Wurzburg.. being a medieval Prince Bishop has perks

 Today’s tour is in a small town with a BIG palace. Big not in size, although I’d say 360 rooms for five people seems extravagant,but truly big in design and decor. In Medieval class structure the church was lead of just about everything but there were some instances where the civil status was also involved. The Bishop who was rewarded for favors often got the title of Bishop/duke but it didn’t translate well, so the title became Prince Bishop. They could receive taxes from the city dwellers and therefor became rich and powerful while being religious leaders also. In Wurzburg, this guy was a very vain human and decided he needed to build a new castle as his old one was too high up the hill and took him to much effort to walk up and down…. 

Old one up the hill 

New one in town

But first: this sign was on the seats in the bus: no wild peeing in Wurzburg!

Now on to the most magnificent palace!

Every palace should have a grand staircase and this one is no exception! The two flights of stairs are lined with marble statues and while looking up you are treated to the most impressive frescos. The subject is “the four continents “ ( no one knew of Australia) and each side represented the artist’s rendition of what he thought it looked like. Therefor, the ostrich has immense muscular legs looking like a human form and the woman from the Americas is riding an alligator. Remember we are in the 15th century here!

I thought this was quite enough to show how powerful this prince bishop was and I was already impressed….only to be stunned at the nest few rooms. 70% of this palace has been restored… if you are a talented bricklayer or restorer you could work forever in Germany!

We leave the staircase and are immediately shocked by the immense lack of color in the next room. This was a  different artist’s room and he was a military man so the room is in whites and light grey, the military colors. It was equally ornate.

OH but it just gets better!

The imperial room is ramping up the Rocco styling

 Had enough yet?? Of course not! Remember this guy was vain and wealthy!

A parquet floor

Elegant chimneys

Mirrors to look your best!

And chandeliers worth more than the GDP

Every wall supported a tapestry

And the ceiling in this room was the plainest thing in the room. The mirror room was a room complete with reverse etching behind each mirror to give it the detailed design.. ready to see?

Had enough Rocco yet? At this point I was totally light headed and my mind was spinning. I had studied Rocco style when I studied art history but I never ever thought i could get sick of it….I was wrong. The thought of living daily is this stuff would make me want to run away from home!after such overload, we quickly headed outside to the gardens. Oh what a relief for my senses!Thank you for this moment of ZEN.

That ended our day at the palace but there’s more to come on our day visit…of course Steve found us a winery to visit right in the downtown city center!

Bamberg. Another day another berg.

Today Susan and I take the leisurely walk through the city with our guide while Al & Steve attack the uphill walk to a castle.

Spring has definitely made it to Bavaria. 

I love looking at the streets and the houses/buildings in the old town of cities. There is always something interesting to see.

A music school

A.E.Hoffman who wrote a story about a mouse king and a nutcracker fight. Later it became the inspiration for The Nutcracker ballet.

Street art

A little fountain in what used to be the Jewish quarter before the war.

Walking through a garden that used to belong to the bishop. His romance garden.

We stopped here at a tourist center for a bathroom break.. a good tour guide for old people always knows where the closest bathroom is! I had to take a picture because this was the most well equiped handicaped bathroom Ive ever see. It included a large diaper receptacle,a hover adult lift,arms that moved and. Gotta say.. it was incredible!

After the bathroom stop, we continues along the small river walking across quaint bridges  

Susan, Tyra and I stoped on the bridge showing of the back of the town hall in the distance.

This

is a classic medieval building in my mind. It is the back of the town hall and was built in the 15th century.

The other side of the building is a huge mural.

A close up shows a human leg in 3D, the angel it belongs to is pointing to a business card painted there that gives the name of the artist. Medieval advertising.

The river on which the town hall sits beside. The hanging rods are for Kyaking racing.

More street sculpture. 

The “fork” fountain. It’s a statue of Neptune with his trident but everyone in town called it the fork. A common meeting point. Our guide was a student at University here in Bamberg and is learning teaching. A common thread for the past three smaller towns has been a University. The cities seem very vibrant and alive with lots of students calling the old town areas home.

 Remember we are in Germany and the drink of choice is BEER. Many of the towns we have visited have their won breweries and style of beer. Here in Bamberg,the have a particular beer that is smoked. Yep, smoked like a BBQ. Of course we ladies decided we needed to give it a try…even me!

Can’t say I liked it, I only had a few sips. It was dark, kinda tasted like a smoked bacon bit and made my mouth pucker….. I gladly shared most of my glass with my table mates. The consensus was that it tasted”not bad” and everyone was glad they can say they drank one.

we enjoyed a lovely day in Bamberg and after a full day of touring we met after dinner in the lounge for a great trivia contest. Those 138 days of world cruise trivia paid off! With the addition of Tyra and Lenny we were able to come in first!