Heidelburg

From Frankfurt we travelled by bus for an hour to Heidelburg.  It was worth the effort, with spectacular views from the castle high above the town.

Heidelburg has a civilised town square.

We rested for a time in the town's main Lutheran church.

Miltenburg

According to the daily programme, this is day 8 of our cruise.  Miltenburg is a quaint riverside town with half timbered, leaning houses and a nicely proportioned town square.  No buses were needed today.  This makes the whole excursion experience that much better.

River Duchess docked at the town

Rothenburg

Rothenburg woke from a three hundred year sleep at the end of World War II.  Whilst it was damaged in the war, it has managed to retained most of its medieval buildings; preserved for centuries by poverty.  It is one of the few towns in Germany with an intact city wall.  Wonderful  images.  Shame I can't publish them.

Bamburg

In mediaeval times the Bishop owned all the land in Bamburg.  The city fathers wanted to build a town hall, but were not willing to negotiate with the ecclesiastical land lord.  They argued that the river running through the town  was not "land", and so available for their project.  The town hall has survived on the watery site for hundreds of years.

Our walking tour of the town was the first in the rain. It was light and not unpleasant unless, like some of our fellow travellers, you believed the weather forecast.  Sylvia was easily spotted in the throng - she put up her union jack umbrella.

 

Monday, I think

If this is Monday, we visited Nurberg. It has a fascinating castle and old town, and a very creepy place called the Zeppelin Field.  It was here that the Nazis held their staged rallies involving up to 500,000 people in a week in September between 1933 and 1938.  If Hitler had been standing on the leader's podium some weeks ago, he would have witnessed Lewis Hamilton winning the 2011 German Grand Prix.  This would not have made him happy.

Nearby is the Congress Hall (which is not a hall at all). Built by Hitler but never finished, it is loosely based on the Roman Colosseum. It is now not very grand.

Main-Danube Canal

Completed in 1993 after a thousand years of planning, the Main-Danube Canal finally links, well, the Main and Danube Rivers.  Its is about 170km in length, was hideously expensive, but now allows river transport from Amsterdam to the Black Sea.  The European watershed is marked by a large concrete wall (no, not across the canal) at about half way.  Rain falling on one side flows to the Black Sea, and on the other to the North Sea.   There are ducks and very, very big locks.

Linz to Regensburg

River Duchess sailed through the night and the following morning to Regensburg. The weather was perfect, so we watched Bavaria go by from the upper, open deck.

Regensburg has an intact mediaeval town centre including the magnificent gothic cathedral. The ice cream is not bad, either.