June 1, 2024 Wertheim Germany

Wertheim Germany

June 1, 2024

I entitled today's post with the date and the place name as I normally do but I probably should have named it the red umbrella tour.   

The ship was docked this morning in the little town of Wertheim Germany which is on the banks of the Main and Tauber rivers.  This town of just 20,000 is famous for it's glass blowing.  There are several glass blowing artists in the town and it is home to the glass blowing museum of Germany.  

Agnes and Jim  elected to not go on the tour as it was pouring rain this morning so Sandra and I were on our own this morning.  We were being transported into town on those little pretend tourist trains which consist of a tractor dressed as an old time locomotive pulling carriages.  One of train's coaches had doors so we jumped into that one.  However when it was time to depart the engine wouldn't start. An NOX spray didn't help and they finally unhooked the coaches and several men push started the engine.  Sandra and I had a god laugh.

In town the first stop was the town watch tower which is 120 meters high and has a 3 degree tilt as the sandstone foundation has shifted.  The rain has now progressed to a steady down pour and the red umbrellas are competing for space in the narrow streets.  As the tour progressed into the town square a medieval town square appeared of half timbered buildings. Wertheim was not damaged during WW2 and everything is as it was in the middle ages.  The town square sports the narrowest building in all of the area and is narrowest at the base as taxes were based on the ground floor area.  

The town is built on the flood plain of the two rivers and floods ever 8 years or so.  The one building had a marker on it with all of the high water marks painted on it. Judging by the rain today it wasn't hard to believe that flood happen pretty regularly.  

I would have liked to go into see the glass blowing museum but it wasn't open for another 90 minutes, I would have liked to walked up to the Wertheim castle which was built in 1050, however by now the rain was just hammering down.  Both Sandra and I were cold and even though we had umbrellas we were getting wet, so we passed and headed back to the ship on the little locomotive that could (start).  

This afternoon was spent sitting in the lounge and watching the river slide by and watching the clouds creep lower and lower on the hills.  It was actually very relaxing and quite pleasant.

Terry