Day Two: Wurzburg Residence and Hopfgarten

Wurzburg - Part One

The tour bus left the airport at 9 am approx and it was close to a two hour drive to Wurzburg to visit the Wurzburg residence.  It was registered as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1981. It's a grand palace and undergoing a lot of restoration.

The 45 minute interior tour of the Wurzburg residence gave you some history into the building, who built it, how it was used and how it was destroyed during World War II and subsequently rebuilt. Most stunning was the arched ceiling of the main foyer with it's huge painted mural.  Statues protruded from the four corners to give a 3D effect.   The subsequent tour of the rooms displayed the excesses of the time, each room getting more gaudier than the next.  Lots of mirrors, pink marble and stucco resembling marble was used.   Oh and lots of original chandeliers, each worth over a million dollars each.

Unfortunately, nobody is allowed to take pictures inside.  So all backpacks, cameras and such had to be put into storage before proceeding with the tour.  If the curators of the building saw you snapping pics with your cellphone, they would run after you to tell you to stop.

Oops, cellphone camera accidentally took a picture of one of the chamber ceilings.  See how there's almost a 3D effect via the use of stucco to imitate drapery?

After the interior tour, there was about an hour given to explore the residence grounds and vast gardens, which wasn't a lot of time at all.  There are lots of statues around the perimeter of the palace.

The residence hopfgarten (court gardens).

Could have spent another couple of hours here in the pretty garden, but the tour guide said it was time to walk to the Marketplatz.

Reference:  http://www.wuerzburg.de/en/visitors/must-sees/22688.UNESCO-World-Cultural-Heritage-Site-Residence-Palace.html

Day One: Flying to Frankfurt

Flying to Frankfurt

Fri Jun 10 to Sat Jun 11

The airplane was about 20 minutes late departing YYZ as it waited for passengers with connecting flights to arrive.  It was a full flight.  Seats 53F and 53G were in the centre aisle, the two right hand seats of a row of four.  They had adequate legroom, but not much space under the forward seat for stashing bags and such.  As with all flights of this duration, much of the overhead luggage compartments filled up quickly, so if you came late your carry on ended up somewhere else on the plane.

Chicken with risotto? was the main meal, with a small salad and chocolate cake for dessert.  Saved the little bottles of complimentary wine for a later date.  Second meal consisted of a slice of banana bread and a beverage.  Won't bore you with airplane food pics.

The flight itself was mostly uneventful.  No major turbulence, no luggage popping out of overhead bins, no flying food, no crying babies, so all good.  Only problem was getting addicted to the Sudoku and Word puzzle games on the new entertainment system.   The gist of the word puzzle game is, they give you six letters and you have to spell as many words as possible within two minutes.  They show you the placeholders for all of the 3, 4, 5 and 6 letter word combos and you have to guess them all.
Never won a single game!  Here you try ... BGOROE, this was one of the puzzles.

Upon arrival at FRA Frankfurt, it was warm, cloudy and slightly humid.  The big tour bus had just enough room for everybody with four empty seats to spare.  Got assigned to the very back of the bus for the remainder of the day and felt kind of barfy for most of the day because of it.

This will be one of those rare blog posts with no pictures, sorry about that.   Now, on with the tour!

Flood Risk?

Germany flood levels have subsided in the areas bordering Austria.

Source:  http://www.hnd.bayern.de/

Today's Weather Map

Source: http://www.dwd.de/DE/Home/home_node.html

Rainfall predictions

Source: http://wetter.bild.de/?id=niederschlag

Hotels and Weather

Hotels

Fri Jun 10

depart YYZ

Sat 11 Jun

Wurzburg
forecast: hi 22C, showers, low 13C
actual:

overnight Rothenburg, Germany
Prinz Hotel
forecast: low 11C rain
actual:

Sun 12 Jun 

Rothenburg, Germany
forecast: hi 18C, rain, 11C
actual:

overnight Salzburg, Austria
Crown Plaza (1st of 2 nights)
forecast: low 13C showers
actual:

Mon 13 Jun

Kongisee, Germany
forecast: hi 18C, rain, lo 12C
actual:

overnight Salzburg, Austria
Crown Plaza (2nd night)
forecast: low 11C showers
actual:

Tue 14 Jun 

Ettal, Germany
forecast: hi 18C, thunderstorms, lo 5C
actual:

overnight Garmisch, Germany
Hotel Koenigshof
forecast: low 9C thunderstorms
actual:

Wed 15 Jun

Vaduz,  Liectenstein
forecast: hi 19C, rain, lo 3C
actual:

overnight Davos, Switzerland
Intercontinental
forecast: low 8C thunderstorms
actual:

Thur 16 Jun

Zermatt Switzerland
forecast: hi 9C, rain
actual:

overnight Zermatt, Switzerland
Albana Real
forecast: low 4C, rain
actual:

Fri 17 Jun

Veytaux, Switzerland
forecast: hi 18C, showers, 2C
actual:

overnight Evian Les Bain, France
Hilton
forecast: low 13C, showers
actual:

Sat 18 Jun

Bern, Switzerland
forecast: hi 20C, sunny , lo 6C
actual:

overnight Strasbourg, France
Hilton
forecast: low 13C, cloudy
actual:

Sun 19 Jun

Strasbourg, France
forecast: hi 20C, cloudy, low 15C
actual:

overnight Frankfurt, Germany
Raddison Blu
forecast: low 11C, cloudy
actual:

Mon 20 Jun

frankfurt 17C showers
return YYZ

Flight Detail

Departure

10 June 2016, 16:40 pm
Tour Meeting point:  aisle 5, Terminal 1

Flight: AC872
Gate:
Duration: approx 7 hours

http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Air_Canada/Air_Canada_Airbus_A330_B.php

Return

20 June 2016, 11:35 am
AC873

The route

European Bus Tour highlights

Wurzburg and Rothenburg, Germany
Rothenburg, Germany (overnight)

Dinglesbule and Salzburg, Germany
Salzburg, Austria (overnight)

Kongisee Lake, Germany
Hallstatt, Austria
Salzburg, Austria (overnight)



Linderhof Palace, Germany
Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany
Ettal overnight

Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Davos, Switzerland (overnight)

Matterhorn, Switzerland
Zermatt, Switzerland (overnight)

Gornergrat, Switzerland
Chillion castle, Switzerland
Evian Les Bains (overnight)

Bern, Switzerland
Eguisheim, France
Strasbourg, France (overnight)

Strasbourg, Germany
Frankfurt, Germany

The tour

Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria 11 days tour
2016 May 4, May17, June 10, Sep 17, Sep30 Guaranteed Departure
Guaranteed Departure !!! Air Canada direct flight, All 4 stars hotel.
Free upgrade to : Intercontinental Hotel Swiss Davos.

Day 1 : Depart from Toronto by Air Canada direct flight to Frankfurt, Germany

Day 2 : After arrive Frankfurt airport, transfer to Wurzburg for sightseeing, visit the famous Residence - one of the most beautiful Palace in Germany. Proceed to Rothenburg for dinner and overnight.

Day 3 : ABF in the hotel, enjoy the walking tour in Rothenburg. Transfer to another small town named Dinkelsbuhl for a quick visit. Proceed to the Salzburg for dinner and overnight.

Day 4 : ABF in the hotel, Transfer to Kongisee lake. Boat cruise around the lake. Transfer to Hallsatt for the magnificient view of Halsatt lake. Optional Mozart dinner is recommended. Overnight in Salzburg.

Day 5 : ABF in the hotel, Proceed to Linderholf Palace - where the King most love palace. After Lunch, transfer to Neuschwanstein castle. You can walk up to the Marien Bridge for the fantastic view of the castle. Overnight and dinner at Kempten.

Day 6 : ABF in the hotel, transfer to Vaduz, one of the smallest country in the world. Famous with the stamp collection. After lunch, Proceed to Davos, famous city for the Skiing surrounding by the beautiful Alpes. Dinner and overnight at Davos.

Day 7 : ABF in the hotel, Proceed to Zermatt by Coach and local train. Where the most picturesque town is at the bottom of Matterhorn. Enjoy free at leisure. Lunch and dinner included. Overnight at Zermatt.

Day 8 : ABF in the hotel, Take the train up to the Gornergrat for the unforgetable view of Matterhorn. Proceed to Chillion Castle for the pictures. Overnight and dinner in Montreux.

Day 9 : ABF in the hotel. Proceed to the World Heritage town, Bern, where the capital of Swiss for sighseeing. After lunch, transfer to the most fascinating town in France – Eguisheim. Dinner and Overrnight in Strasbourg.

Day 10 : ABF in the hotel. Visit the beautiful city – Strasbourg. After lunch, proceed to the University city of Germany - Heidelberg where the Prince Student's story happened. Overnight in Frankfurt after dinner..

Day 11 : ABF, Proceed to the airport for returning flight back to Toronto.