Wertheim, Glassblowing, Horse Racing, Mainz, Rudesheim

What a busy 48 hours. We visited three cities, participated in a Glassblowing demonstration, had two happy hours, got lost, and were horses. Now that isn’t bad for a river cruise.

Wertheim, Germany

Throughout history, Wertheim has been known as a “safe town” with the friendliest inhabitants in Germany. Located between the Tauber and Main Rivers they have had many visitors and merchants come through via boat. It has been said in the past they’ve shared liquor unique to their region with most visitors who passed through. On an average, each house had three barrels of this wine/liquor in their basement. They even offered this liquor to the allies during WWII to show they were not Nazis and were friends. Rumor has it the Mayor went to the top of the Burg or castle with an Oompa Band and this liquor to show armies the residents of Wertheim were not Nazis and not to open fire. The town was not fired upon and it is still home to one of the largest stone fortresses in Germany belonging to the many Counts of Wertheim. Wertheim also has a strong Jewish Heritage which they try to preserve. They have set up many monuments through out the town and we also learned you can find many Jewish residents of Israel, England, and the United States with a last name similar to Wertheim. If you ask them their heritage, their family was probably from Wertheim and escaped during the Holocaust. Another interesting fact was when a bar had fresh beer or liquor they would post a picture over their door because most people couldn’t read. This picture of this sign was a Star of David with a Beer Stein in the middle. You can see a picture of this old sign in our photos.

Well the tradition still stands today. We met a man name Hans Ittig a 6th generation glassblower in town who apparently knows Mark Goldschmidt’s brother, Eric from visiting The Glass Blowing Museum in Corning, New York. Anyway, we started talking because he liked our last name “Lieberman” which translates to “love man” so he gave us each a bottle of Jagermeister. We spoke some more and he let us use his Internet and we had some laughs. Hans also did a glass blowing demonstration on our ship and Josh was picked to make a one of a kind piece. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO!!!

Later that evening, Josh and I were asked to be two horses during the horse race for the ship. The crowd loved it, and we had a good time. You can check out the pictures in the slideshow.

Mainz, Germany

Mainz is a bustling city where old meets new. There were plenty of historic buildings intertwined with newly built modern buildings. Mainz is also the capital of Rhieland-Palatinate and is situated on the Rhine River. In addition to political and religious reasons, which I am not going to talk about, Mainz is famous for being the birthplace of Johann Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. We went to the Gutenberg museum, and Josh helped a tour guide press a verse of the bible using the press. It was very interesting. We then went back to the ship after getting lost trying to find a supermarket for happy hour supplies.

Rudesheim, Germany


Today we took a tour of the Siegfried’s Musikkabinett or Siegfried’s Music Museum. It was a small museum which housed organs, pianos, record players, and self playing instruments from the 18th through the 20th centuries. Each unit was very detailed and played an array of familiar sounds and instruments using both cardboard and wooden spools to play/trigger the notes of the different instruments. Since it was a nice day with a breeze coming from the river, Josh and I along with a fellow passenger decided to climb a mountain to reach the Denkmal. The Denkmal is a shrine that stands high above the Rhine River. It was a nice uphill hike through vineyards and country side with spectacular views. We waved to a lot fellow passenger who took the Drosselgasse or Ski lift to the top. We thought it would be nice to take the ski lift down, but the cost was 4.50 euros for a one way ticket or 6.50 euros for a roundtrip ticket. So we walked down and saved the money to get cultured. We spent the evening getting cultured in the little town. We had a nice time and met some people from the ship for drinks in the various café’s and bars.