw them, but they didn’t see us under the trees.

We continued on to Freudenberg, coming into town and to the dock just as the ship arrived. We has ridden 29 kilometers, with two hills that were somewhat challenging. The most challenging part of the hills were the lack of lower speeds on the bikes and the other bikers who would try to make it up the hill and then stop in the middle of the path when they couldn’t make it and get off the bike disrupting the momentum of bikers following them. Joyce made it up both hills on the bike, the steeper only just barely. Alan got caught behind some struggling bikers with nowhere to go, so he doesn’t know if he could have made it up or not. It was a really fun excursion. We will see how our backsides feel tomorrow!

• on the boat
  • napping, learning about future trips, port talk
  • Taste of Germany buffet dinner
    • The Chins and Philip and Diana
  • blogging and pictures
  • New great nephew