Day 14: Residenz and Relocation, Würzburg and Nurnberg

We've retired to Hotel Klughardt for the evening. The reviews of this place were extremely positive about the service and comfort, which has so far held true. And Bill is happy to find that instead of chocolates, the pillows have small bags of gummy bears.

We both got up very early this morning, even before the alarm. Neither of us slept particularly well, but not for any definable reason. The up side was that we got an early start to the Residenz in Würzburg. Which gets an umlaut because otherwise the GPS can’t find it.

Residenz main entrance.

This building is just too large to capture in a single photograph.

There are two English tours of this former home of the prince bishops every day, the first at 11. We were about an hour early, so we started with the furniture exhibit that is traditionally where the tour ends. The big exciting part of this exhibit is an indoor carousel where children were expected to throw balls and darts through hoops, and knock the noses off of statues as practice for combat. I really, really wish photography had been allowed.

The tour was short, but interesting. There’s a painting where an ostrich has human legs because the artist had never seen one. America is more than once represented by an alligator. A dog painted on one of the ceilings gets fatter as you cross the room. Also, every horse in every painting and tapestry depicting a battle looks terrified, which seems accurate. The mirror closet is probably the most impressive part. Both for it’s completely over the top design, and for the fact that the entire set of painted mirrors are reproductions. The Residenz caught fire during allied bomb raids, and many of the rooms (this included) were destroyed. A year earlier, an evacuation effort had removed much of the furniture, tapestries, and gilded wall decorations, but the mirrors couldn't be removed. They broke one trying, and then decided that because the city didn’t have strategic value, the risk was low enough to leave the rest intact. The fragments of the one broken mirror were all that survived the heat, and they had to study it extensively to recreate period accurate mirror paintings and gilding, but without the mercury used in the original. There was also a really impressive wood floor that I would have taken a few hundred pictures of if we had been allowed. Same with the odd swirly marble columns in the chapel. Looks like there is a virtual tour which may be interesting to click through.

Photography was permitted in the gardens around the house, so after a lunch of mostly white asparagus, we wandered around and got a few shots.

Bill in his natural habitat.

Side of the Residenz as seen from the gardens.

Lots of statues hiding in the trees.

And not hiding in the trees.

We'll all understand if you bite one of those kids.

 

Oh, good. Stairs.

Residenz view from the gardens.

There was one very interesting lunch note, but I’m sure Bill will address it in his blog.

We then drove on to Nurnberg, the last stop on our whirlwind tour of Bavaria. After checking in, I took back the rental car. Resolving the ticket took a bit of time and convenience fee, but that’s one less thing to worry about when I get home. Seriously feel like the convenience was worth it.

We wanted to hit the castle today, but by the time we found the correct entrance, it was 30 minutes to closing, so we’ll have to squeeze that in tomorrow. Here are some pictures from our walk around the wall and gardens.

The walk between inner and outer walls.

Oh, good. Stairs.

 

We found our way up to the castle.

We then decided to hunt down a fountain the hotel staff had mentioned. Most of the way there, our miraculous weather luck failed. We’ve basically had almost no rain this whole trip, and even when it has rained, it’s been of no inconvenience. Like having the one table that didn’t get wet, or being under the covered wall walk when a shower comes through. So today we got hailed on for a while and then it was just cold rain until around the time we decided to call it a night. Of course, we have been expecting exactly this kind of thing and both had umbrellas ready. I didn’t let the weather stop me from taking pictures, though.

Hail will start falling in about 10 seconds.

Rain be damned, I am still taking pictures.

We found a quiet café for dinner, where I may have ordered too much.

Bill out of the rain.

Bill flipped through the tour book and discovered that one of the places we had passed a couple of blocks back was an ale house/brewery. That was our next stop.

A happy place.

Bill in his natural habitat.

Then we decided to check out the garishly touristy section of shopping near the main gate. The advantage being that between the rain and the late hour, we could window shop without crowds.

The most tourist trap portion of old town has been shut down by rain. Kind of cute when it's empty.

That put us close to the train station, where we could get the tram back to our hotel.

Tomorrow is our last day here, and we only have a couple of items on the agenda. And no more driving for me!