Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Tuesday, 6 June. The ship arrived in Wertheim about 08:30. This was about the first place on the trip that we hadn’t been to before, and we loved it. It’s a small town at the junction of the Main and much smaller Tauber River. The weather was beautiful, mild and sunny when our walking tour started at 09:00. The ship was tied up just across the street from the main gate to the old town.
When the group reassembled, we went down some side streets until we came to the old Jewish Quarter. Here the local guide told us about the Spitzer Turm (13th century), the last remaining lookout tower of the old city walls. (We had seen it from the ship.) We hadn’t noticed until the guide pointed it out that the tower has a distinct lean to it, the result of flood waters softening the soil around its base. Going back through Markt Platz, we came to the Stiftskirche (Collegiate Church)(1384) and, just across the street, the Chapel of St. Killian (15th century). There was a great view of the Wertheim Castle (now in ruins) from there. We visited another very old square surrounded by 16th century buildings, including a timbered house with all the timbers pained bright blue.
Jane and I took advantage of the free time to do some window shopping. Jane spotted a cute red hat that was “perfect” for her Red Hat Society gatherings, so we bought that. Then she just couldn’t resist going into a konditorei (bakery/coffee shop) “just for a look.” Not to be outdone, I dragged her into a couple of wine shops until I finally bought a bottle (Bocksbeutel) of the local Frankenwein. (This wine is sometimes called steinwein but, when I asked a German friend if that made it a Frankenstein wine, he said that would be redundant.) I had tasted a delicious white Franken wine while stationed in Germany, not sweet like most German whites, and hoped to find a similar one. It rained very briefly, but we went into a shop and it didn’t bother us. We got back to the ship about 12:30.
We tried to go easy on lunch because we were to leave at 14:30 for a Kaffeeklatsch in a local home. (This is a term we were familiar with from our upbringing in Milwaukee.) The bus took us to a small village a few miles outside Wertheim where we were divided into small groups. Our group of six went to the house of Lea, a widow who spoke excellent English, learned when she worked for an American military family forty-some years before. She was an excellent hostess, and her home-made custard kuchen was delicious. We were there 90 minutes and had some very interesting conversation.
As the bus made its pickups, it started to rain, very heavily at times. Some of the passengers got soaked. We got back to the ship at 17:00. Jane wasn’t feeling well and decided to rest while I went to visit the castle. By now it was sunny and warm. Using my map, I followed a winding and extremely steep road up the mountain. When I reached the castle, I explored each of the many paths inside and eventually climbed to top of the highest tower. The view was fantastic.
The Wertheim Castle was built in the 12th century to overlook the junction of the two rivers. It was greatly expanded over the next five centuries. There is an inner palace surrounded by a high (but unattached) wall, and beyond that there are a series of outer bastions separated by a moat. The fortress was reduced to a ruin in 1634 during the Thirty Years War. I had only gone a short way down the steep road back into town when I noticed an opening to a flight of stairs and thought I give it a try. To my surprise, the stairs took me in very short order down to the blue house our group had seen that morning. The stairs were a far better way to reach the castle than the steep road. I got back to the ship about 18:00. As we ate dinner, a family of swans cavorted just outside the dining room windows. There were seven little cygnets and the parents. The father was huge and very protective of his flock. Other birds, and even passing pedestrians, gave him a wide berth. There was a 40-minute zither concert at 20:45. The musician was excellent and even explained the technique of playing (six fingers playing the melody, four the chords). The ship sailed at 23:00. (We concluded later that we enjoyed the stop at Wertheim more than any other on the trip.) |
