Wuerzburg- One day...Five trains

Friday was to be a special day, as we were traveling back down south to the northern tip of Bavaria (Franconia) to visit the beautiful city of Wuerzburg (Frau Stall's birthplace!). While we had fantastic weather and saw some incredible things while in the city, what really made the day stand out were unfortunately the train delays... it was quite the adventure with the Deutsche Bahn!

We started with a 90-minute delay on the way there, complete with a sprint from one track to the next due to a sudden schedule change. No need for extra exercise when riding the Deutsche Bahn!

The long train ride was well worth it, however, as Wuerzburg greeted us with beautiful sunshine and the warmest weather we have had yet in Germany. The city, known for its vineyards and delicious wine, has a very "homey" feel, and we very much enjoyed walking through the streets to the old downtown, taking in some unique architecture and churches along the way. As we had lost some of our time due to the train delay, we moved pretty quickly through the city to this picturesque bridge, which crosses the Main River. It's hard not to be impressed with the huge life-like statues, the gorgeous river and the fortress high above the city.

We then made the hike up to the fortress itself (I'm sure something no one will soon forget...just ask about the seemingly endless steep paths... that I repeatedly promised would pay off!). Inside there was a lot to explore, with tall towers, high walls, a deep well and a chapel, and eventually we made it to the outer gardens and one of the most amazing views you can find anywhere!

We took the time for some nice pictures, as well as some fun group shots.

Afterwards was a lunch break and then an official tour of the Residenz in Wuerzburg, the ruling prince-bishop's home completed in 1744. It is humongous in size and equally impressive! Unfortunately we were not able to take photos inside, but we definitely recommend a visit to anyone traveling to Wuerzburg. What we saw inside included: the largest fresco painting in the world depicting the 4 continents as they were known at the time (Europe, Asia, Africa and America- America being the "wildest" and most untamed); beautiful, expansive stucco work which made the paintings on the walls come alive in 3-dimensional works of art (it was genuinely difficult to decide where the paintings stop and the stucco work began!); and the Mirror Cabinet, which consisted entirely of mirrors in gold frames. 

We then explored the gardens of the Residenz which surround the palace- like a trip back in time!

It was then time to return to the train station, where we unfortunately discovered that our train home also had a 50-minute delay. We finally made it back to Hildesheim about two hours later than planned, after taking the delayed train to Göttingen, getting off that train, back on again, finally running to a new track to get on a local train, and transferring once more at Nordstemmen to get back to our home base. Quite the adventure-filled day!