mac and johanna's bike tripjoh: October 2014

Thursday, October 30, 2014

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.

Oct 26 2014 Schloss Saaleck Bobi, J and I took the car and rode down to Hammelburg and the Schloss Saaleck a castle located above the valley. Of course we went into the restaurant and had cake and a glass of wine. The castle is also a hotel and we thought about riding down from Kissingen and spending the night but that didn't happen. Too many other thing came up. Maybe next time.

The entry gate to the schloss

Inner courtyard of the Schloss

The courtyard from the top of the tower. That's J and Bobi coming out the door

J and Bobi at the top of the tower

J and Bobi hiking around the castle grounds

Hiking along the wall of the castle

Video of a of the Saale Valley with Hammelburg the larger town

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Saturday October4th.

After breakfast we rode to Trier to d visit some of the sights in Trier.
One of the things everyone wanted to visit was the Karl Marx House.
Before we got on the way Mac felt some pain in his back, but went anyway. There werecrowdsof people in Trier and Mac's back was painful, so he and I decided to ride back to our Hotel in Overbillig. We left the girls to their own devices and they said they had a wonderful time visiting all the important sights and there even was a festival with marching bands and a parade.
I don't have any photos, but you can google Trier and find out all about the city. We had been there on another bike trip 2 years ago.

Sunday October 5th.
It was decided to take the train back to Wuerzburg and from there ride the Main River bike trail to my hometown Bad Kissingen. We had a couple of changes but all went well. In Wuerzburg the girls stayed at the hostel Babelfisch near the Bahnhof . The Hostel was clean and the price was right. Mac and I stayed in our favorite Hotel. We all met for dinner and than took a walk to the old bridge and though town.
We met next morning and went to the Prince Bishofs Palaceand gardens. The girls signed up for an english tour and I went to town to do some shopping. We did more sightseeing in the old city center
than crossed the bridge one more time and started on the bike trail that would take us along the river through another wine region called Mainfranken..We stayed in a couple of villages and arrived in Bad Kissingen on October 8th. I was sad to see everyone leave on October 9th.
Photos from the Main River biketrail