Day 10 Wurzburg

   

  Woke up feeling slightly better. Many locks again overnight but didn't hear any. Medications. Also, some time in the night we left the canal and entered the Main River. Main is pronounced 'mine' with a very slight 'ah' sound as you say the 'i'.

     Our tour started a little later today and is shorter so we had a later more leisurely breakfast.

     These photos are of our view to portside. Sometimes we're lucky and have the view, other times all we see is a wall or some industrial buildings. 

        We are on the portside and we never know which side will be the tie up side.

     We had a 5 minute bus ride into the city to the Prince-Bishop Residence. Amazing. I'd have to dig out the thesaurus to come up with more superlative descriptions. It was more opulent than any of the churches so far. Of course, it wasn't a church. 2 of the 3 wings were damaged by the 1945 bombings but the section we toured was mostly intact. A well known (to the locals) U.S. Army captain was mostly responsible for protecting the building, artifacts and paintings when the U.S. occupation began. 

     There were a lot of crystal chandeliers. Worth about 1.2 million Euros. Each. 

 

     A carousel. Originally a French military training device. 

     A mural representing the North American continent. 

     

     We walked back to ship, had lunch and 60 minute nap. Not too many people were on the ship for lunch and we dined with some folks from Michigan for the first time. We've dined with folks from Michigan, just not these. 

     After our nap we walked back to the center of Wurzburg, a 15 minute walk. We went into the churches we had to pass by this morning. Did some shopping, too. Slightly better prices here.

     Why is there a menorah in a RC church? To honor the synagogue formerly on this site and destroyed in a pogrom 900 years ago. 

     This was considered blasphemous when it was completed but the artist got away with it due to his reputation. Jesus with folded arms. The story is a thief came into the church to steal the golden crown above Jesus and Jesus folded his arms to capture the thief. Had to be released by the priest in the morning. Maybe not. 

     A protestant chuch. Gothic and not very ornate. 

     More scandalous statuary. First revealed in the 16th century in front of the bishop and crowds in the square in front of the church to hushed, shocked silence. Adam and Eve here had - wait for it -

Belly buttons. 

     The ship got underway to Wertheim before dinner. The first canal near the Wine Bridge was interesting because of the different water levels across parts of the Main. 

    We are in the lock with a crowd on the right side of the bridge, towards town. Locals gather here to drink wine all through the day. Hundreds of them. You buy a glass of wine and get a token with it. When you are done you return the glass and the token and get a 5€ refund. 

     This is the Bridge of Lions (not its official name). We were docked near it. Not sure you can see it but there is a bullet hole in its butt from a WW2 battle in the streets before the Americans took over. 

     

     During our night passage there was quite a bit of bumping in one of the locks. I'm sure someone will mention it at breakfast.