4 May 2025
– Wurzburg
Miles
driven today = 199
Total Miles
to date = 5,147
I was a
little worried that traffic noise might be an issue for us last night but it
was the patter of rain on the roof which had us awake earlier than we would
have liked this morning and it continued for the first half of our journey. Once we had got ourselves ready to roll we quickly
found our way onto the A3 Autobahn and Google Maps instructed us to “continue
for 300 kilometres” so I set the cruise control to 90kph and and we made the
inside lane our own. We weren’t done
with the Danube just yet. We crossed it
a further 5 times before it finally swung South at Regensburg towards its
source near the French and Swiss borders.
Initially
the road was pleasantly quiet, what with the ban on most commercial vehicles using
German roads on a Sunday, but gradually the traffic increased, presumably swelled
by people heading home at the end of their extended May Day weekends. We skirted to the North of Nuremburg after
which a huge road widening project slowed our progress a little with lengthy
80kph limited contraflow sections.
I picked
Wurzburg as a possible stopover destination purely because it is very roughly
half way between the Austrian and Dutch borders and also has a decent selection
of potential places to stay.
Further
than that I knew virtually nothing about it before we rolled into town.
We arrived
at lunchtime and once we had got ourselves settled we went for a walk down the
West bank of the River Main.
Then we found
our way onto the pedestrianized Old Main Bridge to walk over to the East Bank.
The bridge
was built between 1473 and 1543 on the foundations of a previous bridge which
had been destroyed.
The statues of 12
different Saints were added in 1730.
We got hold
of a tourist map of the town but it was all in German so from what I have been
able to translate this building is the “Grafeneckart”, which together with the
two buildings to the left form the main administrative town hall complex.
An
interesting fountain in the shopping area of Domstrasse.
St Kilian’s
Cathedral looks to be a relatively modern structure but apparently parts of it
date back as far as 1040.
It’s the
fourth largest Protestant Church in Germany.
The
Neumunster also dates partly from the 11
th Century although most of
its Baroque appearance is the result of an early 18
th Century
upgrade.
It supposedly is built on the
site where St Kilian and his missionary companions were murdered in 689 AD.
There were
huge numbers of people milling about and the ice cream sellers were making a
mint despite much cooler conditions than we have been experiencing of
late.
There was some sort of local
festival going on and posters advertising it with the Mayor’s mugshot were
plastered all over town.
This was one of
several venues which seemed to be raising money and awareness for leprosy and
tuberculosis charities.
The
Falkenhaus was once an inn.
It was embellished
with its ornate stucco decoration in 1751 and is nowadays home to the town’s
library and Tourist Info centre.
Construction
of St Mary’s Hall was first started in 1377.
It has been completely restored following a fire in 1945.
I’ve no idea whether that was due to wartime
damage.
We decided
to get away from the throngs and so walked some of the back streets for a
while.
We were surprised that other than
bars, restaurants and gelatos there were very few shops open.
The
Wurzburg Residence is an enormous baroque building built to be the home of the
Bavarian Prince Bishops in the 18
th Century.
The
building contains more than 300 rooms.
It has been
on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1981.
We walked
back to the City centre via the rear of St Kilian’s.
We
thoroughly approved of this disrespectful behaviour where somebody has embellished
the stonework with a fag butt.
We walked
back to the Old Main Bridge from where you get a good view of the heavily
fortified Marienberg Fortress with a vineyard occupying the steep slope below.
We decided
to join in the festivities.
There were a
couple of wine bars on the bridge so we each bought a glass of the local Silvaner
wine which comes in squat bottles a bit like Mateus Rose.
It was very gluggable and as we were quaffing
we fell into conversation with an 87 year old Canadian lady who was on a river
cruise with other English speaking tourists of a certain age.
She was obviously loving the atmosphere, and
the wine, as much as we were.
We headed back
to the van.
We are in a large car park
where motorhomes are permitted to stay the night for €15.
There are emptying and loading facilities and
although we were unable to grab one of the riverside spots we do have hook up
which some kind soul had left 4KWh of credit on.
More than enough to power the fridge
overnight.
I thought
Lisa deserved a night off from cooking so we popped back out this evening for
something to eat.
I’m very familiar with
Bavarian Food.
After 9 years attending
the Baden-Baden Reinsurance Conference I’ve had enough pork knuckle to last me
a lifetime.
There is an amazing choice
of cuisines from around the World here so we opted for something a bit more
healthy, Vietnamese.
It’s been a while
since I’ve had a chance to practice my chopstick skills but it’s like riding a
bike.
You never really forget.
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