October 9, 2015
We woke up before the alarm, just before 8, as the ship
was passing through a lock then going 500 metres more to the dock in Wurzburg. As
we passed through the lock, we noticed the unique and picturesque spillway,
that looks like the edge of an infinity pool one on side and flows over rocks
and short bushes on the other. The sky
was overcast and the temperature was about 13 C.
The satellite Internet connection, still, is irritatingly
slow for loading photographs. The first upload try today resulted in two
pictures taking an hour to upload. The
connection also fades out sometimes and the whole process needs to start again.
At breakfast, we sat with a couple from Calgary. They were taking the full day excursion to
the medieval walled town of Rothenburg and a drive on the “Romantic Road”, a
lunch, followed by a tour of the Residenz and a walking tour of the Wurzburg
old town center. Our guide, Stefanie, met the group on the walkway by the ship
to be shepherded into a bus for a six minute ride to the Residenz, which would
have been about a 20 minute walk.
The 18th
century baroque palace of the Prince-Bishop Johann Philippp Franz von Schonborn
of Wurzburg, was designed by Balthasar Neumann and constructed between 1710 and
1744 with completion of the interior details taking another 10 years. Today,
the building houses administration offices and archives of the Bavarian
government in one wing, university classrooms and offices in the other wing and
the basements of both buildings have wine in them. Wine is made in steel tanks and barrels on
one side and stored on the other side.
We were able to peek in the open windows on the winemaking side.
The main entrance
to the Residenz, in the centre block, is an enclosed carriage entrance, which
allowed guests to enter the palace, still within their carriages, pulled by as
many as 6 horses, to alight out of the weather.
Guests arrived at the bottom of the 75 step grand staircase to the first
floor with a balcony surrounding the staircase. Like many European rulers of the 17th
and 18th centuries, he wanted his new palace to have some of the
glamour of Versailles Palace, outside of Paris, France. When you reached the first floor and looked up
at the ceiling, more than two storeys above, there was a fresco covering 677
square meters, created in 14 months by Venetian artist, Giovanni Battista
Tiepolo, called “The Four Continents”.
Australia had not yet been discovered in 1752.
We bought several postcards of the interior, since photographs are not
allowed inside, and were able to digitize them.
Like all of Wurzburg, on March 16, 1945, this building was badly damaged
by allied bombs as attempts were made to demoralize the German population and
get Hilter to surrender by bombing cities with populations over 100,000. A reconstruction was started in 1952. We
toured several rooms, which contained old tapestries which had hung in the
Marienburg Fortress, the Prince-Bishop’s former residence. Some of the moveable Residenz contents had
been put in safekeeping in 1944. The white room had ornate stucco decoration
that was hastily installed in nine months by its artist, in order to be ready
in the mid 1750s for a state visit from Maria Theresa, the Empress of
Austria-Hungary. The Prince-Bishop’s reception room had a wall painting at one
end of Emperor Barbarosa marrying his second wife in 1156 and at the other end
was another painting with the emperor bestowing a privilege. This was the
beginning of the reign of prince-bishops in the area. The mirror room was spectacular. It was used as a games room for card games by
the Prince-Bishop and his guests. After
browsing the gift shop, we walked through the gardens of the palace, before meeting
at the Franconian Fountain to begin the old city walk. Step count was 1689. In
German, Dom means cathedral. We saw St. Kilian’s Cathedral named after one of
three martyred Irish priests that came in the 7th century to convert
the population to Catholicism. Just
beside it, was St. Mary’s church built in the Gothic style. Then down a narrow lane was a Rococo style
inn, The Falcon House, which was built over 4 centuries ago. In the large square by a Catholic church, is
the Farmer’s Market. It has some permanent
stalls that have glass ceilings and walls and other traditional market stalls
with the canvas roofs. There is a May
Pole between the market stalls and the church which will be replaced late next
month with a large Christmas tree. Our
tour ended at the Ratskellar, which in German means Council meeting house. This is where the town councilors meet. In the old days, the councilors discussed
matters, then, to think things over needed to go down to the cellar to get beer
to assist their thinking processes.
We had a short ten minute walk back to the ship, most of
it along the river walk. As we were walking along the river walkway, Larry
pointed out a tiny hummingbird, in one of the tall flower planters, decorating
the path. Step count 5,639.
We had lunch in the dining room with a brother and sister
from Delaware. Then we decided to walk to the Marienberg Fortress to see the 13th
century fortress and residences of the prince-bishops before the Residenz was
built.
As we were going out this afternoon, we chatted with
Lazslo, the pianist, who told us that he had found some sheet music to Blue
Tango, which he plans on playing for us this evening. The sun was shining and the temperature was
about 17 C. We walked along the waterfront path then over the old bridge admiring
its larger than life size statues of saints.
There is a little kiosk, selling wine on the old town side of the bridge
and there were several dozen people chatting on the pedestrian bridge sipping
their wine. Only people and cyclists are
allowed on the bridge. On the other side,
we walked up inclined paths, 162 steps and a dozen landings to the first gate
in the wall. Then, immediately, we
climbed a staircase of 74 steps and then 56 more steps to a courtyard and then
another 15 to enjoy the view of Wurzburg.
There was an addition of bastions to the fortress, which was started
after the Swedish invasion in 1631 and completed in 1658. We wandered around the vast grounds with its,
now dry, moat. We saw the stable building, officers building, deep well, the
administrative offices, still used today, peeked into the keep and admired the
Prince’s Garden. Then we took a gentler
way back down on the garden paths below the fortress in the treed park where we
found little garden plots and a Japanese Garden with Coy Fish in the pond. We departed the fortress grounds and were on
a busy street that led back to the river and the Old Bridge. Crossing the Old Bridge and looking straight
ahead you can see St. Kilian’s Cathedral several streets in the distance. We looked for an ice cream store and found
one, in the square where our walking tour had ended in the morning. We each had a one scoop waffle cone for 1
Euro or $1.60 Cdn. We took a different
route from this morning, back to the ship.
Once onboard, we poured cappuccinos from the coffee station and went
back to the cabin to update the blog and struggle to upload yesterday’s photos.
The daily briefing was at the usual 6:45, and Jens, the
hotel manager, was the first to speak to advise us that we will have to change
ships in Nuremburg, due to the low water situation. Of the Baldur staff only
Claus, the program director, will switch ships with the passengers. By the time
we returned to our cabin after dinner, the luggage tags for the swap were
waiting with the daily program for Saturday.
Then Claus proceeded to tell us about Saturday’s agenda. Just before the
group left for dinner, Jens returned, to advise everyone that the optional
Vienna excursion to an orchestra concert of Mozart and Strauss compositions
would be complimentary to all passengers, but we had to register so that
arrangements could be made for tickets and transportation. There was applause
of appreciation from the passengers for the gesture.
Dinner was at the usual 7 p.m. For dinner we all started with one vegetable
sushi then, the appetizer of Salmon Truffle, next for entrées, Surf & Turf
of Shrimp and Beef Tenderloin with mashed potato and cooked carrots,
accompanied by German Riesling or Pinot Noir wine – two or three glasses. Then
for dessert, we had White Chocolate & Cherry Crisp with vanilla frozen
yogurt and coffee or tea. At 9, in the
lounge, was a presentation by the Captain Jacques Van Den Berg about the ship, how
it operates and navigates. He answered many questions. When he finished it was time for dancing with
the pianist, Lazslo, at the keyboard. He did play Blue Tango and except for one
dance we were the only couple dancing of five couples in the whole lounge. We were the last to leave – before 10:30 p.m.!
Final steps total = 17,990, over 16 km.
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