Our goal today is to get to Wurzburg, check into our hotel, freshen up and go visit the Residenz, home of the prince-bishops of Wurzburg. We have rented a Ford C-max which has enough space for our luggage and us. There is quite a bit of traffic on the A-3 and we dodge between lumbering trucks and very fast Mercedes and BMWs. Sarah has had it. She can no longer keep her eyes open and drifts in and out of sleep during the hour and a half ride to Wurzburg. Jack, our GPS, does a good job finding our hotel, the Stadt-Mainz in the center of Wurzburg. The hotel is in an old building and is adequate. We enjoy the pretzel door handles.
We all decide that the best course is to perhaps take a little nap before we head out. Around 4 PM we meet up and walk the couple of blocks to the Residenz.
We find that there is an English speaking tour at 4:30 and we wander around taking surreptitious photos until tour time. Our tour guide is a handsome young man with a lot of information., He tells us all about the history of Wurzburg, the duchy of Franconia, and the incredible rococco decorations. There are two Tiepolo frescoes in the palace. They are tour de force of perspective. Figures jump out from the ceiling and the walls. The plasterwork continues the illusion. It is all pretty spectacular.
We head back to the hotel. All of us are pretty spent. We decide another nap is in order before dinner.
Just down the street from the hotel is the Goldenes Fass or golden spigot in a brightly colored building.
We decide to try some traditional Franconian food. We get a bottle of dry, white wine.
John has pork cheeks with noodles and a salad. Sarah has saurbraten with red cabbage and dumplings. And I, trying to pick something light, have chicken with mushrooms and noodles. I cannot help thinking that Jonathan would love this food. He is a big noodles and gravy fan. We all enjoy our dinners and deem the most unusual things are Sarah’s dumplings. They are like congealed balls of gooey something. Nobody likes them. We find out from the server that they are bread crumbs, cooked potatoes, and raw potatoes that are formed into balls and then boiled.
It has been a long day. We are glad we have not ventured too far from the hotel and look forward to a good night’s sleep. (hopefully!)