Wednesday we slept in a bit as our shuttle to the airport to pickup our rental was not until 9:15AM. After breakfast we packed up our bags and brought them to the bus. It was the first time we actually had to get our own bags to the bus ourselves. We did not realize what a luxury it was to have them just appear in your room every night.
It was going to be our last ride with Vanessa and Attila, they made a great team.
We were dropped at the airport terminal 1, but with all the construction it was not obvious how to get to the terminal, lucky for us Vanessa was going there too to catch a train, so we followed her. She flagged down a taxi and the driver pointed us the right way.
We arrived at the Hertz counter a bit after 10AM but were asked to comeback closer to our pickup time of 12N, so we killed some time in the airport.
The Hertz pickup was very efficient, Hertz Gold service, thank you IBM. The Hertz guy said we were going to be given a Fiat500 but he upgraded us to an Opel Corsa, it is still a tiny car.
We drove from Frankfurt to Wurzburg, it is pretty much all highway (Autoban) with speed limits going from 80kph to unrestricted. The traffic was never really light, but everything kept moving along.
We checked into our hotel, B&B Worzburg, around 2PM. I chose this hotel because it was in easy walking distance to the downtown area and had parking.
After settling in we set out on foot to explore Wurzburg. It was hot, probably close to 90F, we became shade seekers.
One of the first things we could see was the Wurzburg Fortress overlooking the town. It looked like it was a long way off so we doubted we would walk to it. This picture is with 2X zoom.
Walking along the Main River we saw what I think are river tour boats, this one is over 400 ft in length...huge.
Walking along the Mains we came to Old Wurzburg Crane. It was built in the 1700s and was used into the mid 1800s.
We eventually reached the Old Bridge in town. It was built in the 1400s and is beautiful. Walking the bridge on such a nice day we saw many people carrying a glass of wine. As you enter the bridge for 6 euros you can get a glass of wine to take with you. There are no open container laws in Germany, everyone walks around with a beer or wine in hand.
The bridge has small turnouts with statues in each one, very pretty.
We intended to just walk across the bridge and return to explore town, but somehow we found ourselves climbing the mountain up to the Wurzburg Fortress and it is a climb.
We arrived at the gate which is basically an entrance through a tunnel. The castle was built in the 1200s, destroyed during WWII and restored to its present glory. It is very impressive.
The courtyard inside is huge.
The views from the garden overlooking Wurzburg are amazing.
The garden itself is beautiful.
It also provides a spectacular view of the old bridge.
We eventually made our way back down off the mountain, many many steps, and into town. We strolled through town and found a gelato shop for a cooldown, it was still pretty warm. The city is very Germany with the old and the new mixed together.
After wandering the city we stopped at a restaurant near the old crane for dinner, more sausages, of course.
As we walked back to the hotel the sun was setting, it was a nice day, a bit more relaxed than the tour pace.
Tomorrow we will make our way to Juergen's home territory.
On our own and doing okay! Every town has a square or center, sometimes more than one. We found another castle too!
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