We are in Bavaria and in Franconian wine country. Alll along the river grape vines were growing up the quite steep hillside. The vine rows are actually up and down the hill not across. It is quite a cool area for growing wine which is why the vines are only planted on the hillsides and only those hillsides that face the south. This is how the grapes get as much sun as they need.

Upon arriving out our port of call (Wurzburg) we had to moor alongside another cruise boat of another cruise line. This is the first time this has happened and we pulled up alongside without touching - 30 cm space. The gangplank was put down between the 2 boats on the upper deck whereupon we disembarked. Apparently in the high season the boats can be up to 4 deep.

Today we chose to go on the Rothenburg (pronounced Rotenburg) walking tour. Rothenburg is a Middle Ages town which is a bit different to a Medieval Town - still working out the subtle differences. To get to the town we first went by bus for an hour. The countryside was very flat with the main crop being beet sugar. This region produces about 70% of the countries sugar with 80% of that being bought up by Coca Cola! There are also lots of the new modern windmills as Germany is trying to diversify its power generation away from nuclear and harnessing the power produced by sun, wind and water.

Missing through the countryside was farm houses. In the old days the farmers would build their houses, barns etc all together in a little village for protection purposes These still exist as we went through a few of them on the way to Rothenburg. Rothenburg itself is a walled town and the first that we have visited which has the wall in tact. The streets are all cobble streets as are the footpaths. In the old days each house had to store at least a 2 year supply of grain in the event the day became under seige. Most of the houses were 3 or 4 floors high.

We did a walking tour of Rothenburg which included watching the town clock perform on the hour. Two doors either side of the clock face open to show a couple of characters drinking a beer. The guide for our walking tour pointed out that Rothenburg arguably has the biggest Christmas shop in the world. There were also other similar, albeit smaller shops and a Christmas museum. Unfortunately once inside the Christmas shop no photos were allowed. Some purchases were made of course. Rothenburg has one of the few in tact old city walls which we could have walked around if time had permitted.

On the way back to the boat on the bus the guide, on behalf of the driver, brought out little bottles of Schnapps, bottles of beer, 250 ml bottles of wine and little bottles of something similar to Jagermeister (44% alcohol and apparently very medicinal!). Everyone was buying up the Schnapps so the bus driver had to pull over and go into the luggage compartment underneath to get some more. We suspect this might be a way of the driver getting a little extra income.

After a cruising afternoon and dinner the boat pulled up at Kitzingen where some of us got off to be welcomed by the Aulic Council and Wine Queen who then explained some of the history of the region and the Aulic Council. Then it was off to Germany's oldest wine cellar for a Wine Tasting & Folk Music. We tasted 4 wines these being Tilmann Secco (Champagne's Little Brother), Franconian Bacchus (named after the Roman God of Wine), Franconian Muller-Thurgau (the most planted grape variety in Germany), Franconian Silvaner (Traditional grape from 17th century) and Rotling (a blush wine. Our preference was the Silvaner although the Rotling drunk cold in the summer would be quite nice and refreshing also. There was also some discussion about the shape of one of the bottles of wine. Some of the regions wines come in a bottle which is the same shape as the bottle used for Mateus wine in Portugaul. This region thinks it belongs here while the Portuguese disagree. The local description of the bottle translates to Goat Scrotum. At 1030 we had walked back to the boat ready to head off to Bamburg.

Today was our first day of a touch of rain with the intermittent light rain or misty shower. The locals would be over the moon as they had not had any rain over the summer and anything would be better than nothing.

On a very sobering note there was some bad news on the boat. In the moring we pulled up quickly along the canal and the police and medics arrived to assist one of our passengers. He had actually passed away and was taken by ambulance along with his wife and one of the boat crew who would make sure she was taken care of before he returned back to the boat in a couple of days. Then later in the afternoon we suddenly tied up before one of the locks and medics arrived really quickly followed by a helicopter. It transpired that another passenger, NZer whom we had got to know quite well, had a heart attack while on the treadmill. He was probably the 5th youngest passenger on the boat. The crew did a great job to resuscitate him before the medics arrived. He and his wife have now also left the boat and apparently one of the best cardiac hospitals in Germany is in the area. Let's hope there is no more of this.