Wertheim Am Main

Morning campers!  Ok, so it’s day 2 and we’re on the road. We expected rain but instead it will be an overcast day and warm (early 20s) so the mankini stays packed for now. After a beautiful breakfast that included some wicked cheeses (yum) we called up a taxi to the Europcar depot at Bergheimer Strasse 159 and picked up a 2015 VW Golf to use for the rest of the trip. I have to say I’m quite impressed with this little number. It’s 90KW motor provides some nice get up and go, so no probs on the autobahn! It’s black (we notice a lot of black cars on the road – esp Mercedes, BMW, Audi). Kath thinks it’s a male car. She calls it Herman. “Herman the German”.  Perfect!

Herman took us onto the A5 before we could blink and headed north.  Both his and my plan was simple.  A5 north, A3 east, and hit two stops on the way.  Simple. What could go wrong?  Off we went.  We’d just got started and here’s what we stumbled across… a car transporter with 6 new Porsches on board. Noting the 911 Turbo S on the bottom. Nice.
Ok.. can’t linger, must pass, so we did. Meantime Kath is playing with the GPS, saying we have have to exit at bla, I’m going “what?”. She’s going: “We have to exit at bla, It’s x kms shorter”. I’m going but, but… so what happens? I do as I’m told. Within minutes I know this is not looking sharp. We’re virtually going cross country.  The only thing missing was the tumbleweed.  We’re passing through small towns that are really too small to even be called ‘small towns’.  None of them are remotely pretty, instead they just became places that existed en route who annoyed drivers wanting to get on with it. And it gets better.  Not too long into this cross country journey the nice locals of one town took a photo of us as we drove by.  I only knew this because of the flash.  Friendly here eh?  🙂  Day 1 and we get our photo taken!  Wow.  How do we get a copy for our album?   Maybe we’ll receive it in the mail one day.  Not maybe!!
So we’re out in the equivalent of the back roads of Wairarapa and the road signs (when present) say 100, then 50 (we’re in a village), then 30 (the road is sooo narrow), then 50, then 100 (for about 200m) then 50 (no in-betweens here), then 100, then 50. Sadly we weren’t following another car when we came off one of the 100s and hit a 50.  I have to say the road signage is pretty ordinary compared with ours. Quite discreet at times, and other times… where was the sign?  And then there are signs which say dunno???   So yup we got pinged on day 1 in a place where there was no warning of a change in speed. Herman doesn’t care for cameras.  Willkommen in Deutschland!   Anyway, here’s a few snaps from our cross country ‘shortcut’.
Noting the narrow roads.

No autobahn here!

Hardly any people here!!!  A car on our side of the road.  Hold on. It’s only parked.  Just be ready to stop when only one car can pass.


The petrol prices way out west.

We eventually find our target first stop mid morning. Mespelbrunn. Here we will visit a pretty little castle (Schloss Mespelbrunn). Trivia: Schloss Mespelbrunn (built 1412) is a medieval moated castle built in the Renaissance style. Because of its hidden location, all wars left the castle unscathed so here it is preserved in its original form. Some additional reading at the entrance:

The hotel opposite the car park.

A sign on the walk to the Schloss. Two crusty toads being friends. We walk on thinking WTF.

Schloss Mespelbrunn. A picture.

Into the courtyard and we’re just in time for the next tour (which is in German). We were given a pamphlet to read. But our guide (pictured) did take time to give Kath and I a little English on the way which was nice of her. In this photo she saying to Kath “Now I don’t want any crap from you kiwis, ok?” (Or was my translation wrong).

In we go and visit several rooms. I’s read on TA that the tour wasn’t worth it. But for €5ea it was well worth it. Very, very interesting. We visited rooms in the east wing (the rest is still used by the owners). No photos were allowed inside. The court yard:

Schloss art.

Above the entrance.

After the tour we could take photos in one room downstairs. Window art.

The tower from the court yard.

Kath is on fire. Chanting… “I must, I must, I must increase my b**t.  Woooah.  She said ‘bust’, not butt!!.  To be fair.  No increase required. Ooops information overload.  (Just sayin’).

The side entrance.

More shots from the front. So picturesque!


The new owner.

Standing guard out front.

Ok all done and back to see Herman, Here he is. Hard to notice here but they didn’t even wash him down. He was filthy. Especially at the back. I expected more from a ‘reputable’ company like Europcar.
We continued along the A3. The speed limit varied. And after the earlier experience I was reasonably alert. The road signs mostly had 100, 120, and well, I didn’t see (or know) the sign for ‘whatever you like’. But the latter became evident when vehicles in the outside lane of 3 started smoking by. So I’m thinking… dahh… I’m in on this, so I moved across to join them. Herman was quite happy ripping along at 140kmph. He had more in him but I went with the flow at the time, at least until we all ground to a crawl. Yup. BIG road works on the A3 meant huge delays. Traffic was banked up for miles. We crawled and stopped and crawled and stopped and crawled. Next turn off was Exit 66 at Wertheim Village (a huge outlet shopping complex in the middle of nowhere). It was so bad that we left the A3 at Exit 65 and went down the back road. Even then it was slow in parts as others had the same idea. But we got there!! No photos. It’s a shopping centre!  I left the camera in the car. Google it. Wertheim Village. All the big named brands and many more from Europe. And yes we walked every inch of it. Sooo… the shopping is now DONE. Surely.
It’s now a short driver to Wertheim Am Main (Wertheim is pronounced : Veer-time). Trivia: Wertheim Am Main is the most northerly town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, and is situated at the point where the Tauber River flows into the Main River. It was founded in the 7th century. The ruins of the Burg Werheim (1132) castle dominates the hill above the town. So we checked into our hotel which overlooks the Tauber River. Kath reckoned the owner looked like Basil Fawlty, (and he sort of did) so that was it, his name was now Basil. But he wasn’t the clumsy Basil from Torquay, he was a very nice Basil! After parking Herman in the garage Basil showed us to our 3^rd floor room. Perfect for a night or two. We unloaded quickly and went for a walk. Here’s the hotel from the other side of the river. Looks like there’s a drug deal going down (or not). Our room is up in the first row in the roof (3 from left).

Views along the Tauber River.

With the Burg Wertheim ruins at the back.

The old Rathaus (town hall).

The sign has it dating to 1714.

Walking into ‘town’.

The Zum Goldenen Adler. We liked the look and location of this place (away from the busy part of town), so we came back and had dinner here later. And what a great move that was. Yum!!

Some shots around old town Wertheim Am Main.


Kath spots a wine shop and gets excited.

One of the squares.

A bloke on the old well (above) at the corner of Marktplatz and Rathausgasse.

Building art (on the building in behind the bloke above).
More ‘well’ art.

At Rathausgasse.

Some folk enjoying a few wines outside a wine house.

Keeping it slimline. The date on this building says 1520. I’d believe it. No such thing as a plumb level back then huh.

Street art.

Ok Headlines (free plug). We walked past a hairdressers and the prices were in the window. Sabrina: Please do the translations for Lee. I know this is small town Germany, but hey.

WTF! It’s caption time. Please comment with your ‘PIG’ caption.

A river boat parked up on the Main River.

Burg Wertheim from near the Main River.

Close to the junction of the two rivers is Spitzer Turm. This is Wertheim’s own leaning tower! It’s a 13^th century watchtower, and also a prison for “drunkard’s” as well as “bad tempered feuding bickering women!” (Yes, I told Kath she should behave). It’s on a lean due to floods over the past 800 years. Markers on it’s side show flood levels over the years (sorry no close up, but they go well up the tower!).

Boats on the Tauber River.

Gillies Group development tip # 15. The old and the new. Here we see the old town walls being retained and worked in nicely with the new apartments in behind.

A Porsche Cayman S drives by. Car of the day! (Well nearly. The Turbo S on the transporter kinda missed on a technicality because IT wasn’t rolling along on its own wheels!).

Art on a 16^th century building. Looks like a young Jeremy Thrush.

Marktplatz.

Kath thought this said ‘Bum’ Ochsen. There may have been a few bums inside but that was the extent of it.

As mentioned above, we dined ‘on the fly’ at the Zum Goldenen Adler. Here is the main dish. There was also a side of fried cubed potatoes. Here we have pork steak with a beautiful garlic sauce, a yummy meatball with onions, and a cracker sausage with zucchini. A total grease feast. Perfect with a local beer.

Speaking of local beer. Here you go JB… the beer you were waiting for. This local brew (from just along the road) is a Wurzburger Hofbrau Pilsner. And yes I did not stop at one. They slid down very nicely. I would’ve stayed on but the smokers at the nearby table were putting us off. Yup smoking in restaurants is still ok. Yuk!!!!

Kath at the restaurant.

We wandered home, passing a supermarket, so popped in and got some dessert (which included this red wine). It was the most expensive on the shelf at a whopping €4.99. I just couldn’t bring myself to pay €1.49 for some of the bottles. Well maybe next time I should, just to check see if it’s palatable.

Ok…. all done for the night.  No snoring from Kath tonight so all good.  I need to shorten these posts else I’ll be snoozing on the job!  Tomorrow we’ll drive a short distance to Rottenburg ob der Tauber where we’ll settle for 2 nights. Cheers for your comments. Always good to share a laugh.