Wurzburg

Pretend in your heads that there's an umlaut (the two little dots) over the first u in Wurzburg. And pronounce it like it's a v not a w. Ok we're good.

Since Becky had class more or less all day today I took the train to Wurzburg which is only an hour away to see the Residenz there. This was a long day, but a good day.

Adventure #1 was finding the palace. I knew sort of that there was more than one castle/schloss thing, but I wasn't totally sure where either was. Luckily the town of Wurzburg is happy to send you on a walking tour (using the free map, and you know how I love a free map) to show you everything that is mildly worth seeing. Much of it was not worth seeing, but both castles were included so I wandered all over looking at random things of little to no interest. But the first castle was awesome. It's definitely more of a fortress-castle than a palace-castle. Basically the Prince-Bishop of Wurzburg (once it's own country) used to live in town, until his wealthy citizens started threatening to kick him out, and then he built a fortress on top of the hill to protect himself. It's also sort of a trek up said hill. Unfortunately I took the long way up, which I found out on the way down. Oops. It was...scenic. The views from the top were worth it though. Definitely worth it.

The may pole

The Marienburg fortress

Inside the trench

The Residenz

The back of the Residenz with some of the gardens

Upon re-entering the town below, I got myself some ice cream and walked over to the Residenz, which the Prince Bishop built after Versailles. Because that's what you do. When someone builds a super awesome palace to show how super awesome they are, you must emulate them to show how super awesome you are too. I liked the Residenz a lot...it combined a lot of my favorite things about the various versailles-wanna-be palaces. And it was a nice size, and had very nice gardens. I wouldn't mind living there at all. Definitely on the approved list.

Dinner was in a nice little cafe by the Dom. I had this awesome "home made Franconian potato soup with bacon". Delicious. I love cafes. The US needs more of them. The people watching is fantastic.