Our Viking River Cruise

A very fancy, expensive dinner cruise boat. I know this photo doesn’t do it justice, but the sides are covered with thousands of glimmering Swarovski crystals.

Right down the street from our boat, right on the edge of the river, a small farmers’ market appeared. And a part of the market was a van that unloaded play equipment for children to keep them occupied. These gigantic bubbles were a big hit.

This shop had a cute sign over it with a whale eating a man. Apparently the artist had no idea what either one of those things should look like.

This was a part of the old city wall and we thought the presentation was clever.

The large salt warehouse on the left served as an important storage center during the war. The stone bridge on the right, constructed in the 12th century, is a masterpiece of medieval engineering with its 16 arches.

A lovely walk through the leaves along the Danube River. Doesn’t get any better than this.

Just hanging out by the river.

A lovely restaurant complete with blankets and furs for keeping the evening chill at bay.

A lamb-themed children’s store.

”David and Goliath” is an expensive hotel and restaurant with Italian architecture and mammoth figures painted on its exterior walls.

Another pretty Italian building apparently built to impress because the top floors are actually empty.

The original City Hall.

Classy store windows. Apparently for some time now the well-known German costumes have no longer popular but are now being purchased once again for special functions like the Oktoberfests.

Nice doors. But wouldn’t they be better with stained glass or cut glass windows?

The story is that the taller the building, the richer the owner. This man must be very wealthy.

I love these narrow little alleys. If you look closely you can see one of the spires of St. Peter’s Cathedral in the opening.

And here’s a closer look at St. Peter’s Cathedral.

And here’s another view. St. Peter’s is widely considered Bavaria’s best Gothic architectural work.  Built about 700 AD, it was rebuilt in 1320 after a fire destroyed it.  And of course there’s always construction going on.

And across the sidewalk where our boat is docked, Maximilian II of Bavaria built this summer neo-Gothic home in the 19th century. It’s just on the edge of the Old City and the castle and park are lovely, especially at this time of the year. These last couple of photos the palace and the Villa Park next to it.

Villa Park next to Maximilian II’s summer palace.

In Villa Park next to Maximilian II’s summer palace. The fall colors are amazing and these photos don’t do them justice.

Part of the huge wall.

A part of the wall with one of the many watchtowers.

A courtyard behind the wall.

Another view of the wall and some buildings inside.

Here you can see the cuts in the wall where the cannons were positioned.

After we finished viewing a small section of the wall, we walked down a steep cobblestoned walkway into this cute square with restaurants and bars. What is that man in the orange suit doing? Make him stop! We love those leaves! Don’t mess with our leaves!

First our guide pointed out this church that was built in 1509. It was just before noon and he alerted us that we were about to see a special show.

This is how the clock looked in the beginning. First, the 4 musicians just under the clock took turns playing their instruments.

Then this procession of kings came out of the door and marched around the large figure sitting in the middle.  It was really cute.

Then we noticed a sun dial on the side of one of the buildings which our guide said was correct 100% of the time except when it is cloudy (like today) or daylight savings is in effect (about half of the year). But other than that, correct 100% of the time!

I loved the carvings on the 2 sides of this lovely building.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the story behind his monument but it was gorgeous – and so clean and shiny and covered with gold.  And with a very elaborate fence protecting it.

This was a huge, beautiful Lutheran church. The buildings are so large and so close together that it’s often difficult to get back far enough to get a full photo.

Albrecht Durer was a German Engraver. See an example of his work below.

Albrecht Durer, Landscape with Cannon engraving, 1518.

An historic water well in the square.

The Farmers’ market was great. Wonderful variety of products and very friendly vendors. Lots of samples. This vendor has pumpkins, gourds, and fall wreaths in the foreground and lots of fresh flowers in the back.

This vendor had amazing-looking fruits – especially check out the size of those Mission Figs in the middle of the second row (between the kiwis and blueberries). The front row had a variety of mushrooms. Everything looked so fresh and perfect.

This vendor had a wonderful variety of cheeses and gave free samples.

We passed by this Shell gas station and I was able to get a blurry photo of their sign. If my math is correct, I think the prices range from $7.18-$7.88 per gallon, depending upon which grade you buy.

A very attractive nursery.

The original Town Hall built on a manmade island in the middle of the Regnitz River in the 14th century. It was replaced by a New Town Hall in another location in 1736 and today is a museum.

This is the architect’s own little joke. These legs belong to a baby whose body is higher up on the building.

One of the major cathedrals in Bamberg. This is the only cathedral in the world to have a statue of a full-size horse in it (see below).

And nobody knows who the rider is.

The old Bishop’s Residence which was later replaced with a new residence.  I do like the buildings and especially all of the live flowers growing along the balconies.

A lovely garden near the old Bishop’s Residence.  When the Bishop was still living there, they grew orange trees in this garden, not the roses we see today.

A close-up of the cobblestones we’ve been walking on for the last several days. Oh, my aching feet!

A nice and secluded rooftop patio.

Another lovely Bavarian building.

A look up the Regnitz River. It’s a very touristy area and all of that patio seating on the bridge gets put to good use.

And a look downriver from the old Town Hall.

The back side of another cathedral on top of one of the 7 hills.

The Wurzburg Bishops’ Residence is so big that I couldn’t get back far enough to take a picture of the whole thing. So here’s what I got.

One more castle.

And here’s one last castle. For now anyway.

One of our guides told us that campgrounds along the river are frequent and popular and he certainly was right about that. We see them often along the river and they’re always very crowded.

Nice little fall scene.

A bike route runs for miles along the river. It’s very flat and gets lots of use.  Doesn’t this look like fun!

The colors have been slow to change but I’m sure it will get better as we go along. This is one of the prettiest groups of trees I’ve seen so far. The location of the sun really helps too, of course.

A bus took us from our boat to the downtown area of Miltenberg for our walking tour, and when we parked we spotted this sign in the parking lot telling us where our bus needed to park. Really? Wouldn’t just ”buses”’ be sufficient? Why do Germans always have to be so verbose? Just saying.

This statue next to a public toilet lot celebrates 3 smug little pissers. (There’s a little plaque on the side telling us the water is not suitable for drinking.  Hmmm…..)

Chuck is enjoying some eagerly anticipated fall leaves.

The x-like figures on the 2 upper floors of this building mean this is a butcher’s shop.

The town’s little movie theater. Serves only sweet popcorn.

Every shop has a Madonna somewhere on the front. This one had the whole family.

Love those healthy geraniums in the window boxes.

The Gasthaus zum Riesen, built in 1411, is Germany’s oldest inn.

For the dogs.

Nice door.  Like the color combination.

Unique door.  Very art deco.  But do we really need those coats in the doorway?

Another elaborate door.

Yet another pretty door.

The front of the palace which the owner described as a smaller version of the Palace at Versailles. If you look closely, you can see 2 bridal parties.  Actually, since it was a Saturday, we saw no less than 8 bridal groups taking photos at the palace.  Weddings are not allowed at the palace but apparently it’s a very popular location for taking professional wedding photos.

The lower part of the staircase. This stairway was absolutely gorgeous.

Here’s the top part of the staircase with an interesting black chandelier.

This ceiling above the staircase was amazing. It looked like a dome ceiling but actually wasn’t. It had flat sides and a flat ceiling like an ordinary room but was creatively painted to give the illusion of being rounded.

A huge dining room. Notice the tall fountain built into the wall on the right where dinner guests could get cold drinks.

One of the beautiful ceilings.

Simply amazing marble columns.

French-style gardens that were beautiful but more natural than the usual more manicured palace gardens.

Lots of Canada Geese were strolling the lawns looking for food. But we also saw these other 2 geese that our guide identified as Egyptian Geese which are new to us. They were quiet when we saw them but apparently they can get very vocal.

This is the front of the house which looks a little strange because the current entrance is in the back.

The staircase to the second floor. There are more than 10,000 Dutch tiles in this area. It’s amazing.

At the top of the stairs.

A close-up of some of the tiles in the walls in the staircase.

The ceiling over the staircase.

Walls in one of the bedrooms.

More walls of tiles.

One of the beautiful ceilings.

The bathroom!

In 1730 a chapel was added on the grounds of the hunting lodge.

We were able to go inside this museum windmill. On the bottom floor, in addition to all of the large equipment needed to operate the mill, there was one small room (see the big window) with a fireplace, inset bedroom with curtain, table, and sewing machine. Winding stairs led to the upper floors where there were many more bedrooms since most families who lived in the windmills had many children.

The Cat’s Cradle is a sculpture based on a legend about a cat named Dubbeltje that saved a baby in St. Elizabeth’s Flood of 1421. As the floodwaters rose, Dubbeltje jumped back and forth, rocking the baby’s wooden cradle in the waves to keep it from tipping over until the baby was able to be rescued.