Heidelberg

The ship stopped long enough this morning to drop off most of the passengers in a little town called Wertheim am Main , where we boarded the buses for a 2-hour trip to Heidelberg.  Wertheim has a leaning tower... not as exciting as Pisa, but not bad for first thing in the morning.



forest town with fourcastles

From the Main valley, we headed up into the Odenwald forest -- the region from which the Brothers Grimm gathered their folk tales.  It is dotted with little cities (some with castles).

Heidelberg is a city of 150,000 located on the Neckar River.  It is home to Germany's oldest university, founded in 1386.  We first headed up to the ruins of Heidelberg Castle.  You have to imagine 4 large highway buses going up winding roads originally built for carriages... soon to be joined by 8 other buses from two other river cruises. 

It was rainy and crowded, but we managed to see what we could.



the moat--they used to keep game animals here
(for easy hunting)

facade of north buildings

The castle had a wine cellar that held a large amount of wine, and what they claim is the largest wine barrel in the world.  It seems to me that a couple of the ones at Sebastiani were bigger.

old town - from the castle

Afterward, we headed into the old city for lunch at a hotel located just off the cathedral's plaza and we had time for some shopping on the Haupstrasse (Main Square Street).


castle, from the city

walking on the old stone bridge

The old stone bridge is "guarded" by a monkey carrying a mirror -- people arriving could check to see they were presentable before entering the city.  No explanation as to why they chose a monkey for the job.







We rejoined the ship in Mittenberg. Tomorrow we reach the Rhine River.

Wurzburg

Yet another burg!  Actually, yesterday we learned the difference between cities whose names end in berg and those which end in burg.  With an E the place has a hill, with a U it means town.

Wurzburg was the location of the first church in Germany, and today the city skyline is dominated by church spires.  It was home to powerful bishops of the Catholic Church who proclaimed themselves prince-bishops and hobnobbed with European royalty.

Marienberg Fortress

Festung Marienberg is the fortress looming above the town (on the south side of the Main).  Originally a Celtic fortification (circa 1000 AD), it was the site of the first cathedral (from the 13th to the 17th centuries).  In the early 18th century, the bishop decided to move to the other side of the river and commissioned a palace.  The Wurzburg Residence was modelled after Versailles, and included special architecture, frescoes, tapestries, sculptures, and paintings designed to impress visiting royals. 

front courtyard Bishop's Residenz

Franconia Fountain
in front of Residence

Almost 90% of the city was destroyed by British bombers in WWII (in just 17 minutes). Part of the Residence was bombed, but the north wing with the largest fresco in Europe survived.  They have restored some of the rooms that were damaged, working from pictures and documentation.  Officially, they don't let you take pictures inside, but I quietly snapped one glimpse of the fresco atop the entrance stairway.






gardens behind the Residence

After the tours we explored the gardens.  Even in November there were flowers blooming.  Staff, however was covering some of the rose bushes in preparation for winter.

high water marks on port building

The town has been hit by flooding from time to time.  Many buildings have the high water marks on them, and there is one wall along Willy Brandt Kai (the port's main street) that has a series of markers.  The worst flood seems to have been in 1342... but there are pictures that show the city center underwater, making it look more like Venice than Germany as people are poling boats through the square.
















Wurzburg marks a shift from upper to lower Franconia, and from a beer producing region to wine country.  Around town you can see hillside vineyards, some of which are fairly steep.

Bamberg

Today we visited Bamberg, another medieval and Renaissance city.  Like Rome, it is built on seven hills, and it is bisected by two rivers – the Main and the Regnitz.  Its current population is about 70,000 and it is located about 36 miles north of Nuremberg.

Our ship was docked in the port area, several miles south of town.  This ship is a bit different from the longship we were on last week.  It has an older style look (more wood, instead of the glass and chrome look of the longship).  It has a very different personality, too.  The Portugese Hotel Director is fun and upbeat, but the Dutch Program Director (cruise director) is quiet -- the opposite of Idun.  The Dutch Captain speaks more English than last week's German Captain, but he seems less of a ship handler (we keep hitting the sides of the locks).   Note from later in cruise -- we actually have two captains on board because there are so many locks (43) and they are much narrower than on the Danube.  There are times where there is little more than a foot of room for us to fit in the locks. 

 

The buses took us into town and dropped us off in front of the Messerschmitt Hotel.  This is run by the family of the airplane maker.  The town was very glad he built his factory farther south – the city was not bombed much in WWII because there was no industry here.

 

upper bridge to Old Town Hall

The Old Town Hall was built on the Regnitz.  The land owner would not give them any land, so they drove pilings into the river to create an island.  Today there is an active kayaking slalom course right next to the building.  The architect wanted to add a “signature” that would make his work recognizable, so he built a 3-D foot coming out of the lower part of the building.



Town Hall from down stream

the foot!

Next to the river is a building that keeps leaning toward the river.  Scott tried to match its lean.

 



the brewery

Bamberg is known for its beer, particularly a special Rauschbier – a smoky beer described like bacon beer.  We didn’t try any, so we can’t comment on the taste.

The story was that a batch of malt got burned when the brewer accidentally set fire to his place.  He did not want to throw out the "toasted" malt, so he brewed a batch and smoke beer was born.

 

brewery sign



The cathedral at the top of the hill is part Romanesque and part Gothic.  They had two patron saints – St Peter and St George – so the east and west ends of the church reflect the two styles:  Peter=Romanesque and George=Gothic.  Their former king Henry II and his wife are buried in front of the church altar, as is Pope Clement II.



gate to royal residence

 

Next door to the cathedral is the royal residence… a half-timber structure that looks more like a village than a palace.   It is reached through a gate that reflects the story of Bamberg (the royals, the saints, the Catholic Church, Adam & Eve, and two river sirens).

 


On the tallest hill in the city is an imposing structure, the former monastery of St Michael’s – today it is an old-age home.

 

St Michael's

As we walked back to the buses, we got another look at the river, including a closer view of the working-class area that included the fisherman and the butchers.  (The butcher is built half way out on the river… they would just toss into the river the parts they did not intend to use.)

 

moose in doorway

We finished up back in the green market (their farmer’s market) and strolled down Langestrasse (Long Street) looking in shop windows.  Christmas decorations are appearing everywhere.   

In front of the Messerschmitt Hotel, there is a very interesting
sculpture, called Circle.   

 

Back to the ship for our mandatory lifeboat drill… although one of the program managers pointed out that most of these rivers are so shallow we could probably all stand on the top deck and not get wet, even if the ship sank.  We got underway about noon, backing down the working port until we could turn around and pick up the Main River.  We are now headed to Wurzburg.  We have gone through several locks already… there are more than 40 on this cruise.

  

Day Two in Nuremberg



Hotel Victoria & city wall

The first cruise came to an end, and we shifted to our hotel in Nuremberg... located just inside the walls of the old city.  The morning was spent in the Laundromat... an interesting adventure in finding someone who spoke enough English to explain to us how to pay.  (The machines were self explanatory... it was the electronic pay system on the back wall that was the challenge.) 

Handworkhof - crafts market

We went to the handicraft market right next door to the hotel and had lunch at the famous "Bratwursthausle"-- an old half-timbered building that serves Nuremberg sausages on pewter plates with sides of sauerkraut.  We had been told in Regensburg that there is a battle between that city and Nuremberg over who has the best sausages.  We vote for N!  The carry out version in R is two of these little sausages on a roll for 3.40 euro and in N it is 2.20 for three.  They both grill them on an open fire in historic buildings... the surrounding market places smell of wood smoke and grilling meat. 

You can see the smoke from the restaurant in this picture. 

We forgot to take a "before" picture.  Here you can see the remnants of the sausage platter... and half a bagel ... and a glass of local hefenweissen beer.



Opera House (with subway station below)

We explored a bit more in the afternoon, but mostly saved up our energy for a night at the opera.  The opera house is located just outside the city wall, near the train station, on Richard Wagner Plaza. 


We saw Verdi's "Nabucco" (Nebuchadnezzar).  It was a fun evening.

Here's three looks at the night:

1. The Opera House façade.

2. Inside view.

3. The bar at intermission.  Totally German, in addition to the champagne and wine, they sell beer and pretzels.

 

 

After the opera, we walked back to the hotel.  Here's a couple of views.

Nuremberg Train Station

wall & tower (that's our hotel roof behind it)

This morning we left Nuremberg and transferred to our ship in Bamberg, about 30 miles north.  We are now on the Viking Prestige.  We were among the early arrivals and were greeted personally by the Hotel Manager.  When he found out we were from Alaska, he told us he had started on ships 23 years ago on the Vancouver-Whittier run.  "I love Alaska," he told us.  A few minutes later, as were waiting in the lounge for our room to be ready, he came up to us and offered to upgrade us to a room on the top deck... so now we are on the starboard side, all the way forward (right next to the suites).  As we were unpacking they brought us fresh fruit and a bottle of wine!  Fun stuff!

First Day in Nuremberg

We reached Nuremberg around 7am Friday... five hours ahead of schedule because we didn't have to wait at any locks.  The ship arranged for shuttle buses to take us into old town so we spent the morning exploring.


typical houses in old town

Scott at Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle)

From the main square we hiked up the hill to the castle... nothing like a brisk walk to start off your day. 






old city from castle



Beautiful Fountain

The meeting point for the group was "the beautiful fountain" -- it's quite an elaborate contraption. 

fountain detail

Scott's favorite coffee shop

The main square behind the fountain is normally a farmer's market, but the city is preparing for it's annual Christmas market, so the place was a beehive of building activity.  We opted for a quieter location along the Pegnitz River, which divides old town in half.


After lunch we did the WWII tour --the main reason we chose this cruise.


the remains of the grandstands -- the little fence left of the light pole
was where Hitler would stand

We began at Zeppelin Field. (The name came because Zeppelin landed one of his airships here.) This was the site of many Nazi party rallies, parades, and other events staged to fuel the Hitler mystique.  It supposedly could hold 200,000 people.  Today the grandstands remain (although their colonnade and iron decorations have been removed).  These stands were for the party elite... the more important you were, the closer you could be to the center rostrum where Hitler would stand.  Everything was arranged and staged to deify him.


The area  in front of the stands is now soccer and football fields, a public park and, at the edge, the city's pro soccer stadium.  You see only the remnants of the towers they used for flags, and spotlights and the areas for the "peons" to view the events.



the field... you can see the tower blocks, particularly over the head of the person

the back side of the tower blocks

In one rally  they put anti-aircraft beacons on the towers -- turned on, they became pillars in the night.






Congress Hall, seen from across a drained lake

We then went to the Congress Hall... a horseshoe-shaped building resembling Rome's Coliseum that was built for a meeting of 50,000 of the party elite.  It was under construction when war was declared, and was never finished because the resources and manpower were needed for the war effort.  Today it is used for storage primarily, but it is also home to the documentation center --an interactive museum about the Nazi movement in Nuremberg, the atrocities of the war, and, of course, the Nuremberg trials at the end of the war.




inside the building

Palace of Justice

The tour finished up with a stop at the Palace of Justice, including a visit to Courtroom 600 where the Nuremberg trials actually took place.  (They told us we might not be able to go in the room because it is still an active courtroom for murder trials and anything where a large audience is expected.  We figured we stood a pretty good chance getting in because it was 4pm on a Friday.)   This was the highlight of the trip.  Scott had minored in European History in college, so it was great to visit places he'd read about and studied.











Courtroom 600

 Afterwards, we got one more short visit to the central square -- so we saw it with all the lights!