Only so many words

So many words you can write about Florence... truly one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
We all spent two days together here after which I flew off to Chicago for a couple of days while the rest have the joy of another three days in Florence.
From Il Duomo with the cathedral, basilica and bell tower, to the piazzas resplendent with statues and fountains … and the Ponte Vecchio Bridge. Every artists interpretation of David, so many and varied. There really is too much to put into a single blog entry.


On Monday evening we met an NZ family staying in the youth hostel. It was nice to do some socializing for a change, had a few drinks and the kids watched a DVD (turning out to be a good pull). Lovely family from Nelson.


A couple of the highlights for me were going up to the top of the dome of the cathedral. The trip takes you to the inside in the dome where can walk around the cat walk and gaze upon the frescoed ceiling above and the mosaic tiled floor below. After this the stairs take you to the layer between the outer and inner doom, an extraordinary journey, allowing you to understand how amazing an engineering feat this is. Finally you end up on an outside platform at the very top of the dome from which you can look down over the city of Florence…


The Piazza della Signoria where had stood the original David, now a copy in it’s place, the fountain of Neptune and the Loggia de Lanzia balcony gallery of masterpiece statues, including a beautiful bronze by Cellini of Persius killing the Medusa.


There really is just too much to say, so I will leave it at that from Chicago.

The most unusual tourist attraction

The last two days (but one) we found the most unusual of tourist attractions…
The attraction starts in the car park, this is real-time, in your face tourism. Men from southern shores wander around with relics from their homeland mixed with unusual domed shapes, colourful, collapsible technological marvels.
You make your way past them, some appear as statues, others are moving and through a lovely arched portal.
Once through the portal you encounter the real target of this attraction, a zoo with people spanning the globe, standing on an angle with their hands in the air, tracing the same angle. At first glance they appear to all bit at different angles, but, watching carefully you realise they actually are all leaning on the same angle, as if drawn by some powerful magnetic force. They stand still, very still for a matter of seconds and then relax. Sometimes they resume the same, or a similar posture a few times in a row.
Looking past the people you notice a building, not a large building, but a pretty building and it too is on the same angle. Is it the people that are slowing drawing the building down, or are they some how worshiping the building as a God, it is not clear to the innocent bystander.


And so is the experience of Pisa… well not really, but very odd behaviour indeed and certainly kept one amused for some time. Of course Cathedral square with the basilica and the Cathedral, the tower leaning in behind from the cathedral as if it were a shy child standing behind it’s parents, just taking a peak at the goings on, are all amazing. The Cathedral has some fantastic mosaics, paintings and wood inlays. The basilica is strangely empty, except for some theatre costumes on display and an artwork made up of loaves of bread and a wooden cross.


The town of Pisa has some lovely streets and a market from which we bought vegetables. We managed to find a famous (well Lonely Planet famous) gellatatria, however it was closed, and so we chose an alternative. The chocolate ice cream that Becca chose was truly fantastic.
And thus was Pisa and we move on to the wilderness of Tuscany, following one of our campsite books led us about 30k north of Florence. The campsite was quite nice up in the hills, the people very friendly, but the true delight, the justification for the long drive through the windy hills was the pork… When we arrived the owner asked us if we wished to eat in the restaurant, normally we wouldn’t but she took me out the back to the kitchen and opened the oven to reveal what smelled and looked like the sweetest, crispiest roasted pork imaginable. Rach and I both ordered it (Bex and Tash stuck with pizza, really very nice) and it was heaven. The pork was a rolled loin jammed with various herbs and kidney. The skin was the crispiest, sweetest crackling imaginable and the whole experience was a true delight.

Today we drove through and stopped in a few towns on the way back down to Florence. The two highlights, some delicious cheese from a market picorhino (spelling) and in another village there was band playing to which the girls danced on the streets (although we never saw the band, they were squirreled away in a villa).


As drove through to Florence on the backgrounds we caught glimpses of wooded valleys in all shades of autumn colours, drove through tree tunnels with the sun lighting up the autumn leaves like a coloured glass chandelier. At the top of the hill, coming down to Florene were feasted on a spectactular view of the city of Florence, bathed in the sunshine, the domes sparkling and the surrounding hills showing off their villas, olives and vines.


Tonight we are in a campsite on the grounds of what is described as the most beautiful youth hostel in Europe. An L-shaped villa with lovely grounds. Tomorrow we are Florence bound.

Cinque Terra

Walking through the hills of the Lingure were four people. Telling jokes, well really shaggy dog stories because they take more time and create a greater distraction, do you know the one about Mrs Pink and her B&B with Mr Brown etc, or the one about the pink ping pong balls (perhaps a bit more obscure). Once these were done it was then time to move onto the riddles (hanging men, sunburnt arms and jack & jill). All of this through magnificent scenery… olive groves strung with nets catching the black olives as they fall, the occasional small vineyard, groves of oaks and pines, and all the hillsides weeping with terraces. As you round a corner you are meet with a another fantastic view down the Cinque Terre coast, rugged cliff sides, cactus and aloe vera clinging for life to any cranny they can find. A 7km walk in all, up hill and down, I start to understand the feat you achieved, Gitti, earlier this year.

This was the start of the second day of our time here. On the first day we caught the train to Riomaggiore and explored the villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola and Corniglia. Each with it’s own unique personality, but all resplendent with houses stacked up the cliff faces in shades ochre, blue and yellow. Linking these towns we walked the paths, the first of which is called the Via della Amore. A half tunnel part way along the tunnel is decorated with a mixture of modern frescos and graffiti, sometimes hard to tell the difference. Within the tunnel we come across a busker playing Sinatra songs, much comfort to the many American tourists who have made there way to this slice of paradise.

It really has been a fantastic couple of days, partly damped, well literally damped by the rain that started part way through the afternoon today, ensuring a quicker visit Monte Rossa and Vernazza, but still, sitting in the Gellatria and Pizzeria with ice cream, coffee and pizza is not too bad, even with a bit of a drizzle.

Tomorrow we leave Cinque Terre, but could have spent a month exploring the alley ways… Pisa bound.

For the shoppers at heart.

On Monday we reached a tourist destination for the shoppers at heart (name no names) the Allessi factory shop. Allessi, for the uninitiated, is a Italian brand primarily associated with kitchen stuff, but they also make other just plain cool stuff.

We came here after being inspired by the van Peel’s coffee cups (see the Antwerp entry). They happened to be out of the coffee cups, but it was really fun just to wonder around and marvel at the wondrous designs. We did make a few purchases (won’t give any details) at a ‘bargain’ price!

From the Allessi we moved to onto Orto (again at Guy’s recommendation). Largo d’Orta is the smallest (I think) lake in the area, very quiet and very pretty. We parked at a fantastic site, literally on the shores of the lake and walked into the village San Guillo Orta. An absolutely beautiful village that is almost traffic free. We got as far as the main plazzo and then found a café and had chardonnay’s and ice creams. The walk through the village was brilliant, little bridges over the road connected the houses on their second levels, frescos painted on the walls and a small island out in the lake with a 15th century basilica.

In the morning it was hard to leave this place, the only push was that it had clouded over, but the view in the morning across the lake was still magical. It has been a great few days around the lakes, lovely villages, wonderful views and good ice cream!

We have now just finished a big drive down to the Mediterranean coast, our target had been Portofino… but… well there are some things you just can not do in a campervan and one of them is go to Portfonio. After getting completely stuck in Santa Marghireta we asked the tourist information office where we could park in Portofino, and the answer, a town about 15 kilometres away!

So we said bye to that idea and, and asked Fiona how to get to the next campsite we had spied in our book further south to explore Cinqueterra from. Fiona excelled herself this time, instead of going down the autostrada she led us through a series of tunnels under the cliff along the coast. A great drive, although very nerve racking as the road was labelled 3m high and 1.8m wide and given that the campervan is 3m high and 2.3m wide it seemed like a BAD idea. There was a small local bus in front of us, so I figured that if he could do it so could we. We made it and are now nestled up in the hills a couple of k’s from the coast. Tomorrow we explore Cinqueterra.

Italy here we are

This weekend we arrived in Italy. We drove down from Lucarno in Switzerland to Italy, on the Lago Maggiore. This part of Switzerland is Italian speaking and is, with the exception of the currency really just Italy.


On Saturday we drove down the lake to Stresa, being the first place on lago maggiore with free camping advertised in our book, but was that a mistake. Driving down the lake was a great intro to Italian driving. The road is beautiful as it twists right on the lake shore, kind of like the Coromandel road. But is a mixture of two lanes, quasi two lanes and one lane and the Italian drivers tend to hold their racing line in the corner and don’t give regardless of the size of the on coming vehicle. Still it was a fun, if not a bit of a stressful journey, however Stresa didn’t cough up with the goods and we found nowhere to stop. So we turned around and headed back up the lake from whence we came as we had passed numerous camping and campervan stop signs. The first really promising one lead us up a very narrow and very steep road up from the coast, our second intro to backing down difficult roads in Italian, I suspect there will be a few of these. But, again the Italians stumped us and there was nothing to be seen. We eventually came back to a lovely village called Cannero Reviera that was a mixture of old Italian village and tasteful modern lakeside resort. The tension had risen in the joint during the journey back up the lake so we exited quickly once settled in great camp site right by the lake and wandered along to the lake side bars and had some wine as the sun set.


We have spent two days here, it has been a hit for all. The village had some lovely streets and churches, the views around the lake with the villas hanging off the side of the cliffs are magnificent and me and the girls even ventured into the water for a swim. Once you got over the initial shock it was really quite nice.

We have had pizza both nights while here after a promenade and an aperitif down by the shores, really too easy! There is a lovely church up the hill from us with outdoor congregation area below the church half in the hillside. We have bought some Lemoncella to keep us going around Italy, Dad I am sure you will appreciate that.


Tomorrow we head for Orto on Guy’s recommendation, I am sure more lovely views and yummy ice creams await…

The waterfalls of Trummelbach

Today was our last day in the Jungfrau region, it will be sad to leave, but boy did we have a fantastic last day. We drove up a valley from Interlaken, known as the valley of the waterfalls. One side of the valley rise the foothills behind which are the big mountains of the region, the other side of the valley is a cliff face hundreds of feet high with pine trees delicately poised on the edges at the top.


The cliff face is beautiful greys of stratified rock and then you start to see the waterfalls, just dropping off the top of the cliff to the bottom without touching the face. Narrow channels of water must flow to the edge with such force that when they reach the cliff edge they don’t trickle over, but fly right off. With the sun behind the waterfalls it was an incredible effect. A series of stairways and paths leads to caverns behind the waterfalls so you can look through the fall to the mountains on the other side of the valley.


We continued to drive up the valley and then turned off, this time to the mountain side to view the glacial falls. These were just amazing. Very narrow ravines have been carved deep into the mountain side creating narrow channels, chutes and the occasional pool down which comes torrents of water. The water is from the glaciers on the three highest peaks in the range and flows at up to 20,000 litres per second. The sound is unbelievable as the water echos off the sides of the ravine. The curves that have been created in the ravine are soft and silky, reminding me of some of the rock formations in the Utah deserts (Simon P if you are reading these you may have seen similar). The Swiss being the Swiss have built an elevator that goes up on about a 60 degree angle driven by cables and cogs that takes you near the top of the falls and blasted tunnels and holes in the walls of the ravine to give you unreal views that would only normally be possible with ropes and harnesses to view.
The falls today have been one of the unique sights and sounds of the trip so far.
Switzerland has certainly been a special experience and we will miss it as we head away to Lugano for the night destined for Italy on Saturday.

The roads of Switzerland

I have to write a little about driving through Switzerland, a so far unique experience. It starts in Lichenstein, where we have to buy a road tax sticker for a minimum of one year, you can’t drive here without and you can’t get it for less that one year and you can’t un stick ‘em and sell them on e-bay (although I am sure there would be a way if you got creative).

But the roads are the fantastic, a tourist attraction in their own right. Whether it be lakeside roads, mountain passes, bridges or the amazing tunnels. The longest tunnel we went through was 18km long, followed by a 15km long tunnel that had been constructed in the 19th century. We learnt the tale about the older one. The local council in Luzern decided they needed this tunnel open themselves up to the east, at the time the only options were donkey tracks in the mountains including the notorious devils crossing (or something like that). So they put it out for tender, and as with all great engineering achievements it was awarded to the lowest bidder. The French entrepreneur also said he would he get it done a year earlier than planned (6 rather seven years). Well the dude was clearly optimistic and 8.5 years latter and 150+ dead Italian workers along the way they had the tunnel built. The French chap died of a heart attack before the tunnel was finished.
The lakeside roads of course are beautiful and the mountain passes pretty exciting, especially when the brakes start to smoke down the long steep descents.
They really are a great experience and well worth the 40 francs (about £20) you have to pay for the road tax.

Three days chilling in Interlaken

After a month of hectic moving we decided to take a couple of days out and relaxed in the beautiful setting of Interlaken. Nestled between two lakes and surrounded by the mountains in Switzerland, Interlaken is a relaxing or adventure paradise. Our campsite, yet again nestled on the shores of the river that connects the two lakes, right across from downtown Interlaken.
Time was spent swimming at the pool, trips to the supermarket, uploading photographs to the blog.

Yesterday we took a train ride on a cog driven train up to about 2000 metres, put on our walking boots (in fact tried out walking boots, there was a boot manufacturer that offered free trials of their boots, good marketing ploy, fortunately the woman manning the boot borrow place was not interested in trying to sell) and walked around the mountain tracks for a couple of hours… truly superb. Glaciers, blue-grey lakes, enormous mountains, autumn colours. We walked along a ridge with both sides sheer drops and magnificent views.


This blog entry does not do justice to the beauty of this spot… will upload pics once I have them off the camera. It would be easy to spend a month here riding the trains up the mountains (the main form of transportation, one goes up 3600 metres), walking the tracks and of course trying out the adventure sports stuff... a note for next time!
Had a lovely chat to Laila courtesy of Skype and a free Internet connection this morning.
Today we are back on the road, destination Italy if we can get out of this beautiful country.

Transported

After our adventure on the hilltop we went back to Luzern and checked out the transport museum, the biggest in Europe (maybe the world, not sure).
A truly huge place with everything from real satellites retrieved from space to a planetarium, train rides etc. etc.
We were there 5 hours (as long as the free parking would let you, but couldn’t have stayed twice as long.
If you have some time and some interest in history or things that move then check it out.

A hilltop on a farm in Switzerland

This blog entry comes from a hill top in a farm in Switzerland overlooking Lake Luzerne, and the hills are truly alive with the sound of music. We followed our trusting camp stop guide and it located (along with some help from Fiona) an idyllic spot. I have just watched the mountains chnge from grey to pink as the sun has set over them. The joint is nestled on a little hilltop in the farm having been towed to the top of the hill by the farmer and his tractor after we got stuck at the bottom. It really is a real campsite only there is no one here but us and the farmer. The lights of the chalet houses are coming on and the sun has now completely set, the mountains just sharp silhouettes against he pale yellow sky. The grandmother on the farm has wandered past with a bag of chestnuts she collected from the forest and the smells of curry are wafting from the Joint. The cows are coming down the hill now and you can hear the gentle clang of their bells. The final piece of idealism, I have just finished my beer, bought from a small fridge they have on site… this is pretty bloody close to heaven!

We have had a good day in Luzerne town, walking along the lake front into town. The main attraction we found were the bridges, one which was a wooden covered bridge hemmed with flower boxers. Renting a peddle boat we went for a little trip on the lake, dodging the odd the ferry and yacht along the way. Thus far it is hard to imagine why this country is not a lot more crowded, the lakes are beautiful, the mountains fantastic, there are ski slopes everywhere. So long as you were earning the local francs as the prices seem similar to England it would be hard to get better.
This could be hard place to leave. Tomorrow we will go and explore the transport museum and then head south to Interlaken.

Over the hills and through the tunnels we arrived in Swizterland

A beautiful drive along lake sides, through numerous tunnels (one was 14.5km long) and over mountain tops.

Innsbruck

We hit Innsbruck early, got to make the most of the Inns Card (see previous post). All we knew about Innsbruck before arriving was the Winter Olympics having been staged here a couple of times. So we hopped on the Sightseer bus and checked out what there was in town.
Our first stop, the local Schloss (that’s a palace we think). Ferdinand II in the 16th century was great collector of stuff, had a few battles and marriages and clearly liked jousting tournaments. Thus he has a palace with a fantastic collection ranging from stuffed sharks, knives from Java, red corral sculptures and various wooden and ivory carved things (skeletons, treasure chests etc.). And then there is the armour, room after room of armour from the 15th and 16th century. One could actually spend days looking at each curiosity, just a stroll through the collection really did not do it justice.
From there we wandered through the alpine zoo with deer, beavers, moose, vultures, eagles and various other little critters.
And so to another highlight, the ski jump, bloody terrifying – a straight shute down 90 metres and up into the air they fly for 100 or so metres… unreal. We managed to get to the incredible restaurant (designed by an Iraqi) at the top and have a beer while looking down the jump and across to the mountains on the other side of the Inns valley.
Now we are back in the warmth (was a bit nippy today) of the joint to watch the second half of The Sound of Music. Funny little side note, watching Captain von Trapp, the jacket he wears, the green collar on a grey woollen jacket, they really wear them here!, no bull.
Part two of Innsbruck, we had to make the most of our 48 hour Inns Card, and it really was worth it.
Innsbruck is home to Swarovski Crystal and boy do they make a song and dance about it. Imagine a hobbit’s house (Lord of the Rings in the Waikato) except over the door there is a huger face with crystal eyes and a mouth with a waterfall tongue draining into pond of water spouts. You go in through the door and it is like stepping into a tardis. What looked like a small hobbit hill is actually a dwarf mine with caverns (well rooms actually) showing all kinds of art using light, sounds, pictures and movement. You move from one room to another and just gaze in awe, this is a Kristallwelten, Crystal World. Really very cool, hard to beat it on the cool scale. Included in the art is Andy Wharhol and Salvador Dahli.
After this experience we went up in a cable car to the top of the main Olympic ski mountain and took in the breathtaking views of the Alps around and the valley of the Inns. In summer there is still a bit of snow around on this mountain, and the highest mountains have quite a lot of snow at the top. Without their snow you see the colours in the rock, shades of grey with sharp contours and strips.

Two beautiful views

We have spent the last two nights in two gorgeous locations. The first on the shores of the lake that the two royal castles overlook. We sat watching the sun setting over the mountains, mirrored in the lake with the castles nestled in the hills fading in the light. Later in the night the moonlight from the full moon paints a white glow on the lake and the castles shine gold and silver behind. It could almost have been the South Island (of NZ), but for the castles.
And last night we arrived in Innsbruck, Austria. We have stopped in a lovely campground at the foot of the Austrian Alps. The mountains rise to around 2,600 metres above us and the valley of the Inns (it’s a river) stretches below. We have decided to spend an extra night having scored an Innsbruck Card. The card let’s us into all the major attractions of Innsbruck, good deal really and sucked us into staying an extra day and night. We have been watching The Sound of Music (only the second evening we have watched a DVD) to get us into the Austrian mood.


And so we have said goodbye to Germany. It was a great time, the Rhine, the villages, the castles and the beer.

The loopy Bavarians

We are now in the south, but really in what appears to be the heart of Bavaria. We are faced with the daunting prospect of two castles in one day, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, the homes of Maximillian II and Ludwig II. Hohenschwangau was the summer home of the Bavarian king, pretty nice bach all things considered. But Ludwig was not satisfied. When Dad dies and he becomes king at 18 he hung out in the summer castle way too much and dreamed up fantastic ideas for a fairy tale castle higher up in the mountains. Finding an artist, rather than architect and inspired by legends (King Arthur and St George amongst them) and Wagner (a close friend) he set about building a fantastic masterpiece. The story goes that Ludwig was a bit of a nutter, but when he died, his brother was deemed too unstable to be king and so the Uncle (Leopold) steps in as Prince Regent.


We spent the day wandering the interiors (well being carolled through the interiors by fast speaking German tour guides) and strolling the grounds. Neuschwanstein, perched on a hill at the foot of some impressive mountains, the views are unbelievable. You look down into the plains, across into the mountain faces and a waterfall across which was built a wrought iron bridge. One of the best parts was the walk down the river below the waterfall, really beautiful. The interiors of the castle are all painted, in some cases with outrageous frescoes, mostly of legends or inspired by Wagner’s operas.

Clearly a huge number of tourists make there way here, you can imagine it would be an absolute nightmare in Summer, a must see in Autumn.

Dinkelsbuhl

Another wondrous walled medieval city. This time a smaller, more romantic and the less tourist covered town of Dinkelsbuhl. The towers in the town walls are houses, an amazing place to live. Outside the town walls, are ponds backing onto the towers of the walls. Truly beautiful scenes of arches in the walls and towers reflected in the water of the ponds.


The weather improved significantly during the day, a couple of short showers, enough time to duck into a bakery to buy more of the local delicacy, an odd pastry ball, kind of like won ton pastry all wrapped up into a ball and then deep fried and coated with chocolate or icing sugar
After the small city adventure we headed south to the end of the Romantic Road. This could be a piece of the world you could spend a month exploring, but we have too much of Europe to see now. The Romantic Road has take us through vineyards, intensive farmland with apples, pears, goats and sheep, and now into the Alps with soaring peaks and reflective lakes.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Today we got up and it was raining on and off ,everywhere we went we took the umbrella
We just set off really early and were looking to see if we could get to the town walls.
We eventually found some steps and managed to dry of while we were trekking around. Me and Tasha were the tour guides and ivan gave us money for reading out of a book! Mum needed the loo when we were half way there and then It started to rain
Then ivan went up the tower on the city walls me mum and Tasha got half way and couldn’t be bothered so ivan paid the man and didn’t get any money back! then we went into the market place and rented an I guide from the tourist info we saw the church and a


Councillors drinking room every hour these cool little men came out an did a little dance thing they had a webcam so you could go on a website and see us standing in the square
I would have told ellie and kitty and India but they were they were at school it started tipping it down and we all squished under the umbrella but Tasha decided she would pour water over herself and got really wet then complained that she was cold then we went to the criminal museum and there were lots of torture stuff ! then we got really wet and me and Tasha AGEIN!!! Then we got back to the campervan and it turns out that I was the only one that was reasonably dry then we drove in t shirts and blankets to the next campsite. the campsite was luxury the showers were great and warm with was sooo
Nice after it was pouring then me and Tasha spent about 3 hours in the shower then did each others hair I did Tashas in a quiff she looks really cute (she is trying to grow out her fringe so every hour I have to do it up.) then we went back and had dinner and went to bed in our uncomfy bed.
- Becca

Our routine

I tend to focus on the ‘fun’ stuff we do (although others would suggest it sometimes other than fun) so just a word on day-to-day life.
We have got into a kind of routine. Rachel and I wake up at 6.30-7. I do about 2-3 hours of work. Rachel gets breakfast stuff going and wakes Bex and Tasha who read for about 20-30 minutes.

Then it is time for school work, maths, English and some topic four another 1-2 hours, with a brief intermission for breakfast.
We generally pack up around 10.30 and try to be on the road by about 11 or so.
Sunday is our day of rest.
Our aim is to be in our night stop by about 5.30 if possible so we have time to chill, have dinner, play a game and read.
It generally goes pretty smoothly, disruptions tend to come from not being able to find a suitable place to stop (the books and sign posts do tend to lie a lot) or getting up too late.

Day one on the Romantic Road

Today we began our journey down the Romantic Road, stopping at Tauberbischofsheim and Bad Mergentheim. They are both market towns with pretty town squares of 16th and 17th Century wooden topped houses and small palaces. The weather started to fold in so we had to dash between the showers, but managed to the sights. As it was Monday the attractions are all closed, however it was still nice just to wander around.
Big bonus in the first town, Tauberbischofsheim, managed to find a café on the main drag that sold 90 cent Espressos and 50 cent ice creams, and not too bad either!


Tonight we have reached Rothenburg and have parked up in a campervan parking lot right on the edge of the old city. A glance at the medieval walls and towers suggests we have a good day ahead of us tomorrow.

Wuerzburg at the start of the Romantic Road

The city of Wuerzburg sits at the start of what was labelled by the tourist industry in the 1950’s as the Romantic Road. This winds through Bavaria from Wuerzburg to Fussen.
We spent last night and tonight in a very pretty camp site on the banks of the river Main, across from the city and beneath the 12th Century fortress. The Hill that the fortress stands on is covered in grapevines as was most of the landscape that we drove through from Heidelberg to get here.
Today was spent exploring the city. There are many churches, two of which we went through, but the big claim to fame is the Residenz, a palace built starting in 1720 by the Bishop Prince at the time and the future Bishop Princes that ruled. It is a huge palace, 168 metres long and 90 odd metres wide. The ceilings are covered in frescos from both the Roccoco and Romansque eras, many of which are painted also. The walls are hung with tapestries from Brussels and local makers, and from the ceilings hand beautiful clear crystal and coloured glass chandeliers from Vienna. There is one very special room, the mirrored cabinet that is floor to ceiling painted and gilded mirrors. In many ways it reminded us of Versailles. The Residenz gained UNESCO world heritage status and is being slowly restored.


The old town hall is a very pretty building, bought by the council in the 14th century, it has a painting of a tree on the side representing the old plane tree that the law court used to meet under, and up the bell tower is a beautiful sun dial and two clocks. It is not a large building, quite plain in design, but so lovely decorated.
There is a very sad story of Wuezburg. On March 16 1945 it was bombed by the British and in less than 20 minutes 80% of the city was destroyed, including much of the Residenz and the main cathedral. The night was called ‘murder on the Main’. Of course one is aware that similar atrocities occurred on both sides, it is spoken not about who did what, but the damage that war does to all. Many of the things you read are about restoration efforts that have occurred since.
Tomorrow we leave our pretty river side haven and head down south, we will remember all about Wuerzburg forever.