The next day was a fairly full day of touring the town while the weather (mostly sunny) was good. The number one attraction in Würzburg is probably the “Residenz and Gartenhof,” a Baroque palace built by some prince bishop in the 18th century. It rather miraculously survived the carpet bombing in WWII, which otherwise destroyed something like 90% of the city. Though it occurred at a point where Germany’s downfall was all but certain, it seems the Royal Air Force was out for revenge. I wonder if in another generation, Britain’s self-aggrandizement of its performance in the war will undergo any reassessment.
Anyways, the Residenz was a fairly typical palace and I paid the 7.5 euro admission price. There was no audio guide included (or available), and I wondered upstairs to see what was on display. I noticed that one set of rooms were only available with a guided tour, but another set were free to visit alone. It was all pretty nice, but with photography banned inside the building, I’ve already forgotten what everything looked like.
After making my way through all the rooms, I loitered in the downstairs hall to see if an English speaking tour would materialize at 11am as advertised. It did, and I appreciated getting some background on the famous stairway with the largest possible domed ceiling (premodern concrete era) and its highly symbolic fresco, the incredible freehand plaster work in the hall of knights, or the trompe l’oeil in the kaiserhall. I had certainly noticed the three dimensional effects from combining painting and sculpture, but I wouldn’t have come up with that french word on my own. Behind the locked doors were some fine tapestries so detailed that they looked like paintings and the piece de resistance — the mirror chamber. Reconstructed in the 1980s, the entire room is made of painted mirrors.
After the tour, I poked my head into the similarly baroque chapel, which is part of the residenz before wandering in the direction of the old town and stumbling into the cathedral during a short organ recital, which veered into the heavy metal during its climax. This may be getting redundant, but Würzburg’s Dom is quite special. The walls are painted white, and the ceiling has a pastel mosaic reminiscent of a 1960s airport.
Having skipped breakfast (save for coffee), I was getting hungry, and cut through the old town to find that fried noodle shop for some cheap noodles. I ate at one of the provided standing tables and added extra hot sauce multiple times. Since Würzburg is so small, I figured I could pop back to the hostel for a nap and some coffee before continuing my sightseeing in the afternoon. So I did just that, spontaneously popping into a bakery on the way to pick up a giant slice of cheesecake to go with the coffee later.
It’s sometimes a bit awkward to take a midday nap because that is when they do their cleaning, but the coffee was much harder to manage as the common area was in the process of a noisy vacuuming job.
When I headed back out, I decided to visit two museums, neither of which are on the essential lists, but both looked pretty cool from the descriptions. The first is the laboratory and home of Wilhelm Roentgen, who discovered X-rays. Belonging to the university, a few rooms in the building are open to the public (for free) to tell the story of Roentgen. I had good timing, entering just behind a group of middle aged Chinese men to whom a volunteer was going through the spiel in English. There are so many famous musicians, mathematicians, and physicists associated with Germany, one could plan itineraries which are purely pilgrimages of the mind.
I went to a modern art museum which was located in a converted warehouse next to the Main river. Although two of the galleries were unavailable, there was a decent selection of late 19th and 20th century German expressionist paintings as well as tons of concrete art. To be honest, I didn’t even know that was such an art movement, but its definitely the kind of modern art that would appeal to someone who likes geometry. I went through the entire museum twice, once quickly to learn the layout and again to appreciate the art in depth. Nevertheless, I was done with those two museums fairly early.
The Korean guy was sitting in the dining room with his German textbook when I got back. After chatting a bit, he wanted to go buy some local wine from a recommended shop/winery and I tagged along. Unfortunately, they kept really short hours and we had missed out. I suggested stopping in a bar I had spotted early in the day (and just happened to be next door) which advertised Kloster Kreuzberg beer on tap. Kloster Kreuzberg is a monastery near the small mountain village my family lived in the first time we came to Germany, and as I understand, the beer those monks make was my grandfather’s favorite. Obviously, I had to try.
I bought ingredients to make tacos from the discount supermarket (Penny), and J found a bottle of local wine in a different supermarket. After dinner, we just hung out for a while until it was time for the night’s activity: XL Jenga, which was a lot of fun. Though a lot of people had come to the hostel on Friday (and even more would be there on Saturday), it was really quiet in the common space. I had really thought more people would be interested in having a drink, hanging out, playing games, but only a small handful did.
| Residenz | 7.5 |
| Fried noodles | 3 |
| Oma’s cheesecake | 1.8 |
| Museum in Kulterspeicher | 4.5 |
| Kloster Kreuzberg Dunkel | 3.5 |
| Taco ingredients | 9.32 |
| Kellerbier | 2.7 |
| Total: | 32.32 EUR (252.1 RMB) (USD 35.79) |
Running Total:26370.8 RMB (USD 3744.31)
Daily Average: 366.26 RMB (USD 52.00)