We arrived in Würzburg and had our choice of 4 included to. With AmaWaterways all excursions are included. And most river cruise lines include atleast one included tour in each port. It helps you see and experience the country better.
We had the pleasure of visiting Würzburg’s Baroque Residenz Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that features an opulent interior, including a grand fresco by Tiepolo. You start off by going up a set of stairs and when you take the 90 degree turn you see an awesome ceiling, meant to intimidate visitors. In fact that is the perfect way to describe it. Each room was more opulent than the one before it. It is said many who stayed here left to make improvements on their own palaces. Unfortunately you can not take pictures inside so you will have to see it for yourself. But here are a few more pictures of the outside.
And it also had a beautiful garden with it.
Our guide Florian. He was a very knowledgeable guide who shared the Palace with us, and then shared what it was like to grow up Germany. It was really touching to here him talk about growing up and not being able to express the simple thought of being a proud Germany. How there was never any show of country pride, it would have been considered unthinkable. Let us think about that, his grandparents were just toddlers and his parents not born before the end of WW II and still the shadow hangs over Germany. After the tour we went up and thanked him and told him how much we appreciated him sharing this small snapshot of his life. He said he really appreciated it, but not even shared our gratitude.
After this we were taken back to the ship, but had 4 hours before we left port. We decided to head back out and look around. The business district of the town is encircled by a system of parks that run in a large semicircle with the river as the border on each side. We walked through the park part way around and then headed off into the center. What a cool city.
We came across the Unterer Markt. and explored the Marienkapelle .
The day was getting late so we wandered upon this restaurant that smelled good and all we heard was German being spoke, so decided to give it a try.
I took the picture below because I loved the juxtaposition of the old and new Germany.
And as we strolled along the river walk we see a familiar sight, our home away from home. Oh and the reason the other ship is so close is that often cities will not have enough docks for the number of ships so they will dock parallel to each other. The outer ship has to climb up and cross the sundeck of the other ship.
