Nanda & Nathan The Travellers: Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany

February 7, 2015 ---- Würzburg is located in Northern Bavaria, Germany. A train ride from Munich to Würzburg takes about 2 hours on the ICE trains, and it generally takes 3-4 hours on local trains.

Nathan and I decided to visit Würzburg as a day-trip from Munich, but I have to admit that it was very difficult to manage the time we wanted to spend in the city. We bought a Bayern ticket (28 euro for two people) and took an early morning local train. We slept pretty much most of the way there because we were tired from getting up so early. Once we arrived at the Würzburg train station, we picked up a free Visitor's Guide at the information desk and followed the map to the Residence Palace. It only took us about 10 minutes to get there.

Würzburg Residenz was built from 1720-1744 as a city home for the Prince-Bishops at the time, and it's now on UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage list. Nathan and I had an annual card that allowed us to visit most palaces, castles, and royal residences in Bavaria for free. We attended the English-speaking tour of the Residenz at 10 a.m. and really enjoyed it because our tour guide not only spoke fluent English but also had sense of humor. We walked from halls to halls, looking up at the enormous ceiling painting and passing many elegantly decorated rooms. Some were restored from the old pieces that were destroyed during WWII, and many rooms were totally reconstructed based on the photographs they took in 1944. I found all the wall paintings in the Residenz to be fascinating because they looked like 3-D!

After the tour of the Residenz, we went to Neumünster and Würzburger Dom or Würzburg Cathedral. Neumünster is a Romanesque basilica from the 11th century. The interior was painted in plain white and looked very modern, which was true of all churches in Würzburg. Würzburger Dom or the Cathedral of St. Kilian is a Roman Catholic cathedral and the seat of the bishop. The construction of the church started in 1040, and we could see some old pieces and learn about the church history in the small room to the right of the entrance.

Then we walked toward Alte Mainbrücke passing the Town Hall, where, at the time, there was a carnival. Alte Mainbrücke was built in the late 15th century to replace an old Romanesque bridge. The style of this bridge reminded me of the Charles Bridge in Prague. There were many small cafés selling wine and food where people loved to hang around on the bridge testing local wines. Nathan got a glass of red wine there after visiting Marienberg Fortress and I had a sip and loved it. (I don't like/drink alcohol, but this wine almost changed me!)

Marienberg Fortress was built on a hill that was settled since the late Bronze Age. In the early 8th century there was a church and a small fort built there, and later around 1200 the castle was built. It was used as the seat of the Prince Bishops from mid 13th to early 18th century.

Nathan and I joined the castle tour in German at 2 p.m. I didn't know a single word in German, and Nathan couldn't fully understand the tour guide because he spoke super fast and there were lots of technical words that Nathan didn't know. Because there wasn't any tour in English in the winter, we just had to go with it, otherwise we wouldn't be able to see the interior at all. We got to see the church, the deep well and the hallway or cellar inside of the wall. We didn't see the Princes' Building Museum because it opens only from mid March to October. The view of Würzburg City was magnificent from here!

Once the tour was over, we walked downhill back to the city center and visited a few more churches on the way to the train station. Marienkapelle is a late Gothic period church. It was built in 1377 and wasn't finished till over a hundred years later. The exterior was stunning, but the decoration of the interior was plain and modern. It seemed to me that Würzburg must have been serverely damaged from the bombs in 1945, and many places, such as all the churches, couldn't have been restored to their original look. Augustinerkirche and Hof Conti are also the same, very plain and modern churches.

Our day trip in Würzburg was enjoyable. It was a little too cold, but at least the sun was out and the sky was in deep blue... a gorgeous day to be outside! We would have visited more places if the time weren't so tight; we spent as much time in the city as the time we spent on the train round-trip. However, it was a memorable trip, and Würzburg is definitely one of the loveliest towns in Bavaria.