Jul 30 – Wurzburg, Germany

Last updated on August 3rd, 2019 at 09:18 am

The Magni arrived in Wurzburg around 8:30 a.m. and our tour didn’t leave until 10 a.m., so we had a more leisurely morning. Alan caught up on creating the daily blog outline and selecting and posting pictures.

We joined the brothers’ Bill & Bob and their wives Mary & TK for breakfast this morning. We were talking about the bike excursion we are taking tomorrow. TK, Bob’s wife would really like to go and Bob was hesitant. Bill was giving him a hard time. Bob recently had shoulder surgery and has some other joint and back issues, so he wasn’t sure it was a good idea for him.

At 10 a.m. we started out for Rothenburg ob der Tauber, about an hour and 15 minutes drive along the “Romantic Road”. We are not sure how it got its name. Most of the time we were driving through farm land, fields of harvested wheat, rye and barley, corn, sunflowers and many fields of sugar beets. As we drove closer to Rothenburg, the scenery became more rolling hills. Jasmine, our local guide, provided historical context to the area. We are in the German federal state of Bavaria, which some time ago incorporated the area known a Franconia. The Franconia people don’t want to be known as Bavarians. The Franconian people are know to be a little grumpy. Franconia is known from its white wine, using a particular grape that does well with the type of soil found in Franconia. We was numerous vineyard all the way up the large steep hills, planted vertically to give the plants the right amount of sunlight.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber in located along the Tauber river, a tributary to the Main River. It was declared a Free Imperial City in 1274. In the 19th century its historical value was recognized and preservation efforts safeguarded its medieval, Renaissance and Baroque building. There is a city wall surrounding the old town area, with large sections of the wall intact from the Middle Ages.

We left the bus outside the turreted city wall and walked in. The streets are narrow, the street and narrow sidewalk on both sides all cobble stone. We saw many half timber houses, many with flower boxes hanging outside all the windows overflowing with flowers of all colors. We made our was through the old town area from north to south on our was to Gasthof Glock, the restaurant where we will eat a traditional three course German lunch. Our first course was potato soup. The potatoes must have been puréed as there were no potato chunks in the soup. We had heard so much about Franconian wine that we decided to sample a medium dry white wine. It was good, not bitter, with a slightly fruity sweet taste. The second course was two sausages, sauerkraut in white wine and mashed potatoes. The white wine improved the sauerkraut, though neither of us were about to finish it. Desert was apple strudel with a vanilla sauce that was really good.

After lunch we had about 2 hours of free time. We had been told Rothenburg was a great place to shop for cuckoo clocks and anything Christmas. Not far from the restaurant was one of the access stairs to the top of the city wall were we could walk on the wall. We climbed the narrow steep stone steps and walked on the wall for about 400 meters. The walkway was stone with a wooden timber roof and rail. Every few meters was a thin vertical opening to shoot through when defending the medieval city. We defended another narrow stairway of stone steps and walked for awhile through back streets until we came to the main city square.

Next on our agenda was looking a cuckoo clocks. Alan had done a little research and know he was looking for a clock that chimed with an song and mechanical animation. We looked at several and listened to the song and watched the animation. There were several shops but they appeared to belong to the same company to prices were standardized. That didn’t give Alan the price comparison he was looking for, but we did narrow down the song and animation features we liked.

From cuckoo clocks we moved on to Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas Village. This place is Christmas on steroids. If it is Christmas, it was there – trees, all kinds of glass and wooden ornaments, wide variety of Christmas linens, and many sizes of the wooden things with carved figures with blade on the top that move from the heat of the candles. Room, after room after room….quite an experience.

Jasmine, our guide, told us to look for a couple things in the bakeries, German black bread made with rye flour and schneeballen, a dry cookie-like pastry made with short-crust dough, cut in strips, formed into a ball and deep-fat fried. It is then dusted with powdered sugar or dipped in chocolate or other dips. We though about getting one, but saw someone else eating it and it kind of fell apart and looked very dry, so we opted out. Joyce, who loves rye bread did buy the smaller black bread loaf she could find, which wasn’t all the small. She will be eating on it for days!

We headed back to the Gasthof Glock Restaurant, our rendezvous point to walk back to the bus. We were several minutes early, so we walked past the restaurant to Der Patchwork Engel Quilt Store. We looked at German fabrics, cute cat buttons and an adorable cat wall hanging pattern that Joyce almost purchased. She took stock of the many patterns she has that she hasn’t made and decided to look for it online if she still likes it once we are home.

We walked to the bus, parked in a different place than we were let out, and made our way back to Wurzburg via the Autobahn, quicker than the “Romantic Road”. We both took a short nap as the afternoon had become pretty warm.

Once back in Würzburg, we toured the Bishops’ Residenz, one of Germany’s largest and most ornate Baroque palaces. It was designed for Prince Bishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schonborn beginning construction on 1720. The shell of the building took approximately 20 years to build, then another 40 years to finish the interior. This place is massive! There is a very large courtyard/parking lot in the front and even bigger gardens in back. The palace has a U shape to the central area and two large side wings. The grand entry staircase has one of the largest frescos ever created depicting the four continents known in 1752/53. In 1945 during the bombing of Würzburg the vaulting over the ceiling was destroyed, however a forward thinking American soldier ordered the ceiling covering protecting the fresco.

We were given a guided tour of the Imperial Apartments which are difficult to describe, each room more ornately decorated than the last. Statues, gilded furniture and ceiling decorations. One room was entirely decorated and painted mirrors on both walls and ceilings. Alan commented that considering the Prince Bishop was both the religious and governmental ruler, there was much more opulence without much evidence of religious reverence. We were not allowed to take pictures, so we have included a reference to a YouTube video for those interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQT8wSVWA90. We took a self-guided tour of the rooms in the left wing of the building. These rooms were not furnished or near a opulent. On our way out of the Residenz, we toured the Palace chapel. It was truly a thing of beauty with white statues and numerous paintings depicting events from the Bible.

From the Residenz, we toured the gardens. They were likely French with sculpted trees and mini-hedges bordering flowers of every variety and wide crushed stone walkways. On one side was another garden to roses with large pots of tall flowers surrounding a fountain.

We met the bus and went back to the Magni for some relaxation time and dinner. After dinner a glass blower came on board for a demonstration. We will be able to visit his shop tomorrow in Wertheim. He selected a woman from the passengers and helped her make a glass ornament. Joyce was very tired from the long day and his commentary during the demonstration was tiresome for her. Alan said the man needed to do something while the glass was cooling, which is most likely true.

When we returned from the demonstration, Joyce put in her ear plugs and sleep mask and retired.