Saturday 30 August 2025: Koblenz and Rhine River – Roger

It was around 8am when we docked alongside another Viking boat in Koblenz, after once again enjoying breakfast in our room. My sister Rachael arranged to meet us there; she is currently living in Frankfurt. We found her waiting for us not long after leaving the boat, having crossed through the other boat to leave of course.

We wandered through the streets of this pretty little town, with lots of statues and well displayed shop windows, catching up with the family etc. After a while we came across a clock that pokes its tongue out every 15-minutes, and rolls its eyes every second. We thought the tongue poking was on the half-hour so just as we walked away the tongue came out. A little more wandering and we eventually found the fountain with the little boy that spits. I think today he got tired of splitting as nothing seemed to be happening while we had a short stop there.

After a coffee, we wandered to the gondola which was close to where the boat was moored. An announcement last night had told us under no circumstances to take the gondola across the river as we wouldn’t have time. We bought a ticket anyway, jumped on the gondola and did the return trip across the river in about 20-minutes, which gave us great views of not only of the fort on the other side of the river, but also back across the city and to the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine rivers. A large statue of Kaiser Wilhelm stands guard over this point. We were back in plenty of time to say goodbye to Rachael and catch the boat as it carried on upriver.

Not long after leaving Koblenz we entered the valley of castles. Apparently Germany has around 25-30,000 castles which is about twice as many as the USA has McDonald’s. Over the next 70km we saw some 21 castles, along with a number of toll or tax collecting buildings that were built back in the day for the local governor to collect taxes or tolls from passing boats.  It’s not surprising that nothing has changed over the last few thousand years. Somebody always needs to collect tax to pay for something.  Getting along at about 14 km/h into the current, the sun was setting behind the hills as we left the valley of the castles. The land flattened out with trees on each side of the river.

Most of the journey can only really be described by photos, but there is one place that deserves a specific mention and it’s called Klaub. This is where the famous German general. Gebhard Leberecht von , built a pontoon and took his army across the Rhine and gave Napoleon a hiding. He later joined the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo to finish the job. There is a good museum there about him I visited some years ago. We also of couse passed by the famous Lorelei rocks and the Lorelei statue.

Some of the castles along the way had walls with towers along them that were defences for the local villages back in the day. At some stage they were all overrun and in a lot of cases destroyed. Most have been rebuilt at some stage.

We had spent most of the afternoon sitting on the top deck but now at 18:50 hrs we have had to head downstairs so the crew can lower everything up top so we can fit under some low bridges before we reach the locks that will take us to the Main River. The bridge will be lowered hydraulically.

It was about 9pm when we hit the first of the many locks we will pass through, taking us from the Rhine into the Main river.

 

Sunday 31 August 2025: Main River and Miltenberg – Sylvia

We were woken several times during the night as the ship banged against the side of a lock. There are 35 locks on this section of the Main River through to Bamberg, where we will join the Main-Danube canal. We will pass through several of these today on the way to Miltenberg. Each can fit two boats length-wise and is not much wider than the ships so there is often a wee nudge as we go through.

No matter how many times I do this, I still appreciate the engineering and enjoy watching the gates open and close and the water rise or lower (in our case rise) to enable smooth passage. These locks are all required due to the hydro stations along the river that have changed the natural course of the flow.

It was nice to have a leisurely morning on board today. The Main River is significantly narrower than the Rhine and meanders its way through the German countryside. In many places there are just trees along the banks, with small riverside homes, some with beautiful gardens, dotted about. Every now and then we passed someone fishing. And of course I enjoyed the diversity of the bird-life.

Later in the morning we sailed past several small towns, all with huge areas of caravan parks. Many people seem to have set up almost permanent looking caravan areas, some even with fences around their spot. Around lunchtime we sailed through Miltenberg and eventually docked at about 2:30pm at the small town of Freudenberg. We were to be bussed back to Miltenberg, ostensibly something to do with wanting to be closer to Wurzburg so we can arrive on time tomorrow. Cynically I think it may have something to do with docking fees in Miltenberg.

Still, we had about 45 minutes to wander around Freudenberg before the buses departed. It is a pretty town but nothing special. It was good to get off the ship and stretch our legs, especially with the top deck now being closed. There was an interesting monument depicting the heights of various floods through the centuries

Eventually we boarded the bus for the ~15-minute drive to Miltenberg. It was an easy drive through lush, green farmland. Nearly every farm seems to have a hunting stand of some sort on it.

It was very busy in town with an Oktoberfest event on. We had decided not to join the ship walking tour but explore on our own. First stop was the Staffelbrunserbrunnen, a delightfully whimsical fountain. It owes its name to the town’s water-fetching practices of old. Water carriers would collect water from the Staffelbrunnen, a well accessed by a series of steps (staffel). Over time the word morphed somewhat playfully into Staffelbrunsen, with brunsen meaning to urinate. The town embraced this with humour and commissioned the fountain accordingly…

We then headed down Haupstrasse but found the going particularly slow as there was a peace protest underway. Apparently Germany has recently announced a decision to increase their armed forces and the protest seemed to be against that. Nonetheless we made our way down the road admiring the many beautifully restored and maintained half-timbered buildings. The town dates back to the 12th century and has a somewhat chequered history. It was partially destroyed by fire in the 1500’s, and was impacted by the 30-year war in the 1600’s. It largely escaped damage during WWII helping to maintain its medieval character.

We admired the Rathaus (town hall) with its fountain area outside, and continued down the road to the Wurzburger Tor, one of several towers in the city that formed part of the old town walls. We then turned and headed back the way we had come.

Our next stop with the Hotel Zum Reisen. This magnificently restored building is one of the oldest, continuously operating hotels in the world, dating back to at least 1411. It was bought in 2001 by the local brewing company Faust Brauhaus. Over the years it has hosted many famous guests, including Elvis Presley. We had to stop in so Roger could try one of the famous Faust ales.

We then continued up the street to Schnatterloch, the old market place square. I think this is one of the most picturesque spots in the town. From there we headed up the hill to the Miltenberg Castle. We were unfortunately too late to go inside but it afforded fantastic views over the town. On the way down the steps we came across a very attractive ‘painted snail’.

Heading further along the road, we passed the Faust brauhaus and many other lovely buildings before coming to the remains of the Schwerzfegertor, ruins from the original town walls. By this stage it was time to head back to our starting point, with just time to stop for an ice-cream before catching the bus back to the boat for another quiet evening on board.

 

Monday 1 September: Wurzburg – Roger

We were woken to the boat bumping its way through another lock and this time stayed awake. There had been many bumps in the night and I’m sure many more that we didn’t notice. Breakfast was again delivered to the room and after breakfast the boat stopped for a while so people going on a bus excursion could depart. They hopped on the buses and went on their way; they will join us again later in the day.

Because this river is almost a series of lakes, it’s very smooth and calm and the drop at a lock where there is a power station is usually between three and four metres, which means the locks are relatively close together.

As we headed up the river we passed many towns and villages. The interesting thing here is that every village and town has one or more manufacturing plants, which seem to support the local community, and vice versa I’m sure, with labour etc. I have noticed this quite a lot when driving around southern Europe in the past.

We joined Greg and Susie for lunch during which the boat went through yet another lock. There are only inches to spare on each side of the boat –  nowadays we would say millimetres.

It was around 1 o’clock when we got to Wurzberg, About 45 minutes later we were picked up by bus and driven about 7-minutes to what was once the Prince Bishop’s palace. Wurzburg has ~130,000 residents of which ~30,000 are students. The area is well known for its vineyards and the making of white wine.

It’s a bit of a long story and goes back several centuries, starting in 1186 when the church ruled a lot of this part of the world. Bishops, to give themselves more power, became a Prince Bishop so they were not only in charge of the church but were also in charge of the people from a political perspective. In Wurzburg, the Prince Bishop built a  palace (Residenz) up on the hill. Over the years he pissed the locals off in one way or another, one of which being killing people for being witches. The peasants rose up in mutiny several times so the palace was converted into a fort. In those days in these towns, as I mentioned earlier, the church basically controlled everything.

At some point one of the Prince Bishops must have got tired of the fort on the hill and around about 1400 built a new Residenz in the town. It was here that the bus dropped us off and the guide, who was full of knowledge led us inside. This place stayed the Residenz until  the early 1800s, when along time Napoleon, who took the place over and kicked the Prince Bishop out.

The guide led us up the stairs and explained the impressive fresco on the dome above the stairs, which apparently is one of the largest in the world. There was a model at the bottom of the stairs explaining how it was constructed – basically the ceiling is held up with a timber structure, which even survived the bombing in World War II, but has since been replaced with steel. 90% of the city was wiped out during the fire bombing in 1945, including both wings of this building. The guide explained the fresco in detail, but basically there’s a bit of a story about the four continents (The Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe).

From there we were lead to another large room, which was a ballroom and a guard room area with beautiful chandeliers imported from Venice,  along with impressive stucco works around the walls and ceiling.

We then moved into the Bishop’s reception room with its pink coloured marble pillars, which were actually made of stucco because it was more expensive than marble at the time. This room also had big frescos on the ceiling and all sorts of ornaments covered in gold. When I visit these places I always think of how the peasants must have suffered to pay for this while the priests lived in absolute luxury.

We were then let loose, so to speak, and wandered through the rest of the building, which, to put it mildly, is completely over the top, with the amount of gold glitter and silver glitter and other expensive items around the place. The interesting thing about this place is that during World War II in 1945, allied bombs destroyed most of the city and both wings of this building. Only the central building with the main stairway and the grand dome survived. At the end of the war it was rebuilt by the Americans and there was even a little display giving the details of the American officer who took part in this reconstruction. There are many rooms lined with gold and others with silver. Most rooms have a large round stove in them for heating. All the art and chandeliers from the building had been stored in the wine cellar, which is under the car park, prior to the bombing and was protected. These days the cellars apparently hold something like 600,000 litres of wine. We didn’t get to go down and try any out.

We headed out the back to the gardens, which were absolutely outstanding. It is a credit to this town that they can afford to maintain these gardens at such high standard, but I’m sure the revenue from tourists contributes largely to this.

Here we teamed up with Greg and Susie again, wandering into the town and checking out the cathedral, which was of a different style to the ones we had seen so far on this trip. (Romanesque rather than Baroque)

We wandered through the town, across the old bridge and up the hill to the Marienburg Fort, the original Residenz. The intention was to check out the museum here and have a look around the building but being Monday, as is often the case in Europe, the museum was closed, so we took a walk around the outside of this large fort, much of which is under restoration. According to the security guard there is about 10 more years of work to go before it will be completely finished. There is the odd slate roof that has been completed and looks really good with the new slate on it. We wandered pretty much right round the outside of the fort and found a path down through the vineyards that led us into the back of an old church we had seen from the top of the hill.

We strolled back into town, then back to the boat, having had an interesting afternoon. It was just after 1800 when the boat pulled away from the wall and continued our up river journey.

 

 

Tuesday 2 September: Bamburg – Sylvia

We had another leisurely morning on board. There are no gym facilities but my lovely trainer, Shannon, sent me a body weight/bands workout and I have been doing this in the room most days. Roger patiently supports by acting as an anchor for the bands at various times. Afterwards we joined Susie and Greg for lunch. The boat had parked up at Zein am Main at about 11:30am. Just after 1pm we disembarked and boarded buses for the ~30 minute drive to Bamberg. The Lif meandered her way there to meet us while we were out sightseeing. Being on these buses reminds me how much I dislike group tours and I am very glad that we had organised our own activities in most ports.

Once we arrived in Bamberg we headed off on our own. (Susie and Greg had booked one of the optional tours to visit the Margravial Opera House.) Bamberg is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was first founded in the 9th century and has an interesting and varied history. While it was bombed during WWII it was much less severely damaged than some other cities so retains a huge amount of its medieval charm. With a current population of ~70,000, the city hosts numerous tourists. It was built on seven hills, each crowned with a church.

After stopping briefly to buy a light backpack, where Roger was given a bottle of beer with a suspicious label – although he was assured it didn’t contain anything illicit – we wandered along the cobblestoned streets, admiring the lovely architecture, up to our first stop at the Bamberg Cathedral. This was first finished in 1012 but destroyed by fire in 1081. It was rebuilt by 1111 and has been in its current form since the 13th century. There were some interesting recycled glass statues outside the church.

Right opposite the cathedral is the New Residenz, similar to the one we visited in Wurzburg yesterday. We did not go inside this one but did take a stroll through the lovely rose gardens. I had remembered these from my previous visit here some years ago but it must have been earlier in the season as, while the flowers were pretty today, they were certainly not as spectacular as I remember.

Next to the cathedral was the old courthouse, set in a remarkable medieval courtyard. Roger had remembered that Bamberg used to be considered the centre of the earth back when the world was still believed to be flat. He was determined to find the plaque commemorating this, even though it seemed to be in the middle of a construction site. This didn’t stop him trying to wander through the barrier 🤦‍♀️. The construction workers soon put him right and he was only able to take a photograph of where the plaque is, although we couldn’t access it.

We headed up another hill to the Michaelsberg monastery. This impressive building is currently under restoration but we wandered around the grounds and admired the views back over the city.

Continuing further uphill we headed for Altenburg, a small castle that overlooks Bamberg. Earliest records of the castle date back to 1109, but it was only used for defence until it was acquired by the Prince Bishop of Bamburg and became the bishop’s residence from 1305 to 1553. It is one of the smaller castles we have visited but is well-maintained. We climbed the tower for incredible views over Bamberg and the surrounding countryside.

We then headed back down towards the centre of town, stopping at Our Lady’s Parish Church, which has a very ornate interior with frescoed ceiling and gilded altar area.

Our next stop was the Alte Rathaus, or old town hall, which was built on a bridge in the middle of the Regnitz River to join two sides of the city together. It is a magnificent building with a half-timbered front and beautifully frescoed sides. It is situated in a very picturesque part of the city.

We stopped at a nearby cafe so Roger could sample the famous local rauchsbier, or smoked beer. He wasn’t a huge fan. It was good to take a more leisurely pace to explore the old town area after having walked a good distance up and down hills all afternoon. There are many interesting sites along the river with some beautiful half-timbered houses, the old slaughterhouse, and an interesting half face sculpture among the highlights.

Having been told during the briefing last night that the bus pick up, to take us to where the Lif was now moored at Bamberg Port, would be by the half face sculpture at 6pm, we started to get a bit concerned that we weren’t seeing any of the other passengers around. A quick call to the boat advised that in fact the pick up point had been changed to outside the Concert Hall, one km away. We had about 14 minutes to get there so picked up our pace and made it with 2 minutes to spare.

Back on board we sailed from the Main River into the Main-Danube canal. At 171 km in length and completed in 1992, this canal links the Main and Danube rivers and runs between Bamberg and Kilheim, via Nuremberg. We noticed an immediate change with the locks being much deeper. There are 16 locks in total on this canal, to manage the 406m elevation change that enables continuous navigation.