Thursday, July 23rd - Wurtzburg, Germany

We had an easy start to our day as we were cruising until noon.  Breakfast late and on the bow terrace and then sat there for the rest of the morning.  It was a beautiful cruise through a beautiful countryside and very relaxing.

At 12:30 we boarded our buses and went directly to the Prince Bishop's Residence which was only a few minutes away but up a hill.  From there we were doing a walking tour and then making our own way back to the ship unless we really wanted the bus ride.  We didn't.

The Prince Bishop's Residence (Residenz) was huge.  As our guide said it was built to impress and it certainly would.  A Prince Bishop was simply a Bishop who was also given control of the city and/or area.  They really weren't all that important in the big scheme of things but they certainly liked to make it seems as if they were.  It was built in the18th century.  The entrance alone had enough room for a 8-horse carriage to come in one door and do a circle to deposit its occupants at the entry way before heading out another door.  The entrance staircase is then 5400 square feet with huge ceiling but no supporting columns over the central lower stair that splits both right and left for the second stairways.  And above it all is incredible fresco by Tiepolo, and the painting at 18 x 30 metres is said to be the largest int he world.  It represents the four  continents (Australia wasn't known yet) and the picture for the Americas is certainly a wild one with Lady America riding an alligator.  Come to think of it there wasn't really a north and south america so we really were the Americas.  Africa was pretty wild looking too and the elephant was slightly deformed.  That of course was blamed on the fact that the painter had never seen an elephant.  That excuse was used for a lot in the painting. We were just lumped together as the Americas..  Asia was a bit more civilized and educated Europe was definitely the most refined of all - at least in their opinion.  And all of this entrance stairway area, which some thought would collapse before it was even built, was the only part that totally survived the bombings and fires of WWII.

Other rooms are not as large but they are as decorated.  The rooms may have been blue, green, yellow, etc. in base colour but they all had a lot of gold in them.  And they all had a lot of stucco work, which was just incredible, and frescoes.  The mirror room was pretty reminiscent of Versailles but much smaller., and we were just in the visitor's suites.  Where the family actually lived the rooms were equally glorious so it must have been quite a life.  We didn't have a lot of time to take it al in so missed the Court Chapel and the Court Gardens which were supposed to be the highlights, but what we saw was certainly magnificent.  I'm sure the Empress Maria Theresa would have fest right at home when she visited. 

From the Residenz we walked through to the old town, which was very nice and much of it was pedestrian friendly.  We saw churches but didn't actually take the time to go in any.  We did talk a bit about the one with lots of skulls and bones on it, but I no longer remember what the significance was.  We saw the old City Hall and important squares and fountains and statues and buildings but I no longer remember what they were all about either.  And I'm writing this on the next day so you'd think I would remember!.

Our tour guide left us at the edge of the Old Main Bridge, which is a 16th century stone bridge with arches underneath for support.  Prior to that it was a wooden bridge. There are 12 statues on the bridge and thsy refer to them as the apostles even though some of them are very clearly bishops.  It is only a pedestrian bridge and there were definitely a lot of people on it.  However, they weren't really moving.  They were all just standing around or sitting on the edge of the bridge and drinking wine.  And they all had glass wine glasses.  In Wurtzburg you can drink anywhere you like and the local wine shops just sell the wine and then take a deposit for the glass.  You go wherever you would like to go to drink your wine and then return your glass when you are finished.  It certainly seems to work well and the place at the end of the bridge was always lined up with people waiting to get a drink.  It was a beautiful day and some of our folks stayed on the bridge and had several glasses of wine - fitting in just like the locals.  And the wine was only 2.5 euros or about $5 Cdn and the glass was large and filled to the brim  - at least 8 oz. os a great buy.

From there some of us walked up to the Marienberg Fortress, which was quite a walk up the hill.  We at least took the right path up but on the way down we took a different path and ended up going through a lovely green area with water parks and kids play areas and other unique features.  And once at the bottom we could figure out where we wanted to go so that was good.  The hill was first settled in the late Bronze Age and then had a small fort on in in the 8th century.  In 1200, a really large castle was built and it was extended over the years.  All around it are a series of defence walls that were built in the 17th century after the Swedes attacked.  The whole area was completely bombed out during the war and reconstruction was only completed in 1990.  There is a museum in the building now and we did a quick run through it.  They had some furniture, tapestries, paintings, coins, weapons, portraits, relics and religious vestments and other items on display.but they have very little in English so it doesn't take much time to go through when you can't read anything about the items.  As usual, one of the best parts about this fortress on a hill was the views.  And there was a great garden as well so that made for even more unique pictures.  We wondered around inside for a while and identified all the various buildings but didn't spend a lot of time in anything other than the museum.

We had to be back on board by 6:30 and had our usual port talk at 6:45 as we started sailing down the Main to Wertheim where we will arrive tomorrow morning.  We had a lovely long dinner.  It was Gillian's birthday so they gave our table champaign at the start of dinner and then at the end they had a cake with a really big sparkler on it and they all sang their version of Happy Birthday to her.  It was really nice but it did mean we had to eat a lot of dessert since we had already ordered what we wanted from the menu.  We were the last to leave the dining room and then we went up to our favourite terrace to spend the rest of the evening.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.