Main River Cruising

On Wednesday, we cruised up the Main River past towns with small factories and passed through many locks. The Main River Valley is very beautiful with wooded hills and pasture lands and cornfields. The river is lined with trees and ducks and other birds that give the river a peaceful feeling as we glide along on our river ship.

In the afternoon we took a two-hour walking tour of Miltenburg, which was our first Bavarian town with timber-beam construction houses. Our guide grew up in the town and she gave us many examples of the transition from her parent’s very traditional Catholic household to the modern Germany in the 1960s. She had planned to be a Franciscan nun helping people, but ended up meeting an American man at a nearby airbase and getting married. She told us that sometimes there are big changes in our lives, but that God has great love and mercy and forgiveness for all of us, because all of us make mistakes in our choices and our behavior. She told us at the end of the tour that God loves us and wants to be our friend- that was very nice to hear.

Hobbit houses in a riverside campground 

 

We passed the Uniworld ship that we were on for our 2012 river cruise- what a surprise!

 

Judy and raspberry timber frame houses

 

Miltenburg shopping street

Royal Inn where rulers and rich merchants stayed

On Thursday, we took a bus to Rothenburg, which is a medieval town with a wall around it and ramparts with a wooden roof on top of the wall to give shelter to the defenders who would shoot arrows or guns through the slits in the wall to protect the town. The houses and buildings of are stone or timber frame with red tile roofs. It is a very well preserved and picturesque Bavarian town. All six of us were on the tour that included lunch at an old Bavarian restaurant. The streets are cobblestone and there is a picture waiting every time you turn a corner or turn around. We did some shopping, especially at the Christmas shop, which has very elaborate Christmas decorations and ornaments. I like the wooden carousels with several levels of nativity figures and other decorations.

 

Merchant storehouses 

Town square buildings

City Hall

  

Decorative signs for shops and businesses 

Judy on rampart of city wall 

 Red tile roofs looking across town

 Lunch in Bavarian restaurant 

Curving streets add charm

City gate house

 
Christmas decorations

We took the bus to Wuzberg to tour the residence or palace of the prince-bishop, who was the ruler of the government and the church. He built the palace with elaborate furnishings and decorations, in the same style as Versailles in Paris. This seems strange because Germany was traditionally an enemy of France. The concentration of wealth by a few rulers and merchants seems very unfair.

 

Staircase with giant ceiling frescoe painting 

Reception hall with ceiling painting 

Plaster wall decorations and crystal chandeliers  

Grand room with fake marble- painted plaster 

Bedroom or sitting room
Churches in every direction

I don’t understand how church leaders thought that accumulating treasures in their palaces, and in their churches was something that would please God. The prince-bishops combined the government with the church and taxed the people to build castles, armies, and elaborate churches filled with artistic treasures. It was during this period that Martin Luther and other Bible translators and reformers began teaching that God’s kingdom did not include gold, silver and precious stones. God’s kingdom treasures are things that only God can give- love, mercy, salvation, forgiveness, righteousness, faithfulness, patience, peace, joy. Jesus tells us that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. Where are your treasures and your heart?