This morning we arrived in the town of Wertheim and moored up in a very convenient location, directly across from the brewery! Again it was cool starting out at 2C (36F) and climbing to 11C (52F).
Today’s organisation was to be slightly different. After breakfast we were to meet outside the ship for a walking tour of Wertheim with a little free time at the end. We would then get on a coach to be taken to Miltenberg to see a different town. Our ship would leave Wertheim and (hopefully) meet us at Miltenberg.
Both town tours were different to previous ones, with the focus being more on the every day people rather than the church and nobility. A refreshing change.
As appears the norm around here, not all tour guides are local. We thought that at least one of them must have been though as he ws dressed in lederhosen and other traditional Bavarian clothing, alas I was wrong, he was from Glasgow.
Below the first set of pictures are from Wertheim where the highlight of the tour was a visit to the glass museum and a glass blowing demonstration.
Below are some general shots fro around the town.
At the glass blowing museum we watched as a liquor glass was being formed. The glass used was similar to pyrex. Once the glass was formed and had cooled slightly the glass maker smashed it against the table pretty hard. As you can imagine this brought a large gasp from the crowd. The glass did not break or chip. We need some of those!
The next couple of pictures are a bit of an eye opener. They make glass eyes. Below a re a selection of eyes.
Here is a brief outline of how they progress from a small tube to the finished eye
A few more pictures of the town on our way back (via a coffee shop). It’s not too clear but the black writing on the white are the flood levels that the river has reached over the last 700 years. The highest ever level was about 3m (10ft) above the top of the white board.
After this visit, we boarded the coach to continue on to Miltenberg. It is amazing how green and forested that Germany is.
Below are some shots of Miltenberg. Both towns were considerably smaller and less busy than previous ones that we had visited, with almost no traffic. English was not as common here as it had been previously and credit cards were not accepted in a number of stores.
Gumi bears seem to be popular around here, and the local proprietor came out with an assortment of freebies for us to try. Not exactly a bear, but it tasted good. There was a choice of sweet, sour, sugar free, chilli and a couple more. His plot must have worked as I saw a number of tour passengers in the shop later.
Above is a sign out side a brewery. The star hanging below it loos like the Star of David, but it is not. It is the sign of a recognised brewery. The upward pointing triangle representing the heat or flames going up and the downward facing one is water or rain coming down. As long as the two are held in balance when brewing the beer alles ist gut!
It has been a bit of a bumpy ride along the river today, not the rough water but the narrow locks (or should that be the wide boats). I was watching from the balcony and there was about 1inch space between the rubber block and the side of the lock wall. We moved away from the lock wall about four inches and bounced off the other side. Not much room to spare. A slight longer blog today, hope it wasn’t too boring.