Wurzburg and Rothenburg - July 12th

Wurzburg fortress

Today we docked at Wurzburg, another medieval town on the Main river, with the usual imposing fortress on the hill above the town. The vineyards are planted on steep hills as you can see below the fortress and men have to be lowered on cables to tend the vines and pick the fruit. We are not touring Wurzburg ourselves, having chosen to take the 90 minute drive to Rothenburg instead.

Old Main Bridge

This is the view of the Old Main Bridge from the lock in Wurzburg, before our ship docked further down the river. It has 12 statues on it depicting the various saints (no idea which ones) venerated by the city fathers.

Medieval crane

Don't stand up!

On the banks of the river in Wurzburg I noticed this medieval crane beautifully preserved. As you can see, it can only rotate the dual arms so while one was lifting on and off the ship in the harbour, the other arm was lifting on and off the dock. Being fixed in position, the boat had to be sailed right under it to be unloaded.





Whilst docking the captain (in background with white shirt and tie) suggested it would be a good idea to stay seated. I have no idea why!

Rothenburg town square

We boarded our coach and toured the countryside of Bavaria on the way to Rothenburg while our tour guide described the various sights as they passed by. Rothenburg still retains the old city which is surrounded by the wall from the Middle Ages. The town square to the right contains the Ratstrinkstube, the white building on the right with the clock. More about that later.

Beautiful buildings with flower boxes

Rothenburg would have to be the prettiest town we have seen so far on our trip, and believe me, we've seen plenty. As you can see from the picture on the left, the buildings are painted in bright colours and often decorated with gorgeous flower boxes.

Half-stone half-wooden buildings

The town was bombed during World War II, but fortunately only 20% of the town was destroyed and was quickly rebuilt afterwards.
It was raining when I took this picture, so sorry for the spots of rain on the lens.
After our tour guide set us free to roam the place, I left Ros to do dangerous things, such as shopping for souvenirs whilst I pursued the relatively safe past-time of climbing rickety medieval stone stairs to the top of the town wall.

Aerial view of Rothenburg

A temporary loss of insanity then convinced me to climb to the top of the wall tower (all 223 steps, I counted them!) to get this wonderful aerial view of the Rothenburg old town. Sanity returned and I then had to descend the rickety wooden stairs (all 223 steps, I counted them again!) to reach the relative safety of the top of the wall.

Old town wall

This is the view from the top of the old town wall. 610 meters of it was destroyed in the WWII bombing, but was financed to be restored by "selling off meter sections" to sponsors around the world. There are plaques along the wall commemorating the various sponsors.

Wealthy quarter

This the wealthier quarter of the old town as you can see by the larger houses and more ornate decorative structure.

Meistertrunk

Remember I mentioned the Ratstrinkstube before? In 1631, the town was besieged by the forces of Count Tilly. On a lark, he told the city if anyone could down a tankard containing one gallon of wine in one draught, the city would be spared. Mayor Nusch took on the challenge and was successful and the town was saved. The clock on the right commemorates the event on the hour. Note the windows open on either side of the clock with animated images of Mayor Nusch and Count Tilly. Meistertrunk means "Mayor's drink".

Our violinist

Finally we wended our way back to our ship, to be entertained by this gorgeous violinist pictured to the left, with leather trousers that were "painted on her". She played various lively and soulful tunes, including an Irish jig that had the audience clapping, to the soulful theme tune to Forest Gump. Then she needed a volunteer from the audience, and who did she pick but your erstwhile scribe. I was handed a bell like the one you see on hotel counters and while she played Rolf Liebermann's Typewriter Symphony, I had to hit the bell at the end of every stanza, which were short and frequent. Fortunately I was very familiar with this piece and managed to handle the timing quite well, because it was quite intimidating doing this in front of 159 other passengers and crew. Even more fortunate is that there is no video recording of my performance to torture your senses. I'll leave it to your imagination.
The young lady in question was given a standing ovation at the end of her performance and it was rightly earned, in my opinion. She certainly "rang my bell".