We had a late start this morning with breakfast one hour later than normal and then a quiet cruse along the Maine River to Milternberg.
We entered the Maine sometime during the night and travelled past Frankfurt. This river is much more narow than the Rhine and has a lot less traffic. For a lot of the time we have travelled through the Bavarian countryside and some little villages where the church bells ring out the time and some places still have the remains of their medieval walls
We have also been through a number of long and narrow locks. Every now and the, the river has a weir with a lock on one side and a hydro electric plant on the other. Our ship is only a little over 1 1/2 metres wider than the locks, so it is always a tight squeeze. We won’t have any problem though as the Captain is very experienced and has about sixty supervisors from the passengers at every lock.
Miltenberg is a little town in this area of Franconia. Many of the houses are made from reddish coloured sandstone, which our guide on the walking tour told us, makes for the excellent red wine of this area. Some of the buildings date back as far as the 1500’s. These buildings make a delightful streetscape, especially with the whitewashed castle in the background on the hill. The market square is especially attractive and has been used as the setting for a number of movies.
We had a beer at the oldest pub in town before heading back to the ship for our continuing journey up the river.
