The Horse and Hound: Miltenberg

How fun!! The glass blowing demonstration was this morning. Dieter Schrade is the artist and I enjoyed a front row, back side seat (behind one of their sale displays) courtesy of my brother Greg who got there before me. The seat actually had an awesome view of the demo as long as I didn't mind looking at the back of their jewelery display case. I took some video and still pictures of him making a beautiful teardrop candle holder and as he was finishing it he looked at me and asked if I liked it. Of course since I was smiling away I'm sure it was obvious that I did, though I answered yes. He then said it was his gift to me!! So now I have photos of him making my new beautiful piece! I also purchased a beautiful necklace.

If you get the chance to see a glass blower do see the show.

Due to the busy traffic at the locks we were running a bit behind schedule but I must say I continue to be impressed with Uniworld's (and our Cruise Manager Tamas) ability to work out contingencies. Rather than have us sail into Miltenberg and be very late, they set up a pick up with three buses in a tiny town called Stadtprozelten (I think I spelled it right?) which required blocking one lane of the main road for the 15 minutes it took to get the ship pulled to the side of the river (check out the photo - notice there is no dock, we're getting off the ship onto a grassy hillside) and to get a bunch of us off ship.

From there we were bussed to a palace where we enjoyed a beautiful visit with the Count of Lowenstein - an honest to goodness Count. He had a good sense of humor, and he spoke to us for about 30 minutes inside the family chapel (which he graciously allowed us to visit) and then we were shown around their wine making facility and enjoyed a tasting of 3 varieties of their wines created at Furst Lowenstein.

As Ken said 'go figure - the two of us are two for two on wines we enjoyed' (we didn't quite make 3 for 3 though) And to think, we were going to pass on the tour because of the wine tasting, but due to the above mentioned issues with scheduling we'd decided to at least hang out during the wine tasting portion and then get to the village with everyone else. Instead we both truly enjoyed the wine tasting, though we also enjoyed the beer at what is reportedly the oldest brewery in Germany (though I'm really wondering how many times I've heard this claim....) in Miltenberg.

Also, in case you were wondering, what looks like the star of David is actually a brewer's sign. Anyone walking by who couldn't read would know that it was a brewery if they saw the star. A little tidbit of knowledge for you, in case you're ever in Germany and wondering which place is a place to get bier AND you don't see bunches of people drinking beer at the outside tables!

And for anyone thinking about skipping the tour of Miltenberg - you won't get lost because the village is truly 1 road and there is a mountain (hill) on one side and the Main River on the other, and it's only 6 houses deep (truly). However, if you happen to have Katja (pronounced Katya) as your guide, do stick with her tour. She's a hoot! We had a couple people jump from other guides to her while in the city...

Dieter Schrade is making the teardrop candle holder

Here he's using regular scissors to cut the glass to make the teardrop

You can see the teardrop on the top, left, hanging down

Relaxing on the sun deck watching the world go by (it was a little warm, in case you were wondering about the umbrella in the background....though it came in handy about 20 minutes later when there was a rain shower!)

The little town where the bus picked us up

The Captain watching us disembark

Literally pulling up to a grassy shoreline to drop off the passengers

Palace Lowenstein - a mini Versailles

The chapel - their personal church

Where the red wines are made (they do 10% reds, 90% white)

We're really enjoying the first tasting - the Silvaner (if I got that right)

The third tasting - Schonhell

One of the labels

The whole family!!!

A delicious tasting at the local butcher

The gate in the village of Miltenberg

One of the half timbered houses, the wood on the bottom row tell a story - the left, circle represents God/Sun, the second 'flower' indicates wealth, the third diamond is a wish for children (which all needed to be boys - and if you had 12 boys you got to put a face in the diamond)