Aug 7, 2010

Chapter 5: A Pirate and a Bachelor

     Maggie and Molly had arrived in Würzburg, and decided to again ditch the tour groups and explore the city on their own. Two American girls, in a German town, with no tour guide was the perfect recipe for getting lost. The Viking Cruise line equips everyone with maps of each city, but they are in German, and are supper small. Twenty minutes later however, they finally made it into town from the docks.
      A few days ago while touring Cologne, Molly checked her watch to find that the battery was dead. Every time they would get off of the boat to go to another city, she would always leave her watch on the boat and pass two or three jewelry stores in town that would remind her of her dead battery. Today though, she brought her watch and that was the first place she visited. Once the jeweler was done exchanging the battery in the watch he offered the girls a glass of water. They politely accepted, and then asked for directions into town. The cheerful old man quickly explained to them exactly how to get into the center of the city.
    So the two outlaws thanked the jeweler for his hospitality, and began their self guided tour of Würzburg. First they walked through all of the main streets, and did their usual preliminary window shopping. Then they made their way to the Old Main Bridge, then on to the Würzburg Cathedral. Since they chose the "self guided" tour, they learned and knew nothing of the places that they visited, except for the names of them, of course. But, in the spirit of visiting new places, Molly managed to get plenty of pictures.
    Ashby joined the guided tour, which visited the Würzburg Residenz. The Residenz was completed in 1744, and was inhabited by seven different princes. It is known for its immaculate gardens, grand staircase, White Hall, Imperial Hall and the Court Chapel. Photography was prohibited inside the Residenz, and the tour included a bus ride from the boat to the Residenz. Taking into consideration the events of the previous bus ride, Molly found it acceptable to skip that tour.
   The rest of the day for the girls can be summed up into just a few sentences. They walked through town, went back to the boat for lunch, and then headed back into town. They found a bench to sit on, people watched for about an hour or so,  and went back to the boat for dinner. After dinner, Molly and Maggie trekked back into town for a concert in which they left early, and went back to the boat to watch it from bow of the boat. Finally, with the end of the night drawing near, Molly and Maggie made their reoccurring trip to the bar before calling it a night.
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     The following day, the Viking Europe steamed into Schwienfurt. The boat arrived to the dock slightly ahead of schedule, so Molly and Maggie exited the boat and found a bike trail, and went on a twenty minute walk along the river. Once back on the boat, they attended lunch in the dining room and waited for the buses to arrive to take them to Bamburg.
     "Buses?" thought Molly. " Not again, I don't want to get sick!"
    Luckily this ride was mountain free, and was a B-line shot into the medieval town. During the ride, Molly was still skeptical about getting sick. So for the forty five minute ride she decided to sleep, hoping to avoid becoming sick.
     "Molly, we're here, wake up," said Maggie, as she shook Molly from her subconscious state.
    They unloaded the bus and found their tour guides. Ashby insisted that he go with Maggie's grandmother, Sarah, on the leisure tour. He also urged them to go on a tour and meet back up with them when the tour was over.
   Obeying their grandparents' wishes, they joined group two, and set off into the city of Bamburg. Their first stop was the Green Market where they found flowers, souvenirs and other nik naks. Next they walked through the city to a little tiny church. The guide talked about the exile of the Jews from Bamburg during the rein of the Nazi's. Then it was on to the Bamburg Cathedral where the two wild hearted friends gave each other the look of agreement. And then...............

                                 ...................they spilt!
    They made sure with the group of the later meeting point, and slowly they vanished from the group. On the tour guided walk through the city they passed several eye appealing stores. So they decided to back track and go through them all! Maggie and Molly stopped and got a crêpe early in their shopping venture so they could do more shopping than eating. Molly also found a few presents to take back home. While in one of the boutiques, she spotted a dress that she absolutely adored, and it was on sale, 60% off! Upon trying it on, Molly found it too be too small in the bust. She was absolutely heartbroken. One, it was beautiful; two, it was on sale; and three, it fit perfectly everywhere, except where it counted!
    They stopped for a restroom break at an ice cream shop where Molly couldn't resist getting her favorite flavor. Mango Raspberry. They continued to walk around the gorgeous little town as they ate their ice cream. The city was lined with tall buildings with stunning flower boxes on every window, Each house was adorned with a vibrant colored front door, and matching shutters.
   A section of the city is located on a small river and is called "Little Venice" due to its resemblance of Venice, Italy. The people were really nice to Molly and Maggie, but things were about to go beyond their expectations.
  As they were walking heading back to revisit the Green Market for another crêpe, Molly and Maggie noticed a strange figure ahead of them.
       "Is that someone dressed as a pirate?" declared Maggie.
         "Um, I think so," confirmed Molly.
      As they approached him, he quickly headed for them. He was wearing a pirate hat, a white t-shirt,capri pants and black boots.
       "Excuse me ladies, my friends and I are trying to get our shirts signed by all of the pretty girls in town. Could you two beautiful girls sign mine?" the peculiar young man asked.
       "Um," as she looked and Maggie and got the OK look," sure why not," said Molly. And they signed his shirt
        "Thank you so much," he said. "Have a wonderful day." As he ran off in search of more pretty girls.

   Back in the green market while sitting on the fountain eating their crêpes, Molly and Maggie noticed yet another strange sight. It appeared to be a group of young men as they drew near. 
       "Hi," said one of the guys. It is my friends bachelor party. Could we ask you two a favor?" as the jokingly shoved the shy groom forward.
  The men were wearing black shirts, while the groom was wearing an orange shirt.
      "Sure, what is it?" questioned Maggie.
       "Well we started this morning at 8:30, and we are trying to get girls to wax the groom with these" as one of the guys held out Veet wax strips.
     Molly and Maggie turned to each other, and simultaneously said, "No, I'll pass!"
  Disappointed, the guys turned and headed toward another couple of naïve girls hoping for better luck.
   During the whole event, Molly noticed that a little ways down from Maggie was a woman from their ship sitting on the fountain. She was just a chuckling at the guys and their crazy scheme. Soon, without a word, she got up and left. And shortly there after, Molly and Maggie did too.
   They continued to walk around until it was time to meet their group, and go back to the buses. Once they had finally met up with their group on the upper bridge, to their surprise, a lot of people already knew about their run in with the bachelor party. They were the last ones to board the bus because they waited for Ashby and Sarah's group. They snagged the back seats and Molly drifted back to sleep.
  Back on board the boat, they hung around the lounge and soon went to dinner. After dinner there was a question and answer session with the crew of the boat and the director in the lounge, which Molly and Maggie found quite interesting. At the end of the session, Molly made her way to the bar for her evening Amaretto Sour and the "pretty girls" called it a night.

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