“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return” Leonardo da Vinci
Much like in between the cities of Buda and Pest we docked under a lovely bridge, not quite as nice as the chain bridge but still lovely, between a mountain on one side and an old photogenic city on the other. After a quick breakfast we loaded a bus that wound up another road carved as if by magic into cliff face. From the top of this mountain we disembarked our bus, thanked our driver, and bid him ado as we got off in a little forested area and were left for dead and to fend for ourselves. While the others began to panic and look franticly around with cannibalistic eyes I suggested that we merely stick to the schedule and have a lovely walk through the hills as was the plan. Reason won out and we started through the trees and the path along the mountainside with the most spectacular views of the city below.
Very shortly after the start, we came to the chapel built up on the mountain. When we went inside a service was being held, so we looked at some of the smaller rooms and the guide told us there were plans to renovate everything in three years. This was very much needed as the walls were coated in black soot from the years of candles, so much so that every hand or action brushed against the wall left the event tangible for the world to see. 
We took in the views and the cool breeze climbing the mountain side before we started the long hike down the mountain to the fortress off in the distance. Leading down (or up depending your direction) were landings each with statues of different saints. This location is another pilgrimage site where people will come every year and climb the steps on their knees, stopping on each step and saying a prayer. It was enough on my feet while going down, so I can only imagine the damage one could sustain going up these old jaggedly uneven cobblestone steps. Coming to the bottom we passed through some small ancient looking paths weaving in-between newer houses. We broke out of the tree-line out to a part of the city and went through a tunnel that came out in front of an old prison thats now used as a dorm for local colleges. So lucky for them they didn’t have to do any remodeling. We tucked around the new dormitory and started climbing steps carved into the hill. We went through an even older tunnel, filled with more darkness and spiders than one would care for, and came out into a vineyard grown into the hills and cliffs of the mountain leading up to the old castle.
This is when it hit us, heat, quite a bit of heat, as we worked our way up a mountainside sparse with shade. We like little ants under a magnifying glass. Much like no-one would have ever done in history, we scaled these hills and mountainous areas weaving back and forth up and down while working our way around the mountain, slowly but surely gaining ground up toward the fortress above. Toward the back side away from the river we passed through a gate into a modern parking area, yah we could have drove, but we weren’t sissys. Our guide lead us through all five, yes five, gates!
This was a pretty big place. One area we were shown was, like in the last city, a filming location for the recent Three Musketeers Movie. We got to the keep and went inside an area that was used as a prison to hold 50 people at one time, which honestly struggled to fit ten of us. We crossed a drawbridge over a now dry moat and another few gates before we ended up in the heart of the castle that was built flush on the edge of the mountain top. In the middle, as you could probably see in the photos, was a large overlook area. Behind the back of the castle was a large garden with an overlook cliff porch “terrace” that overlooked the city with its judgmental railing eyes (Alex did not approve of this sentence…), this was at one time the palace for the prince bishop before he built the new palace in the city. We took in the views and took some photos, obviously. Then we walked down the other side of the mountain, which was actually set up as a path and means of ingress to the castle, we used it as means of escape. This path took quite a bit less time and we ended up back at the river. From the bridge we were able to see one of the river locks we had been passing through, but this time from an external perspective. We walked along the river till we got to the boat and had lunch after which we rested a bit before we got ready to go out again for the palace tour and city walk.
We took a bus to the Würzburg residence another unesco site and the location that Lt. Skelton saved the frescos during the war. This was another house way bigger than it could have ever needed to be built then again is wasn’t a house it was a palace. We had a tour through the place and the ceilings were really something else, I mean wow. They had all the different regions of the world represented in frescos on the ceiling, the Americas were pretty interesting; naked ladies and alligators, so not much has changed. Europe was depicted as the best of them all as you would figure, guy that pays makes it how they want and when it was painted that was mostly true as well. We weren’t able to take photos in the palace but you could look them up online I believe and I think the frescos are worth a gander. We went through a few rooms, the entertaining room, dinning, room for the soldiers when people would arrive, and bedrooms to list a few. They were gaudy as you would expect in a baroque style, again, these people really love to cover everything with gold but I’m beginning to see the appeal, if you have over nine hundred servants to clean everything for you that is (which this palace did during its functional years). We picked up a random dude through our tour also and nobody felt inclined to tell him so he just wandered along with us till the end. This is funnier because with the Viking tours we all have little ear pieces and the guide has a microphone so we can hear them so they talk very quite to not be heard by or disturb anyone else, so this guy was just walking around and was struggling to hear what was going on and just thought he was late to the English tour so he didn’t have a Quiet Vox and just kept making silly faces of surprise, happiness, confusion, and a whole bunch of awkward. We had some free time after the tour and sticking with our past we found another rose garden and chilled, this time under trees that were not in the act of sappy pissing. There was an intoxicating breeze as a storm was rolling in and the increased winds were blowing all the scents of the flowers around with the trees and leaves blowing in a lovely little nature sonnet.
Free time used up we took a guided walking tour through the town back down toward the river. We saw some weird modern art, two churches, one with carvings of the virgin marry getting impregnated with baby Jesus through the ear. Really, little baby Jesus was ridding a ribbon down on his little baby belly right into her ear. We walked through the market area right when it began to rain so we took cover under a building shortly until it calmed down a little. The guide pointed out a little bit of this and a little bit of that and then we came to the oldest bar in town with a picturesque courtyard something straight from a film almost. We headed back down the Main Street toward the river where we found a wine store with a local wine made from the grapes we passed earlier on our walk. This wine is not exported and is put in a belly shaped bottle and the name? Yah its called the scrotum of the goat wine, I love this place and its silly people. They gave you free tastings of any kind you like and we tried a few and then bought a few. Again we walked along the river and back to the boat and up river once again to our next stop, a town Bjorn claimed was more picturesque than this, this we would have to see about.
Erroll & Alex's European Honeymoon Trip! 