Last weekend, I took a short trip to Würzburg because Carolin told me I should. Würzburg is a city of around 130,000 in Franconia, in the southern, middle part of Germany, basically half-way between Frankfurt and Nuremburg. It's also pretty popular for tourists because it lies on the Romantic Road and is well known for it's castles and wine making.
Fun Fact: Notable people from Würzburg include, of course, my friend Carolin and Dirk Nowitzki, oh and the guy who discovered X-rays. There's several others but I never heard of most of them.
Unfortunately, the weather sucked when I was there. It was freezing cold and either steadily flurrying or raining all day. So, I didn't enjoy as many sights as I probably would have in better weather, but the city itself was still really cool. I'd love to go back in the spring or summer and see it at it's best, and maybe go tour some local wineries.
I was all about being postal service-esque last week though. I was like Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night....will keep me from seeing this city, especially since I had pre-paid for the train ticket, lol.
There are a lot of places to see in Würzburg so I recommend you put it on your travel list if you're ever in the region. I read a little about the city from my travel books, so I set out on foot from the train station to see what I could find, heading in the direction of the Marienberg Fortress. If you are like me and you love old architecture and churches and castles, this is a great place to see.
Note: Würzburg was basically entirely destroyed during the war from a March 1945 aerial bombing. 90 percent of the city was heavily damage or destroyed. But the city had painstakingly and accurately rebuilt all of the buildings of historical significance (according to good ol' Wikipedia, a lot of the rebuilding was done by women as the men were either dead or POWs immediately after the war).
On the way to the fortress, I came across the oldest stone bridge in Germany, built in 1120 and restored/rebuilt in 1476 (per Fodors). It's pedestrian only and has some awesome statues of saints on it (added in the 1700s and rebuilt after the war).
Next up I hiked up to the fortress, which was built over several hundred years and became the home of prince-bishops of Würzburg in 1253.
Not my photo. Couldn't get a good view of the castle from far away due to crappy weather
I was a little apprehensive to go through the creepy tunnel myself
Afterwards, I hiked back across town to go to the Würzburger Residenz, or Würzburg Residence. The Residence is an awesome palace built for the prince-bishops from 1720 to 1744. It was amazingly beautiful and ornate. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site for good reason! A definite must see.
The only problem with the Residence is that they don't allow you to take any pictures inside, which totally sucks because it was beautiful. Maybe I'll edit this post with additional pictures later if I can find any online. But, I highly recommend visiting the palace and gardens because it was just awesome. Also, I loved that they have an exhibit showing the before and afters of the palace, and what it looked like after the destruction from World War II, and how it has been restored over the years since.
Well, those were the major sights of my journey, but while walking around randomly, I came across a lot of cool churches (St. Kilian's Cathedral is a must), sculptures, fountains and randomly awesome buildings. Here's a small selection.
And that was basically my day in Würzburg. A good day despite bad weather. Now if only I didn't have 2 hours worth of train delays and cancellations on the way home, it might have been perfect.
