Day 11. Wertheim

     Once again the weather forecast is inaccurate. It was not supposed to rain but mists are lingering on. The original long term forecast for Germany was way worse than actually happened so we can't complain. It's been consistently off, both short term and long term, wrong for the better and wrong for the worse. We don't know if it's how the hills and local microclimates affect things but it's been consistently inconsistent. 

     We tied up earlier than scheduled in Wertheim at a private Viking dock. We will have a short tourist-train ride to town and then our walk. The ship departs at 1245 so we have to be back aboard unlike other days where we were bussed to the next docking port. We were told that the Viking Cruise in the opposite direction doesn't stop here. There are slight variations in the itineraries. We have another quick stop tomorrow before going to Koblenz and then moving on to Cologne. 

     The tour of the town was facinating. It's very old and mostly original. Like many of the river towns we visited it floods regularly. The street level of homes are not occupied or can readily move belongings higher. The flood response and rescue system is very refined and practiced. Flood marks are on many walls. Building a town on a peninsula does have some disadvantages. Our tour guide was a retired German army Colonel with a very dry sense of humor. It was fun tour until we got to the option part, a talk on the history of the treatment of Jews here in the area and the rest of Germany, Austria and surrounding countries. It was very somber and sobering. Our guide controlled his emotions but they were obvious. He referred to more than German guilt but referenced the German responsibility now and in the future. Unfortunately, this responsibility lies with more than one country, incuding the U.S. 

     Above 2: the guard tower is leaning to one side. Unlike Pisa, this not because of an engineering or design flaw but because of the sandy soil and the floods. They finally stabilized the tower in the 2000s by driving many steel rods 16 meters into the ground.

     Narrow building is wider going up because you paid taxes on the ground footprint. 

     Our tour guide grew up in this house.

     This church changed from RC to Protestant in the 1600s. 

     The Wertheim monkey. An insult to the aristocracy.

     A very small but colorful community. The buildings survived WW2 because the allied bombing run was spoiled by fog. They missed the town. The U.S. took over the nearby airfield during the occupation. The Luftwaffe had trained dive bombers there. 

     We have seen the style of house (half-timber) below in many of the towns we have visited but this photo shows the interior construction detail. This renovation was interupted by Covid and subsequent financing issues for the owner. Because of the delay, permit issues, too. 

     We had lunch on the bow with 2 new-to-us passengers, Aussie women. Veterans of many cruises. As I mentioned before, most passengers are from the U.S. There are a few Canadians, a few Kiwis but the second largest group are Australians. So many that we haven't met them all yet.  The ship got underway during lunch. 

     Some sights along the River Main. Back to being extremely scenic. The hills come down to the river so you can't see the route ahead because of the curves.

     Our dinner had a special German menu with mostly meat but I managed to get a fish entree which was very good. Carol just had sauerkraut. A lot of it. For the first time there was a buffet bar with dozens of desert choices. Dozens. Too much to choose from but we managed. Went to bed stuffed. Did not stay up for the dancing.