Cruising Day - Main River with stops in Miltenberg and Wertheim

We left the Rhine River yesterday and entered the Main.  The Main River has low bridges so the sun deck is now closed.  All the chairs and umbrellas are down.  They even remove the railings.  The Main River has at least 34 locks.  Seems you are always going through a lock.

We were up early so had tea and coffee in the lounge until the dining room opened.  Sat with Bob and Kathy from Arizona and then Peter joined us.  Debbie sleeps in but she did come down before we all left.  Bob is a former Captain on the Lindblat Cruise Line.  Before that he was in the Navy for 20 years.

This morning we will be sailing on the Main.  We arrive in Miltenberg at around 11 am and will only be here for 2 hours or so.

The Main is filled with locks.  You enter the lock and the gates close behind you and the water rushes in to equal the level at the front end of the lock.

Just one of the churches along the river.

Miltenberg is picturesque with its main street lined with adorable half timbered houses.  We did a walking tour with Marie-Noel.  She was our guide.  Originally she is from Switzerland but now lives here with her husband.

Our entrance to the town.

The streets are all cobblestone and hard on the legs and feet.  But the buildings are beautiful and just what you expected.

Notice that the  floor between the first and second story is sagging.  The roof line is straight but not so on the next level.

One of the oldest houses in the town.  Was completely restored last year.

Just another home in the town.

The center of the square has a fountain in it.  Story is the stone mason who was in charge of building the fountain ran out of money.  When he asked the Mayor of the town for more money, the Mayor said no.  So he finished the fountain but the one little boy is mooning the house where the Mayor lived.

Notice the one little boy facing in while all the others face out.

After the tour we had some free time so we visited St. Martin Church and St Jackob Church.  They are both Catholic but very different inside.

This is the interior of St. Martin Church.  Very traditional.

The old pulpit.  They have closed it off and do not use it anymore.

The statues over the entrance to the church.

These are the two towers of St. Jakobus Church.

This is a side chapel in St. Jakobus Church.

The front of St. Jakobus Church.  Much different from St. Martin Church.

The organ in St. Jakobus Church.

We did some window shopping and found that Hello Kitty is world wide.  She is everywhere.

We were walking back to the ship where we looked back and saw the fortress up on the hill.

Here you can see the fortress.

We walked back to the ship in time for lunch.  We sat with Chung and Susan.  They are high school friends.  Went to PS63 in New York.  Chung still lives in New York but Susan has moved to Seattle.  They vacation together ever year or so.  This is the first river cruise.

The dining room on this ship is not set up properly.  They have six booths in the center front of the room with three on each side.  Each booth sits 6 people.  Breakfast and lunch is buffet style so to slide in and out in not convenient.  Plus, you can't see both sides of the windows.  With river cruising you are always passing something interesting.  At any rate, the dining room seems much more crowded than we had on the Vantage and the Vantage had more people.

We stopped in Freudenburg to drop off the tour groups.  Bob and I decided we would stay on the ship and nap.  We went through two more locks this leg.  We will pick up the groups in Wertheim.  We will only be there for 15 minutes, so we will miss it.  Both Bob and I thought it would be similar to Miltenberg.  Will find out if we made the right choice at dinner.

We continued on the ride and went through more locks but one time we shared the lock with the Scenic Ruby.

While we were sailing along, this water skier drove by.  We did not expect to see this.  The weather is still fairly cool but he was wearing a wet suit.

Dinner tonight is in Eriebnis Restaurant.  They have two different menus there.  This is the menu for week one.  If we like it, we will have to try it again for week two.

We sat with Rita and Ahmen from Ireland.  They have been married for 51 years.  They have not traveled very much in the past except they have been to the USA.  Dinner was good but Bob did not eat all his fish.  He said his was dry.  But a nice experience.

After dinner we returned to the cabin to read and lights out.