Since Johanna has taken of the blog it has been a little disjointed. Now I will bring some order to it. On Wed. July 31 we caught the train from Bad Kissingen to Gemuden. From there we got on the Main River bike trail heading toward Wertheim. We did this same trip on Sept. 25 2011 so you can look at that part on the blog to refresh your memory of the trail.
Summer is time for fests in Germany and late July and all of August there are fests everywhere. They were having one in Lohr when we passed by. On the other side of the river there was a 150 meter tent erected along the river and even at noon there were a lot of people. The next decent sized town Marktheidenfeld was erecting a bunch of tents for a week long Market. Since we didn’t have to take pics again we made the trip to Wertheim fairly fast. We again got a room at the Hotel Schwann. Nice room with a balcony to overlook a promenade and the gate to the old town. There was a river boat in port and the people were being herded around like cattle. The boat comes in, ties up and disgorges hundreds of people and they get on busses to take them on excursions. When we got there they were just unloading them from the busses. When they get off the busses they herd them into old Town
Wertheim is a beautiful little village. It's castle, Burg Wertheim shown above, was started in 1132 by the Counts of Wertheim. In 1610 part was destroyed by a gunpowder explosion. Then during the 30 yrs. war the swedes occupied it and the Imperial forces blew the rest of it apart to get rid of the Swedes. Till 1982 it was let to go to ruin, then the state restored some of the castle and stabilized the rest and it is now owned by the City.
From here we will head up the Tauber River on the Classic Taubertal Radweg tomorrow. This trail goes to Rothenburg, a beautiful and tourist filled walled medieval City. We may be able to come up with some pics of the city as we have been there several times. The trail is only 100k long and should be quick, if we don't stop for every church along and the heat doesn't get us.
Musings. I've wondered how the Germans can use 1/2 the kilowatts hours of an American and biking in the heat here I have come up with the answer. No air conditioning and no ice. The only way to get a cool drink(not cold) is to stop at a café or biergarten and order mineral water for 2.5 euros for half litre. Ice is not an option. Even most markets don't have coolers for drinks, only for dairy and meats. Most people don't have ice trays in the refer but have partitioned plastic, like saran wrap, that can be filled making small individual cubes. They then tear the cube out and throw away some plastic. It's hard to explain. You don't know how much you miss ice until it's not there. When I get home I'll always drink the ice water I get in a restaurant.
None of the hotels we've stayed at in Germany have had Air. It's not so bad if you can get draft going thru the room. But a lot of time there's only one window and we can't get any air movement. And the rooms are so well insulated once the heat is there it stays there. The best thing to do is to take a cold shower when we get to the room.
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