Tues 10th Wertheim

10 September - Wertheim

Our Cruise Director, Gudrun, organised for Karl, a glass blower from Wertheim to come aboard and give a demonstration on glass blowing.  His work was fabulous and John thoroughly enjoyed the show (I blogged).

The lock managers are still on strike so we are still in Kitzingen  - we were meant to be doing a bike ride from Wertheim to Freudenberg but it had to be cancelled due to the strike L


(Belatedly I've sorted the pics of the bike ride, Durnstein to Melk, so if you're interested, go back to that blog to see some pictures of our ride.)

All aboard after a light lunch to Wertheim, another gorgeous medieval river town made famous by the thriving glass industry.  Wertheim is dominated by Germany’s second largest castle ruin that was partly destroyed in the Thirty Years War between the Catholics and the Protestants.  Prior to WWII, Wertheim had a large Jewish population - today there is not one Jewish person living in this city.  Many of the Jewish people left for the shores of the United States, Canada, England and Australia.  The Americans had a large military presence there for 50 years, till 1996.  The barracks remained empty for a number of years, until Gorbachev allowed some Russians who had German heritage to move back to Germany.  Today they have settled in to the quite ugly looking housing commission type flats, high on the hills above Wertheim.  The town was not bombed during the war so it is relatively untouched, hence the quaint original buildings.  Many of the inhabitants could not afford to maintain their homes and they fell into disrepair.  The council has subsequently purchased these original homes and renovated them in order to rent them to young families in order to maintain the local economy.

 

It was common for people to take on the name of their town which is why we know about the Wertheim sewing machine; the Wertheim piano etc. 

I’m not sure what this says about global warming

but here’s a picture of the floods experienced by Wertheim over the past few centuries:

There were several plaques throughout the city, invariably installed in front of homes.  These were placed in the ground; made smallish; and stated the names and details of the Jews who were taken from their homes to the concentration camps.  They were purposefully made small so people had to stoop to read them in order that they would be paying respect.

We purchased some hand blown glass ornaments from Karl, (the bloke who came aboard this morning to demonstrate his art).  I had to get a crook to hook John out of the store!

Sheltering under a very large "sun" umbrella, plus our own umbrellas from the teeming rain that swept in just around 4.30 pm, and trying to keep warm under the patio heater, we enjoyed a local handcrafted pilsner with a few of our fellow passengers before boarding the bus to ... you guessed it ... back to Kitsingen.  The lock managers are still on strike  even though the government has given in to each of their demands.

Back on the ship to be told that the locks will be opened and we can sail at 9 pm.  Yippee!  We enjoyed dinner in the ‘flash’ dining room tonight and it was definitely the best meals we’ve had on board. 

It’s fabulous to hear the sounds of the ship grinding and moving along the river and in the locks.