Wurzburg

Today was Wurzburg but before I start I need to share a pic of last nights tea. Given I am a pescatarian now (when it suits me of course), and they cater for every type of ‘tarian’ this is what I chose.

Was yumdiddlyumpcious. Alas it was just one of the four courses along with the three bread rolls I ate….burp…..which meant today a little more than gentle exercise may have been required.

We had the choice of three activities;

None of which we chose, instead we grabbed some bikes from the boat and headed off down the Main River ending up in Eibelstadt.

It was a little adventurous on the way. About the 8.9km mark my front wheel decided to go left and my handle bars went right. To my astonishment I did not fall off, instead there may have been some swearing and disasterising involved. Disasterising due to the thought of having no Allen key and potentially having to walk that 8.9km’s back to the boat. MoD, being the inventive man he is, flagged down the nearest old couple to help out. I say old because there were a lot of bikers on this track, mostly of a particular vintage. In Australia we might say grey haired nomads. It was refreshing to see that most had their helmets on. The oldest though, appeared to have taken the attitude that they had only had 1 or 2 serious head injuries in 40 years so why should they wear one of these new fangled helmets.

Anyway, I digress. As usual. This particular couple seemed to have a lot of luggage with them, and with some pointing and attempted and successful German from MoD, the man started to search his pannier bag. Seriously it was like a Mary Poppins bag. Everything came out, all in plastic bags. No Allen Key. Then it was a search through his handle bar bag. Some Allen Key’s but alas not the right size. Then to his seat bag where we found some joy. After a thorough tightening and a thankyou we were off again on our merry way.

At the 10km or so point we hit the little village of Eibelstadt. Actually I don’t know if they call them a village but hey, it’s my blog, I can call it what I like. It was actually behind a fortress wall. Again, not sure of the correct terminology….

What a gorgeous little village. After all my bike trauma we decided we needed a local wine (yes the vineyards were up on the hill behind the town centre). Found a cute little restaurant/bar and for $8euro we were treated to the local white wine and a 500ml bottle of the local beer.

Sad to say I still don’t love the wine. Well any wine for that matter. When we went to pay, the nice bartender decided we should have a little tour of the basement. Sounded like a good idea until he took us into a ‘cave’ with a lockable door and suggested I step in with MoD and have our photos taken. Hesitation took hold. I thought of the headlines. ‘Couple from APT cruise ship disappear. Skeletons found ten years later in cellar. Appears they were used to make Sauerbraten’. MoD on the other hand pictured a scene from Pulp Fiction where they were locked in the wine cellar. Oh what the hell. You only live once….and the first cellar did have a big LOVE sign….we both stepped into the cellar. And here I am sitting on the cruise ship still alive to tell the story.

After that little episode a nervous pee was required. I may have gone into the Herren instead of the Damen but it’s my understanding that women are always right 😜 I quickly corrected this mistake, not because there was a man peeing in the urinal which may have alerted me, of course not. Stepping into the Damen I was treated to a lovely toilette, almost too pretty to sit on. But I did.

We left with sad goodbyes and promises to come back for a meal before taking in a short ride around town and then heading back to Wurzburg.

When we got back to Wurzburg we thought we would ride around and look at the sights. Initially there were bike tracks. When we got to the castle, there were not. We weren’t quite sure where we should be cycling and ended up following a young lady who took us into the middle of the tram tracks. Behind a tram. She did point out that it was annoying because there weren’t always specific bike tracks. Seems you had to ride down the centre lane of the road, which as our new best friend Rob suggested at least kept you safe from a good old car dooring. But once again I digress. We followed the young lady up the tram tracks, a HUGE bus right on our tail as we headed towards the river. That bloody bus would not let up, it followed me all the way up the hill, which frankly was a little scary especially when the road narrowed to only one lane each way. I just don’t have it in me to actually go up a hill let alone keep up speed! The footpaths have lips, so it was tricky getting up there but finally we did and managed to have a relatively safe ride along the river back to our boat.

Rumour has it the only place in town you can drink wine in public, on the bridge

Once safe and back at the boat I decided I might head out to the Supermarket to find some sachet coffee. I mean the coffee from the machine here is ok but frankly friends, it is no Starbucks. 😜

I found the supermarket relatively easily – don’t know why…….

And ended up coming out with quite a lot more than intended. I have to tell you I hate supermarket shopping at home, that’s a man’s job, thanks MoD. But here it was fun.

Post that 6 of our group met up on top deck for a bask in the beautiful afternoon sun and a cocktail or two. Julie and Gaz were still on the bus coming back from Rothenburg but joined us soon after.