November 10, 2019

We arrived here early and could see the town as we had our breakfast. Jessie was taking us on a walking tour at 9:30 and she advised that it would be cold. It didn’t really seem that much colder than the crisp fall days we have been having, but we are always dressed for it.

We are spending But the morning here, at 11:30 we will depart and head for our afternoon destination, Miltenberg. I will do a short posting about that town separately.

Since it is Sunday, almost everything is closed, but it is a very attractive medieval town with many half timbered houses, and in fact, the only one painted with blue in all of Germany! It is called the Blue House and the color comes from using blue glass fragments.

We saw the narrowest house in Franconia and also a half timbered house that was being renovated so we could see what is behind the walls.

Other sights, towers and lots of beautiful houses.

The church bells were ringing long and loud and we could hear organ music coming from the church. We saw some of the same chalk markings on the houses that were evident in other towns, the Catholic blessing. The Protestant Collegiate Church is particularly interesting . It was built in 1383 and has two clocks on its tower. The one facing the castle has an hour hand only, while the one facing the town is a full clock. Outside the church is the Angel’s fountain made of red sandstone. It has two little angels holding the town’s coat of arms.

Lots of buildings have high water flood markings on them. This town has both the Main River and the Tauber River flowing by and it is the reason for the flooding here.

We did stop into the beautiful glass shop that was open. There is also a famous glass museum but it is closed today.

We made the big climb up to the Wertheim Castle on our own as Jessie’s tour was only about 40 minutes long. This castle was the original fortress that was built in the 12th century and is one of the largest and most beautiful castle ruins in Germany. It was partially destroyed by a powder explosion in 1619 and was heavily fired on in the Thirty Years War. It was fun to climb higher and higher into the castle ruins and the views of the town and the rivers was really something.

We got back to the ship just in time for sailing, then lunch and to enjoy the daytime sail to our next stop. The fall colors are still very nice and are seeing castles, towns, herons, swans, ducks and of course are passing through some locks.