Würzburg

Sunday - all day long.

Sunshine - more than enough.
Sky - deep blue.
Leisure time - plenty.

Sunday stroll through Würzburg- Franconia's gem in the northern tip of Bavaria.

What more could a heart desire?

:-)

View from the Festung (fortress) Marienberg to the Old Main Bridge, finished 1488, in the front.

On my right-hand side the Käppele, a small Baroque/Rococo chapel by Balthasar Neumann on a hill opposite to the fortress.

Statuary of saints and sovereigns on the Old Main Bride with the tower of the old town hall and  one of the steeples of the Würzburg Cathedral (Würzburger Dom St. Kilian)

The "Alter Kranen" (the old crane, from the year 1773) on the right-hand riverside. 

View from the "Friedensbrücke" in direction of the old crane and the Old Main Bridge.

The river Main was not totally frozen along Würzburg city because of the weir under the Old Main Bridge accompanied by the faster stream velocity.

But in areas with lower current velocity the ice gained the upper hand.

Obviously we were not the only sun worshipper on Sunday afternoon...

Cormorant sun-curing its feathering after a dive.

Dark tourism & Main river flood at Wertheim

"Es is uf der ganze Erde,

nergends schönner als in Werthe!"

--> Es ist auf der ganzen Erde nirgends schöner als in Wertheim!

--> Nowhere on Earth it's more beautifully than in Wertheim!

But certainly not today and tomorrow.

Today Wertheim was preparing for the flooding of its old town center.

While smaller rivers already crested their maximum water level, Germany's bigger rivers still have an increase of the water line.

That's a view on the river Main at the town of Wertheim on Sunday 9 January 2011. You can see the lampposts which normally stand along the waterfront of the Main.

Here's the driveway and subway for pedestrians to the parking area along the waterfront

House facades along the river Tauber, a tributary of the river Main, which has its mouth into the Main at Wertheim, too.

The THW - das Technische Hilfwerk - the German technical emergency service - supported together with volunteer fire brigades Wertheim's inhabitants with sandbags and flood barrieres.

In the town center they built up special footways so that the pedestrians will be able to walk through the town even when the pedestrian zone is underwater - this was expected for Monday early afternoon.

February vineyard impressions

Benediktusberg bei Retzbach am Main
vineyard Benediktusberg at Retzbach, near Wuerzburg