#Mitlenberg

[gettinghungary]

The 13th Century town of MItlenberg fit for a fairy tale

Grand European Tour, Budapest to Amsterdam—Day 11

August 20, Wertheim, Germany

Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of Wertheim. Why? Because I did an all-day tour to see how the nobles live in Germany now that they have to provide their own income. There have been no aristocrats officially since 1918.  Here, though, they can keep their titles.  The town they are in become part of their name and title.  

The first place we visited, built in the 1500s, was the family of Furst (which is actually the word for“prince” related to the king—the prince bishop is prinz, and is an appointed position) Lowenstien Wertheim Rosenberg in the forest region known as Spessalt (a shortened version of the town name).  Their family business includes forestry, furniture factories with pieces made from oak and beech.  There is also glass production in this area since 1700, and the chandeliers from the palace residence were produced here.  

Spessalt forest was ten times larger 200 years ago, with paths rather than paved routes.  Because it was the forest, traders were robbed and the Brothers Grimm came from a place nearby to make a map of dialects. In order to do their study, they collected local stories and wrote them up, which we now know as Grimm’s Fairy Tales.  Snow White came from a small town, and the dwarves in the story were small mine workers (there is iron which produces red soil, and the area is known for its red sandstone.  

The property we saw first is owned by Gaven Marie Antoinette Echter-Ingleheim, and the area is a private park.  

They breed trout in the surrounding ponds, 

and we were treated to a taste of smoked trout with mild horseradish cream and their own sparkling wine, as well as some pate, which I thought was boar, but someone else said it was venison liver. 

 There is a knight’s hall in the palace with suits of armor and stained glass panels showing crests.   The family has a hospital system and their wine cellar is the second largest in Germany—500 acres.  

Marie Antoninette lives in Bonn in her husband’s castle, but comes back to run the family business.  Her mother, the Duchess, lives here and stopped in to greet us. (no photos were allowed to be taken of her). On the property, the former mill is now a guest house and the horse stables are a restaurant.  We all were invited to sign the guest book, and we were told that the Brothers Grimm had signed in as guests at the palace when they were in the area.  Imagine that!

For lunch, we  went to a quintessential German town on the Main river called Miltenberg that was built in the 1200s.  A fortified castle stood high above the town with lots of steps to climb to get there.  The streets were cobblestone from one end of the town to the other (it was literally one long street with smaller streets to the river).  

We ate at the Riesen (the Giant) restaurant hotel, which was built I the 1100s, and is the second oldest restaurant in Germany.  The food and wine was fantastic, but heavy for a hot August day. I imagine it would be very suitable for a cold January Sunday.  

The shops that were open (most were not on Sunday), had cuckoo clocks and hand-crafted ornaments, of course.  

The second aristocratic residence we visited was Schloss Kleinheubach, built in the 18th century by the architect who also built the Château de Versailles and was owned by Furst Alois Konstantin zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg.   Half the building is now a conference center/hotel (only for large groups, not individuals), and the family lives in the other half of the house.  Here is a video from the conference center website to get a sense of the property (it is in German with English subtitles).  

On the family’s side of the house, there is a small private chapel where they attend services.

The horse stables were turned into a clean and bright winery, with mostly steel tanks – they produce Franconian wines such as Silvaner, and a red pinot noir. We were treated to a tasting of the wines they produce. 

We returned to the ship around 5:00 p.m. and after such a long day I stayed in my stateroom listening to Leonard on the Lounge Cam talking about other Viking cruises available. I will post a summary at the end of the series of day-to-day blogs that summarizes other tours Viking offers, particularly from Budapest.  But I will say that one he described—an around-the-world cruise that combines ocean vessels and river cruises and lasts about 140 days—sounds like an adventure I would like to do once in my life.  

After dinner, and Leonard’s talk about what we will be doing tomorrow, he hosted a Night on Broadway quiz competition featuring favorite songs from famous musicals.  I was so tired and just wanted to sleep, but Jadranka, the hotel manager, asked me to stay for the 10 p.m. disco party.  She is a kindred spirit for me, so I had a drink with her – gin and tonic with cucumber—less sweet, more savory.  I ended up dancing the night away, particularly some salsa with Leonard, the past champion dancer in Romania and judge for Romania’s Dancing with the Stars.  He was impressed.  Maybe not really, but he said he was by my dancing.  And I ended the night dancing to Beyonce’s Single Ladies.