Viking's Grand European River Cruise: Würzburg, Germany

Viking River Cruise, Day 6:  Rothenburg and Würzburg, Germany (Facebook collage)

(click any collage to enlarge)

Because this was a huge, chock-full day with 2 excursions, one of which was optional and at an added cost (Rothenburg), I am dividing Day 6 into 2 parts.  Part 1, today, is of the included excursion of Würzburg, which happened in the afternoon following our return from Rothenburg.

Würzburg has so many wonderful landmarks, but the one chosen for our tour was the Würzburg Residence, completed in 1744.  Though heavily damaged in WWII, it's been in restoration ever since.

From the outside, it's not what I wanted to be the Residence, once you see the other structures I show later.  But you can at least see how HUGE it is.  Too bad we didn't see it from the garden side!

Upon entering, the grand staircase greets you, one of the building's greatest attributes.

AND the ceiling frescoes, painted by a Venetian painter, Giovanni Tiepolo, and his son!

Four continents are represented in the corners of the vault, with frescoes in between.

Other embellishments make this place a huge WOW factor,

but can you imagine living there?  It's a museum!

Can you picture chandeliers like this over your dining table or in your foyer?  

What about a mirror room? Even on the ceiling?

In case you missed something important?

 It's quite something, isn't it!

Home to the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg....

...which is probably why I took great pleasure in this charming lady with the hat!

That was that...and now I know why I'm not a big museum lover.  I can appreciate all the grandeur, yes, but I just don't relate to most of it, if that makes sense.

But go outside, and suddenly I'm transformed....by architecture!

In this case, it was the Dom St. Kilian/Würzburg Cathedral, from 1040, that just didn't stop...!

With an overall length of 105 meters, it's the fourth largest Romanesque church building in Germany.

In other words, this is part of the same church!

You have no idea how long it took me to figure out that these weren't 2 separate churches!

And did we go inside?  YES, of course.

It, too, was a museum of sorts.

But that's what I feel about most European Roman Catholic churches!

 Nearby was the Collegiate Neumünster church built in 1711.

Even a peek is better than nothing.

The city's outdoor market is looked over by the Marien Chapel from the 14th century.

By now it was late afternoon and we didn't even attempt to see if it was open.

We were on our way back to the ship....

...letting it all sink in...

...impressions, impressions, impressions!

We knew we had to head for the Old Main Bridge to find our boat.
It was built in 1473 to replace the destroyed Romanesque bridge from 1133.
Starting in 1730 the statues were added.

From the bridge we could already see the Fortress Marienberg high up on the hill.  It is Würzburg's prominent landmark and symbol on the Main river and was the home of the prince-bishops for 5 centuries before the Residence was built.  Remember when at the top of this post I said I wished the Residence was here?
It was built in 704 A.D.  (Yes, you heard me.)

The building with the 2 tall spires is the Käppele, a "small" Baroque/Rococo cathedral from 1748.
The caramel-colored church below the fortress is the parish of St. Burkard.
See the close proximity of all 3 landmarks on the river!

 We passed all these fabulous archetectural delights as we walked back from the Old Main Bridge
along the river to our boat.  And there she was:  Home Sweet Home.

Before walking in to prepare for dinner, we saw this narcissistic swan at what could have been our window.
Or did she really see her soulmate and then just give up...and swim away?  poor thing.

Day 6 will be continued with Part 2, which was our optional trip to Rothenburg....

The Norway Weathervanes, etc.

Part of the etc. of this post is that it's my turn at Vision & Verb again...

...where I talk about what happens when you feel snubbed/hurt.
I loved that I had this image in my files from a gift shop in Stokmarknes, Norway.

After the last few posts on our Hurtigruten sea voyage, especially the last post on the Norway churches (during Blogger's black-out!) which took a lot out of me, I needed something a bit lighter for today. Nothing better than weathervanes, right?!

How's that for all the weathervanes I captured from Olso to Kirkenes to Bergen and back to Oslo again! Most of the ones with dates were on the top of churches, telling the world when they were built. Notice how there are a few that remind me of what we have here in The Netherlands: the sailboat, cock, dog and owl.

Speaking of which, what better time to show the weathervanes I've collected here the last few weeks around our neck of the woods, some as recent as this past Saturday:

See how easily you can tell when it's sunny or not!
But what amazes me the most is that every single one is unique. There are many that are similar but one tiny thing may be different, like the horse's tail being up instead of down.

So soulful for me...and funl!

Now look at this and tell me what you see:

No. Or yes. A trick of the eye?
The image on the left is a stork weathervane. On the right is a stork's nest....
but it's a fake nest, all of it, including the storks, not real. Storks are common here in The Netherlands and build their nests on top of chimneys, if they can. Astrid says they return year after year to the same nest.
So, see how creative this family is...to keep real storks from nesting on their chimney!
BTW, if you want storks to hang around, you build a stand for them for their nest as seen here (scroll down).

How about some more etc....

We went to our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant the other week and found this special of the month: asparagus with ham and egg sauce. OMG! We liked it so much we hope we can go back and have it again before the season is done and over. Asparagus in Europe is WHITE, not green, and has to be peeled.
So different from what we're used to in the States.

Since we have to go out into the countryside to get there (above), we always see so many interesting things. Astrid is almost always ready to stop on a dime for me, bless her:

Spring is in the air everywhere. Babies being born, you know!


Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey.
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?


Swans are everywhere. I have seen more swans in one year than in the rest of my life combined.
Ditto for herons. The canals are perfect habitats for them both.


Speaking of herons, you can imagine our surprise one day to see one inside our senior-living courtyard at the fountain. He obviously flew in, ate a goldfish (Astrid saw him do it!), and then flew away. The bugger!


And speaking of babies, the geese in town are having a heyday.
It takes a village, you know, to raise a family!


Couldn't do etc. without adding a windmill, this one from Meerkerk.
It's a hollow-post mill from 1665, used to control the water level in the polder.

And finally, one of my favorite houses seen every time we go to the pannenkoeken restaurant:



Once again, a reminder that today is my Vision &Verb post....and now have a great week with all your etc's and so forths and so ons.

The Oslo Opera House

Totally worth a post all on its own, as you will see: the Oslo Opera House!

Friday, April Fool's Day, was our first full day in Norway, after spending Thursday night at Diane and Renny's. It was cold but SUNNY. That was the day we took a 2-hour cruise on the Oslo Fjord to see the city from a different perspective.

Seeing the Opera House from the water was worth the entire mini-cruise!
Completed in 2007 (a year after Donica and I were there), it is like an enormous glacier sliding into the fjord. White granite combines with Italian marble to create the illusion of glistening ice. The sloping roof angles down to the water like a jagged chunk of ice.

On Sunday, 2 days later, when we went with our Oslo Pass to visit this incredible structure, the fog made of it a mystery to behold.

But first, before entering, we got distracted by the swans and ducks,
navigating on and off the ice for the bread crumbs being tossed to them...


...but not for long, because it was the Opera House we were there to see...if we could!
THIS is what welcomed us. THIS is what beckoned us to enter.


You actually do find the main entrance, even in the fog.
And just like that, you come in from the iceberg cold to the warmth of light (through windows that are 15 meters high) and oak 'waves' that curve/flow around the room.


Wall panels, like the one Astrid is putting her arm through, are illuminated from the floor and from behind with beams of white and green light. The lights fade in and out, creating shifting shadows and the illusion of slowly melting ice.


Diane really wanted us to take the Opera House Tour, approximately one hour, so thanks to her, we did! All tour guides work in some capacity or another there at the House. Our guide is an opera singer and was just delightful.


So, back behind the scenes, we entered the world of the opera and ballet.
The props, the sound system, the nuts and bolts of putting on a performance.


The costumes (which we found out after a few snaps were not to be photographed)....


The sewing room: "We don't make mistakes; we do variations."


And finally, the heart of the House, the main theater, seating approximately 1,370 in a classic horseshoe shape. The tour didn't take us to the ground floor but what we saw from above was convincing. Diane saw The Nutcracker there this past December and said it was incredible.


While we didn't see a real ballet while there,
we saw enough evidence to believe it happens!

That was the behind-the-scenes tour. Another "totally worth it!"


Then we went outside to play....


...and to see the famous "She Lies" iceberg sculpture sitting out in the water nearby, a sculpture made of stainless steel and glass, 12 x 17 x 16 metres, floating on its axis in line with the tide and wind.


At the beginning of this post, you saw the Opera House from the ground. Here you see if from the roof...the only Opera House in the world where you are able to walk up to and on the roof.


Two posts ago I showed you Diane and Astrid up there on the roof....
(the wall surfaces remind me of Braille)


Look who else was there! Two brothers, Daddy, Mommy and their dog.
There are no guard rails on the roof. Seriously. But there are signs to remind you that the roof has many steps and may be slippery. That should do for any tiger, right?


Even though it was still foggy by then, we could see a lot...and how high we were!
That's Astrid's mirror image on the bottom left (above).


One last reminder, as we were leaving, that the ice was not safe.
The little children had it down pat.

See why this had to have its own post. It ranks up there with some of the best architectural treasures I've ever seen, including the Opera House in Sydney. And that's saying a lot!