Day 19: Lohr am Main to Wurzburg

May 18, 2014

The ride this morning was a story of totally pleasant cruising along well paved path by the river. The map below shows only some of the towns between Lohr and Wurzburg.

In at least two towns - Wernfeld and Karlstadt there were markets going on in the old towns. Perhaps because it was Sunday, the markets focussed mainly on non food. This always includes some form of merry go round for the kids. I watched one being set up, while Dodie went scavenging in the bakery. The merry go round had a Snow White theme. This fits the area, since Snow White (Schneewittchen) was a Brothers Grimm story.

A field of poppies. Flower and bird song have been a daily part of our ride along the Main.

In Karlstadt, though, we did run in to a cheesecake stall. The people specialized in cheesecake only, and had only three flavours kirsch, muhn, and plain. Kirsch is sour cherry and muhn is poppy seed. They had three sizes for each, and that was it. We got 1/2 a large kirsch. After that we pedalled a few km until we found a picnic table, and gobbled it up. The stand had claimed to have the best cheesecake in the world, and in broken English/German we came to understand that the claim was based on having the best cheese in the world. We found that indeed the cheese had a creamy but firm texture (something like Italian mascarpone) and was neither too sweet nor too tart. The sour cherries built in worked well, and were quite different from our customary North American topping piled on. The crust, not the graham crumbs we use but ... something else, was firm enough to allow a piece to be lifted up, but not at all cookie like. All in all, quite an excellent production. The people had dozens and dozens stacked behind the stall, and said they expected to sell them all. Believable.

We naturally did not know what to expect of Wurzburg ( Würzburg, if you can find the punctuation, maybe Wuerzburg if you can not), except that as the starting point of the Romantische Strasse - which will be our next "Book" after we complete the Main - we felt it would be something special. In fact it was, but not quite for the reasons we projected.

We entered Wurzburg by crossing the Alte Mainbrucke - the old bridge. On the bridge was an interesting phenomenon. First off, it is part of the old town pedestrian zone, so whatever the phenomenon was, it was not blasted away by traffic. No, instead the bridge was swarmed by people hanging out with glasses of wine in hand. The reason was a restaurant at the end of the bridge which was selling wine over a counter, the deal being €8 with €5 back when you return the glass. The bridge itself was adorned with not one but a dozen figures of saints or important figures, and offered not only a view of the town but also of locks and ships in the river. The bridge led directly not into an old town of narrow laneways and fachwerk houses, but onto a broad avenue. The avenue (Domstrasse) was made enjoyable by once again the lack of cars. But this was not the classical narrow pedestrian street. It was not only wide, but featured larger stores, such as you would expect to find in a bigger city. Among these was Media Markt, the electronics chain where I had bought my camera last year. For months I wished I would be near a Media Markt so I could return the overpriced and defective item (until Christian fixed it, in 30 seconds!). Now it was just a curiosity, to find it here in the Altstadt.

The incongruous thing about the broad avenue was that it did run up to the Dom, in this case the church of St Killian. So we have these elements: old bridge, no cars, ancient church on the one hand, and broad avenue with Media Markt etc., on the other. Interesting.

We noted the location of tourist information on our map. We had planned to stay in a hotel, to be better able to explore the city. Tourist information was probably closed, though. So we popped in to the first hotel we saw to see what the price might be. Since this was directly on the main avenue, we expected a high price. However Wurzburg again produced something different. The hotel building was very old, and narrow, We got a room up on the very top, accessed either by a teeny elevator or by narrow winding steps. The teeny room had access to a shared teeny shower and teeny toilet room. However, it had a giant view of the avenue and the Dom! The room, even if small, was still way bigger than our tent, and had four electrical outlets, great for recharging all our stuff.

We ditched our gear and headed out to see the town.

To be sure, the town was picturesque, and the near vicinity featured three major churches. The guide map mentions 40 sites of interest. We are not saying we visited and absorbed anything like that number, but still we soon got the impression that we had the place figured out, and had skimmed off the exciting stuff. The reason is that in WWII Wurzburg had been almost totally destroyed.

According to Wikipedia: " On 16 March 1945, about 90% of the city full of civilians (and military hospitals) was destroyed in 17 minutes by 225 British Lancaster bombers during a World War II air raid. All of the city's churches, cathedrals, and other monuments were heavily damaged or destroyed. The city center, which dated from medieval times, was totally destroyed in a firestorm in which 5,000 people perished."

Destruction was more severe than in Dresden. Much (or near all) of what we were seeing was reconstruction.

Wurtzburg has been, and remains, an important centre of education and research. An amazing number of Nobel prize winners in physics and chemistry came from here. The latest was Harmut Michel in (bio)Chemistry (1988), but the most famous is Wilhelm Rontgen (Physics 1901). Rontgen discovered x-rays. His original lab still exists here, and is open for tours. It was number 23, in the list of things we failed to check out!

We made our way back to that restaurant by the bridge and wandered inside. Part of the kitchen was beside the tables, and what they were cooking looked good. We took a seat, and were handed what at first seemed a pretty complicated menu in German. However Dodie spotted a saurbratten and I spotted a grilled chicken breast with couscous salad. Both dishes were phenomenally good. It's a bit confusing. Normally you would expect the hotel and and the restaurant that are on the main drag to have either low quality or high prices or both. But so far in Germany, each of these places has delivered value for money. This is not to say that careful research would not have turned up something better or cheaper, but research is costly too. We have been very happy with the places we have stayed or eaten in.

Totally tuckered out by all the cycling and walking, plus a reasonable dollop of sun today, Dodie has hit the sack. Whether or not this is a budget garret, it still has fluffy duvets and a window that can open wide. That is a recipe for a good night's sleep. As soon as I can upload and caption the photos, I will gratefully join Dodie and call a close to another fun day!

In the U.S. we have seen truckers' churches. This is our first cyclists' church.

Würzburg features guarded bike storage. As we approached the city on the radweg a cyclist came up behind me and said he had been to Vancouver. He went on to describe the bike storage in Würzburg. He was pedalling very slowly, and Dodie was pulling steadily ahead. I tried to speed the man up, so as to keep pace with Dodie, but no luck. Finally he revealed he was really going the other way and just wanted to make sure we knew about the bike storage. With that he turned around and headed back the way we had come. How nice!

In every German (and French) town there are almost as many Donner places as bakeries, reflecting immigration from the east. I like the clever pun with this one, just outside Wurzburg.

A starkly backlit image of one of the saints on the bridge. The bridge dates from around 1300!

The broad but car-free avenue leading to the Dom

This seemingly collectible manhole cover bears advertising?

Down the street, the Dom - church of St Killian

The Marienkapelle on the left and the Falkenhaus on the right. Marienkapelle is a gothic church built from 1377 to 1480. The Falkenhaus, formerly a guesthouse, got its fancy stucco facade in 1751.

Inside the Marienkapelle. There are four paintings at the front were painte din the 16th and 17th centuries.

Ornate decoration at the Marienkapelle entrance. Why is Jesus doing sword tricks?

The view from our restaurant by the bridge

One page of the rather difficult (for us) menu.

Dodie's saurbratten was delicious - so tangy.

Below the bridge, a round the city in-line skating race.

Later, seemingly another round. A crowd of skater lined up behind a police car, and then took off at high speed. The police vehicles here, including motorcycles, are a racy bright green.

Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 1,164 km (723 miles)

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