Eurocruise 20/05 Wursberg

We didn't have a local guide when we visited Wursberg. There was a bus to take the elderly and infirm into town, but we walked. It was a nice town, where things happened slowly. R found a department store and bought a couple of polos, as he was running short of shirts.

I peered at the tram on the bridge. Looks like route 3, no, route 5. Wait, both, route 3 and 5 go over this bridge near where we were moored.

The trams are just so on the wrong side of the road. At this point finally Europe driving on the wrong side of the road got to me, and I was almost too scared to cross the road. I just could not work out which way traffic was going to come.

This is not a tram on the tracks.

We decided to catch the tram back to the boat. As I said earlier, I saw the route 3 and route 5 pass over the bridge where we were moored. A check on a map confirmed this and the single trip tickets were easy to buy from the machine. I politely asked the women who was standing in front of the ticket machine with her stroller to get out of the way while I bought us tram tickets.

And once on the tram, she politely asked us to get out of the way of where the people with strollers stand. The tram travelled quite slowly as the streets were narrow and busy. Amusingly, the automatic stop announcements had been recorded using children's voices.

We travelled one stop further than we needed to to walk back across the bridge and get a good photo of the boat.

Occasionally in Australia we see a con trail from planes, but they are everywhere in Europe and England.

Quite often we saw children being towed behind bikes.

Today's choice was Rothenburg (no idea) and a Christmas museum or the Wurzburg Residence, which we chose. It was built for prince-bishops of the Schonborn family in the often seen in Europe baroque style.

It was a stunning palace. Interior photography was not allowed. Most of the building has been restored after being bombed during the war. This photo, which may or may not be by http://hillspage.homestead.com shows the mirror room. Go to this this link to see some more of the interior.

After the palace tour, we spend some time wandering in the gardens.

We were just a bit too early for the roses.

We met back at the entrance and were taken down in to wine cellar for some tasting.

Our local guide is on the right. He was not the most masculine of men (code) and good fun too.

This was a different sort of lock where the river split into two branches

The local youf on the riverbank enjoying the sunshine. There was a lot of public drinking that warm afternoon, but no bother. People never seemed to drink to excess.

A trio called Pitchwork entertained us that evening.

Eurocruise 19/05 Bamberg

We are half way through our cruise now and today found us at Bamberg and is a UNESCO world heritage city, roughly sited at the point where the Danube-Main Canal joins the Main River, (remember it is pronounced Mine). We found Bamberg absolutely delightful.

European Community elections were about to happen. Our guide for the day was one of the best. She explained that while people should care, and they do care really, they don't see the point of voting and generally ignore the EC elections. You can work our what this party is about, no GM food, no chlorine?, no water privatisation, no reduction in workers rights, no profits before people and no fracking.

Bike lanes much in evidence.

A significant building.

Identifying the shop for the illiterate.

Another important building.

We are on the old bridge, looking at the new bridge.

The water rushed past.

Sticks up for slalom kayaking or something.

Note the leg sticking out of the wall.

It was terrific watching the swirling water.

Yes, another cathedral.

Pretty window box flowers were abundant.

A courtyard entrance with timber paving to keep the clatter of the horse hooves down.

I don't know what the building on high is. We didn't visit it.

A Bamberg speciality is smoked beer. It is quite nice and goes well with your breakfast bacon butty (sandwich). While I had a taste, I stuck with coffee at 10.30 in the morning.

The building behind the boat was an abattoir. Guess where the blood, guts and carcasses went?

On the new bridge now, looking at the old.

A rather good sculpture, weeping tears of pigeon crap.

Ten minutes before our bus departs back to the boat. Not enough time to linger.

Not especially cheap, but so fresh and the strawberries were delicious.

Free loaders in the lock.

They hung on tightly, well they had to keep changing their grip, and kept well back from the boat as the water drained away.

Dad and Dave plodding through the fields.

A local train, for local people.

Our Tour Director Cherie hosting an evening of something. Not only was she a great Tour Director, she was also a good speaker and in spite of living in Europe for most of her life, she had not lost her Australian accent.