Wurzburg - You broke it you fix it.
Theresa was still not feeling well and it was made worse by Kevin leaving the balcony door open all night with temperatures of 27°! When she discovered this at 4 AM it was immediately remedied and back off to slumber.
When we rose in the AM and went down for breakfast, we noticed that there were frost scrapings on the parked cars. Do we really want to venture out in this?
The tour for the day was a bus ride to a Residence (palace) that was an indoor 1 hour tour followed by a walk thru the city to the ship. Theresa was still suffering from the Budapest plague but was willing to put on the layers and see the sights.
Upon entry to the palace you had to show your ID and proof of vaccination. Germany is serious about fighting COVID, though they are in the middle of a serious outbreak.
The Prince-Bishop who commissioned the palace, sent out a young architectural student to study all the grand European palaces like the Palace of Versailles to bring back the best of the best for his new grand palace. The rooms all had themes and were quite gaudy to put it mildly. Gold tapestries, mirrored walls and large paintings ordained the walls as well as ceiling paintings that incorporated sculpture. Oh and lots of gold.
The most impressive ceiling is the world’s largest ceiling fresco. The Fresco depicted the four continents of the world as they were understood in the day. The American continent was depicted by an Indian princess riding and alligator. The Asian continent was depicted by an Asian Princess riding an African Elephant. The African Continent was depicted by an African Princess riding a Camel. The European continent was depicted by a Princes sitting on a throne. All princesses were pointing to the center of the Fresco were the portrait of the Prince Bishop was painted. See more info on the fresco here.
Outside the residence was a huge Garden area that attempted to emulate the gardens of Versailles.
The city had no significant industry but was 90% destroyed by British bombers in WWII six weeks before the end of the war, just to make a point.
The entire area and Prince-Bishop Palace were then fully restored. The Prince-Bishop Palace restoration lasted from 1945 to 2016 with US tax dollars as part of the Marshall plan.
This palace had been fire bombed in that raid, resulting in the roof burning and the entire Fresco falling down. It landed in tact on the staircase below. As the Allie soldiers liberated the area, an American soldier who was an artist saw the palace and the fresco. He then set on a mission to save the ceiling. He draped the area with tarps and worked with others to keep the locals away from pillaging the remains. Villagers looked to remove anything they could to help rebuild their own personal buildings. Due to his efforts the original Fresco and its colors are what we see today in the restored palace.
To learn more about the American soldier and his efforts to protect the Fresco click here.
After the residence tour it was back into the cold for a walk thru the city center and surrounding cathedrals and chapels. (Cathedrals and churches have priests assigned and chapels do not).
There was only one house that was untouched by the bombing in WWII, see the picture. The rest were all restored and even some restoration was still being done today.
On the way though some crowed streets shared with pedestrians, bikes and cars, the guide described that the drinking age for beer is 16, driving age is 18 and to get a driver’s license you spend €2000 to go through a very rigorous class. No wonder lots of youth rode bikes!
One Cathedral served as a burial place for the Prince-Bishop so it had skeleton statues and mortality reminders all over the entrance. (Currently under reconstruction.) This Cathedral lays claim to religious artifacts, as do many others, in an effort to attract the faithful pilgrims to visit and donate to the continue construction and renovation of the building. This Cathedral claims to possess the bones of the 3 wisemen (stay tuned as we learned it’s not the only one making the claim). Next to this Chapel was another smaller Chapel. They do not hold services on the same day, limiting the competition for pilgrims’ attention. Within several yards is yet another religious building, Saint Mary’s chapel.
St Mary’s is the largest chapel in the world as it was never assigned a priest nor bishop. The Chapel doors were adored with an artist’s rendition of how Mary was impregnated via a God tubular link from his mouth to Mary’s ear, a lump in the middle represented the baby Jesus. Interesting… As we were learning of the immaculate conception, we were treated to the St Mary’s chapel bells announcing the noon hour!
As we headed to another square, we passed The Rathskeller (rat is German for counsel). Legend has it, community leaders would come together at a pub to plan and negotiate the towns issues, and its future over any number of beers. They would remain until all items were resolved.
At the end of the tour, we began to cross a bridge with tables on each side. Folks could order a beverage from a concession stand and sit, socialize, and enjoy their beverage. This tradition is called bridging and if you’re really good it’s called power bridging (known by some as a pub crawl).
See more pictures here. You may notice there are blue skies in the pictures for the first time!
Theresa was ready to get back to the boat for a beverage as she was feeling much better … or maybe not.
She did rally to watch a glass blowing demonstration on board later that night after another wonderful dinner. Kevin recorded some of the demonstration in this long video.
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