Last Days November in the vineyard

October-November

Last days in Bad Kissingen

Schloss Saaleck

Schloss Saaleck

Schloss Saaleck

Schloss Saaleck

Hiking in der Rhoen

Rhoen

Wuerzburger Haus Rhoen

Berghaus Rhoen Beer break

Brotzeit

Peter's vineyard in Wirmsthal

Peter's vineyard

Oct 19 2014 Volkach to Etwashausen to Volkach.  We leave the hotel in Volkach and get onto the street and they have set up a market.  There's stalls all over up and down the street.  We are looking at some of the stuff when a marching band come down the street.  After the band passed by we walked  to the squre  

 Wine pricess and the Burgermeister in Volkach

J leaving the hotel Kreuzer for our trip to Etwashausen

We rode from Volkach to Etwashausen, about 27k, to see the parade for the Kirmesfes. It was happening in conjunction with the tree raising the night before.  The video is a few sec of the parade.  

The float had fresh picked veggies on it

Folk leaving the parade and heading across the river to Kitzingen to a flea market

The changing of the queens.  The Blonde has to give her tiara to the brunette.  

Parade entrants.  The entrants are clubs dressed  in their traditional dress.  In between the clubs are bands.  These guys might be the brew club.

One of the bands who played in the parade.  After the parade we had some federweissen and sat in the sun.  Then we rode back to Volkach and to the fishfest.  There we sat and had 2 more federweissen each and some snacks while the band played on.  At 1700 the band quit and the fest was over.  We walked back to our hotel thru the throngs of people that were still looking at the stalls.

Oct 18 2104 Sulzfeld to Volkach    We left the Deustches Haus hotel in Kitzingen and rode back down river to Sulzfeld, a village we  wanted to see but it's on an alternative trail and just never got around to it.   Sulzfeld has a still intact wall around the old town.

J leaving Deustches Haus in Kitzingen

J riding thru the gate into Sulzfeld

The Rathaus 

Cute house 

In most towns in Germany the is list of the fallen that came from the village.  This is just part of the list.  The village must have lost a lot of men.  Some towns will have monuments to the 1890, WW1 and WW2.   

The oldest house in Sulzfeld

The wall towers sometimes are in private hands and are turned in to homes or rentals

Nice landscaping along the wall

The wall and another home built in the wall.

Village street.

Home built into the wall

The village was really quiet.  Hardly a car.  But parking is hard to  find.

A tower along the wall

We left Sulzfeld and rode back to Kitzingen.  And stopped in the Market so J could do her usual wandering around  looking in shop windows.

Market place in Kitzingen

We rode on to Dettelbach and we got off the trail to see The pilgrimage and sanctuary church "Maria am Sand".  But we had  to climb a steep hill.  Dettelbach has a  wall around it also.

The portal of Maria am Sand

Plaque saying the church was started in 1506.  

We went inside and an organist was playing.  We were the only ones there to hear it.  Along the wall of the nave are stories of miracles that happened because o people praying in the church.   This the baroque "Altar of Grace"

Altar piece at Maria am Sand

After wandering thru the church J sat in the sun and cracked and ate walnuts we had found along the trail.  

By Nordheim we stopped and took a picture of the grape vines starting to change.

Between Nordheim and Volkach there is rafting.  Here was a large canoe going by.   This section of the main does not have ship traffic.  There is a canal that goes around this section.  

We got to Volkach in time for theSaturdays fishfest.  We had some federweissen naturally.  We will be back for the second day  of the fest.

Oct 17 2041We got a train from BK and went to Wurzburg then changed for a short hop to Kitzingen.  From there we rode the bikes to Iphofen.  The Knauf Museum was having a exhibit on the hexen or witches.  Most of the exhibit was on the things they did to suspected witches.  Wurzburg and Bamberg were big witch killing towns.  Some of the exhibits came from the torture museum in Rothenburg.  After the museum we went to the local Gasthaus and had wine and cake.  Then we rode back to Kitzingen but took a detour to Etwashausen, a village across the Main from Kitzingen.  We came upon a tree raising fest or planbaum.  This village had a big tree so I wondered how they were going to get it up using the regular method of pure manpower.  My question was soon answered when the drove in a truck crane.  If you look back to Aug 30 we have a tree raising in Wollbach but they used brute force.

The tree to be raised.  It must be 25 meters long at least.

Before they raise it they have to put wreathes on the tree.  It's a chore because there's a trailer holding the tree off the ground at the same spot they want to tie the wreath.  So the crane had to lift the tree, remove the trailer, tie the wreathe on, then let down the tree and not crush the wreathe and get a better pick point to lift the tree into place.  There is a predug hole that butt of the tree to fit into.   

Of course there is the fest queen, the one on the left with the tiara.

And the band plays while they are raising the tree.

Partway up

farther up

Success.  They pound wedges into the hole to center the tree.  With the tree up I wondered how they would untie the choker.  So up drives the city hook and ladder truck and they put 2 firemen on the ladder and raise them up to unhook the choker

After the raising we head back to Kitzingen.  There is an island in the river and they have a park with a beautiful swimming area.  At least 2 big pools, water slide  and beer garden.   We spent the night at the Deustches haus, a nicely appointed hotel in Kitzingen.  Because of the fest in Etwashausen rooms were hard to come by.