Wurzburg, Germany July 29, 2012

“Life is made of experiences and I intend to have as many as possible.”

Yesterday evening and last night, it rained really hard. We ate inside, a meal of spaetzle, bread with bruschetta, salad, wine, and ice cream for dessert. This morning, we got up early, and we’re happy to see that it was just cloudy and not raining. It was a cool walk to the train station and we made the 1.5 miles in 25 minutes.

Passing Bacharach

Today, we have 4 hours of travel time to get to Wurzburg. The nice thing is we just have 1 connection in Koblenz and from there it is an intercity express train with only 5 stops before Wurzburg. We will get to travel along the Mosel and Rhine rivers, then through Frankfurt, and on to Wurzburg. The connection in Koblenz goes smoothly, and we find a seat across from some old German lady, who did not seem happy that we sat there. As the train starts to move, I get up and see if there is a better seat somewhere else as we are facing backwards. I find one facing forward in another car and we move there. Then we notice that we are traveling on the opposite side of the river than we thought, so we are not sitting on the river side.

Private Rail Suite

I get up again and find a private room that says quiet room on it that is empty and on the river side. We move to it and close the door, not sure if it is OK for us to be there. The ticket lady comes, checks our pass, and moves on, so I guess we are good. It is a beautiful ride down the Rhine, passing where we stayed in Bacharach and we get to see some castles that we hadn’t seen, further south on the river. As we turn away from the river in Mainz, the scenery changes to some large vineyards and later rolling farmland. There is a lot more agriculture here than we had envisioned. We stop at theFrankfurt airport and the main station in Frankfurt. Skyscraper city that we have not seen in a while. Once we leave the suburbs of Frankfurt, we travel into a hilly region with beautiful villages and farms. Since it is 11:20 and we are supposed to be at Wurzburg at 11:25, I tell Carol let’s get our things together and put on the packs. She would rather wait until we slow down but gets her pack on anyway. So what happens? We do not slow down and 11:25 goes by, plus 10 minutes and we are still moving right along. My worry meter kicks on as very train we have been on has been right on time just about to the minute. Did we read the schedule wrong, miss our stop, on the wrong train? I go to find a ticket person and she confirms the next stop is Wurzburg in another 20 minutes. Perhaps we missed some announcement in German that said we were running late, but late we were. This was not a problem, just not knowing what was going on, made me a bit unsettled.

Wine at Check In

We get to Wurzburg about 10 minutes after noon, and walk to our hotel a few blocks away. Our room is not ready but is being cleaned and will be about 15 minutes or so. The desk lady brings us two glasses of wine while we wait. What a nice surprise! She tells me that they are upgrading us to a small apartment but when I ask if it was a quiet room, she says that it is on the street side. We specifically requested a quiet room when we booked because I read the street side had a lot of very early morning noise. She says it is about the same but then returns in a few minutes and changes us to room 420, the original room they gave us after we had booked. We go up to our room and it is beautiful. Feels like we are in an old Bavarian castle like room. Very romantic and very room with a couch in front of the bed and several desks and chairs. The weather has cleared up splendidly and it is just partly cloudy, little breezy, and a very comfortable temperature.

Residenz

We head out to see the Residenz, a palace that was used by the prince bishop, the ruler of Germany. The palace is immense and as we enter there is a grand staircase in front of us. As you approach the stairs, you look up at the largest fresco painting in the world. Commissioned in 1752, it was painted by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and took him 13 months to finish. It is an incredible piece of work. From there, we go from one large room to another, all extravagant in their own way. We leave the palace and walk around the corner to the palace gardens. Three sections, English, French, and Italian make this a Baroque garden. We sit under trellises covered by vines and trees and have a picnic lunch. When we leave via the other side, we see these gnome shaped trees, and as we get closer, notice that there are sculptures under each one. Very cool!

Marienburg Fortress

Now we decide that we should walk up to the Marienburg Fortress on a hill above town. We cross the old bridge over the Mainz River and start the 20 minute long busting climb. Stair master, European style. Much better than the gym. As we climb, the city starts to lay out in front of us. The views from the top are expansive in every direction. We tour the fortress and it’s museum, which shows off relics of the prince bishop.

Wine on a Bridge

Leaving the fortress, we descend back to the old bridge. We buy a peach pastry in a corner bakery and then stop at a little wine booth attached to a restaurant on the edge of the bridge. Two glasses of wine in hand we find a nice bench on the bridge and drink with the natives and enjoy our pastry. Life is very good! We soon go back to strolling, see another cool church and then find a little cafe to eat in. On the way back to the hotel, we stop in to one more church where we discover a Sunday evening Mass. We go in and listen to part of the Mass with incredible acoustics in an incredible church. Makes you want to find religion! Back to our beautiful hotel for a restful nights sleep. This was a stop, that we weren’t sure of and we have really enjoyed our day here. CNC  

Expenses                                                                                                                                                      40E-Bavarian Castle Pass ( good for 2 weeks)                                                                               1.30E- Peach Pastry                                                                                                                                        6E – 2 glasses of wine                                                                                                                         22.30E- 2 dinners and 2 beers                                                                                                               60E- Hotel Wurzburger Hof                                                                                                                   Miles Walked- 6 miles