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We are continuing down the Main river/canal and have proceeded through a number of other locks. You can always tell. The boat ride is so amazingly smooth that any little shake or rattle is noticeable. And the ship is so wedged into the lock (maybe a foot on either side) and transit is typically accompanied by a little bump or two, or sashay to the side. You look out the window and there’s a stone wall right in your face. Then a few minutes later, you’re up above it.
We are in glass-blowing country. Apparently this area of German is the major glass center of the world along with Murano in Italy. The Italian glass is all art glass. Here in Germany is where the glass for fiber optics, lab glass ware, bottles, etc. comes from, as well as art glass. We had a demonstration on the boat from Karl, a 6th generation glass blower from Wertheim. A town we will pass through but apparently not get to visit. We’re going to Miltenberg today and returning via Wertheim. If the boat is late getting there, we might get a few minutes to look around.
Karl was very entertaining and we learned a lot about the art of glass blowing. There are essentially three types. The big oven, blob of glass, long metal pole that you turn type of blowing. Glass ‘fusing’ which doesn’t involve blowing at all. And small handheld type (which has a name I can’t remember) where you put essentially a pipette over a small very hot flame. This is what Karl showed us. Including an example of what happens when you do it wrong (it gets too thin and you can pop it like a balloon, much to all of our surprise but especially Gaye from Australia who practically fell out of her chair).
The key to it all, according to Karl, is Jägermeister, which he felt was the key to a lot of things actually. But in small quantities only. He offered a sample to Larry who then helped to blow a Christmas ornament. We learned about the various metal oxides that cause coloration (cobalt for blue, copper for red, etc.). He was a bit heavy handed with the sales pitch, but hey, a man’s got to make a living. We did buy a few small trinkets (prior to the sales pitch actually).
After lunch it was time for the tour. But there was some confusion. Was it 2pm or 2:30. We all got off the boat thinking 2pm but it turned out we were wrong. On top of that it had started raining (well a heavy mist really). The timing of the tour was really bad. The shops closed at 4. The tour was an hour and a half. It was not going to allow for any shopping/browsing time which made Marion very unhappy.
Well, we had 20 minutes or so anyway so we took a wander into town and had a look around. Then it was a question of whether to go back and meet the tour or not. For some reason, I’m convinced they’re going to tell me something interesting and worthwhile and I convinced Marion to go back. The tour was not bad actually. Better than Cologne certainly. But time was slipping away. So Marion went rogue. She’d peel away from the tour and go in a store or window shop and she actually managed to buy a few items. Then, since we were moving very slowly, she’d catch back up. So she ended up happy and so did I.
And it turned out she was the only one of our group of new found friends who figured out the secret. The other women were a bit annoyed there was no shopping and were very jealous of Marion and her purchases. As Marion pointed out (and should tell the tour company), why not give us the 2 hours we ended up sitting around waiting for the buses to shop, *then* have the tour from 4-5:30 after the stores had closed. An excellent plan, unless of course the guides get off work at 4pm too. (And by the way, whose idea was it to work 10a-4p and how do we get them elected in the US?).
Our tour guide (Raul) was interested in my camera. Although he really wanted the 60D, not the 40D I have. Either way, he wasn’t getting mine so it wasn’t really an issue.
He had lots of interesting stories to tell us. The primary ones revolved around the fact that in medieval times, if you weren’t an aristocrat, your ass was pretty much owned by the church. The local bishop took 10% of everything off the top (your best crops or whatever). But not satisfied with that, there were also taxes for various forms of trade if you came into town, to cross the bridge, the use of the streets to move your livestock and pretty much anything else you might want to do. I was reminded of the Beatles song “Taxman” – if you drive a car I’ll tax the street, if you try to sit I’ll tax your seat, if you get too cold I’ll tax the heat, if you try to walk, I’ll tax the street”. It did not suck to be the Bishop.
In fact one of the more interesting things he said was that even today in Germany, there is a religion tax. You identify which religion you belong to and pay a 9% tax to them via the government. That just seems wrong on so many levels. I guess there’s something to be said for our Constitution after all. That separation of church and state thing is not such a bad idea. And I’ve got to think that identifying yourself as a Jew to the German government, even in today’s enlightened times, must be a bit disconcerting.
Religion played a key role throughout the middle ages and after. Some towns were exclusively Catholic or Protestant. You couldn’t live in one if you were the other. And even until recently, the schools were exclusive. And of course, you didn’t want to be Jewish. It was interesting that he mentioned (as we had heard before) how the Jews were desired for a time to serve as money lenders since this practice was banned by the church. So Jews were handy to have around. But then of course, when a scapegoat was needed, the dirty money lenders were convenient targets. He failed to mention that. Or when he noted that Jews had lived in Miltenberg from the 1500’s to the 1900’s, but failed to mention *why* they had stopped living there in the 1900’s. But I’m sure it’s a touchy subject.
He *did* mention that during the stage where witches were burned, it was often convenient to accuse someone of witchcraft to achieve ones aims. For example, there was a period where the town’s beer supply was controlled by one brewer. But the other brewers got together and accused his wife of being a witch and succeeded in having her burned at the stake. The same thing happened to the next brewer’s wife and before you knew it, the monopoly was broken and shared amongst all. As Raul said, sometimes you can get things done quickly if you really work at it. He also mentioned, which I didn’t know, that it was about 50-50 men and women burned as witches.
We saw a hotel/pub that has been in continuous operation for 500+ years. The oldest in the world. Visited by kings and celebrities alike. The guide claims they invented the drive-thru window. Given that in the olden days people just threw their ‘night waste’ into the streets in the morning, not to mention their kitchen scraps, the streets were a bit, shall we say, untidy, and people of quality didn’t want to walk on them. So the hotel created a pathway through the building for them to drive their carriage in and get whatever it was they were going to get.
And one of the more interesting stories as well, was how the V for victory or peace sign came into being. Back in the days of the long bow, you needed those two fingers to shoot. If you were captured by the enemy, they’d cut those two fingers off so you’d no longer be viable as an archer. So when the soldiers got home from war, they’d flash the two fingers to show they hadn’t been captured.
The city had been surrounded on three sides by a wall (with the river making the fourth). And there were still remnants of it (a lot actually). There was a main gate at one end of town, and another at the bridge at the other end of town. If you wanted to pass through town, you entered at the gate, got inspected to see if you were worthy, and allowed to pass or not. Paying the tax of course. You then proceeded to city hall (the Rathaus) where your goods were kept and you were allowed to sell them at whatever price the Bishop decided you could (and taking his cut). Alternatively, there was a path up in the hills and via very roundabout means and apparently most of the day, you could avoid going through town and paying the tax if that was your goal.
As it was nearing 4pm and we passed the central square (and the gelato stand), we both hung back from the tour and grabbed ourselves a nice treat before the stand closed. It was very tasty. We had walked down the one main street in town for the tour and now found ourselves at the far end. So we wandered back the way we came, stopping at the occasional store that was still open. But the store people were adamant about closing. Cruise ship in town with 200 people ready to spend money? Don’t care. Time to go home. A couple of the other folks said they were in the store trying to buy something and the people weren’t interested. I guess times are good in Miltenberg.
We ran into Dean, one of the folks from the ship, and told him about the Jewish Cemetery the guide had mentioned but didn’t show us. He wanted to see it too so he came along with us (his son or son in law is a mortician and he thought he’d be interested).
We headed up a side alley we had gone up earlier to see the ‘witch’s house’, a small colorful half cottage that a woman is using as a garden shed. But it is different enough from the other buildings that it gave Raul a chance to tell us the witch stories. Up, just outside the city walls, was the cemetery and it’s very nice, albeit small. On the way back down through the alley, an old German woman came out and stood in the doorway to stare at us. She was the definitive old German grandmother type. And contrary to my usual makeup, I motioned and tried to indicate I would like to take her picture and was it ok? But she just stared back at me and said nothing. Finally, she asked another couple that was walking up the street “Americans?” They said yes and once she started talking I asked if I could take a picture and she said yes. I got one I really like. And once the floodgates had opened, it became a media event. Dean took some video, the other couple took her picture and I think there was one more. She seemed to like the attention.
Back to the square to wait for the buses. We were a bit early and some others came up while we were there. A couple from Texas sat down and said “did you see the pipe organ in the church in the main square? I’ve never seen anything so big”. Well, I couldn’t pass up that photo opportunity so I trudged back down most of the main street of Miltenberg as it turned out (it was farther than I thought) and went into the church and there was, probably, the smallest pipe organ I’ve ever seen. My first thought was ‘this guy’s from Texas and this is what he considers big!?” Very disappointing. But, since I was down there and had a little time, I walked up the hill a bit and found a path that led to the church that overlooks town from a bluff. A bit of a climb to get there but the view was excellent and I got a great shot of the town. So you never know.
Back again to the buses then a 30 min ride or so to Warheim (spelling), the town where the glass blower Karl was from. We did manage to beat the boat by about 25 minutes and got a chance for a quick walk through town. It’s smaller than Miltenberg and not nearly as quaint. But we gave them bonus points for having more than one street to wander down, so the meander was a bit more interesting than Miltenberg from that perspective. But it was a quick jaunt and of course all the stores were closed.
Back to the boat for dinner. Just as dinner started we entered yet another lock where we discovered that Penny, who was at our table, has serious claustrophobia and since the lock is so tight and high, all you can see out the windows on both sides is a stone wall until we are raised up. She had a real issue with it. So this little stretch of lots and lots of locks along the canal is going to be unpleasant for her. Luckily if she goes up to the top deck (dinner is one deck down), she can usually see above the lock walls and is ok, which she did.
The story of our encounter with the old woman and the amazing picture and video Dean and I got was the subject of dinner conversation, which was a nice compliment. Debby, the very arty woman that Marion has become friends with said the picture gave her chills. How cool is that!
6/28/14
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