July 5th Wertheim, Germany

 

Wertheim, Germany is a lovely small ancient city with a new modern city build above on the hills.  From a distance the tall, modern look like any large city in the US.  Our ship docked on the just outside of the city walls and we were transported into to town on a Gecko Train.

We were now in the northernmost corner of the German State of Bade-Wurttenberg, after leaving Bavaria. This state borders Switzerland and France. We learned during our tour that this town was liberated by the Americans in WWII while the towns across the Main River were liberated by the Russians and became part of East Germany. During the 40 + years of the Cold War Russian troops were just across the river.  American housed 4000 soldiers during that time in the outskirts of the city.  Even the lower level of the 13^th century castle was used to create a bomb shelter for the residents and soldiers.  Today is used as a parking garage for the town, but our guide said, it can still be used as a bomb shelter if we need it.  “We will not become another Ukraine !” (No love of the Russian Government”

The town was saved during WWII twice from Allied Bombing.  First to have the town on its list was the British air force, however having a town between two rivers, (The Main and the smaller Tauber) meant that the town could almost guarantee Fog during certain times of the year and this happened during the time of the  British planned attacks.  After several failed raids, the British moved on to other targets and later the Americans came with on a bombing raid.  However, two young brave German boys defied the Town Mayor and climbed to the top of the old castle tower and raised a large white flag of surrender. The Americans flew over and dropped their bombs on Wurtsberg and foot soldiers accepted the surrender of the town. This meant that in the division of Germany Wurtheim would be under American control not Russian. According to our guide, the boys were heroes were not identified as they had to leave town in a hurry to escape the few remaining Nazis in town including the town mayor.

Living at the fork of two rivers, means flooding! (as we know in Boone) The town proudly displays HW or high water marks on the town buildings with the appropriate date.   In town the lowest floor of the house (floor “0”) is used for storage while they live on floors 1. 2. 3.etc. Most flooding was limited to floor “0”.  With government insurance for flooding the people who wanted to redecorate, would move furniture or appliances to the lower floor when a flood was predicted.  Needless to say it is now difficult to get flood insurance.

We had time for sight-seeing on our own which many times means people watching or shopping,  we did both!  We were back on the boat for lunch and a quiet day sailing on the river.  I have included interior shots of the ship’s public areas