Sunday December 24: Wurzburg/Bamburg
Christmas Eve Mass
This was sort of a zoomy day.
We slept in because there wasn’t anything before the 9:30 departure briefing. So rather than getting up early, having breakfast, and then waiting for the briefing, we slept later, had breakfast, and then there was only about 15 minutes before the briefing.
This was fortunate, as Amy slept poorly the night before. There was some sort of nightclub or something similar nearby, and they were playing music loudly. Inside our room, there was a dull boom-boom-boom of the bass. I heard it, but it didn’t bother me. It kept Amy awake. It finally ended at 2:20am.
When I came down with my cold, I was sort of afraid to cough, for fear people would avoid me like the plague, but the cough has become somewhat common. Amy calls it “kennel cough”, because we're all stuck together in this big box, like a kennel, and so things like this cold spreads easily.
On the cruise, they seem somewhat surprised by things that I would think shouldn’t have been surprisingly. We will drive to Prague on Christmas (tomorrow). The hotel restaurant is not open. They scrambled to find a number of restaurants that were open. Apparently if you don’t get a reservation at one of these, you won’t have dinner tomorrow. I had them add Amy and myself to the list for reservations at one of the restaurants.
I walked into Wurzberg to look for churches/schedules. I found one small church nearby (about 7 minutes’ walk) that looked promising. The problem is that everything is written in German, which I don’t read. I figured that it was 90% likely that it was Catholic, and a 25% chance that the Mass would be in Polish. It looked like they had a 10pm Mass. I checked out the Cathedral and the Maria Chapel, but I couldn’t figure out whether these were Catholic or Lutheran. I’ve since been told that they are Catholic, but I’ve already decided to check out the Polish church.
I got back in time for an early (11:30) lunch. I wasn’t that hungry as we had just had a late breakfast. But after lunch, we had just enough chance to change and head out to the bus to Bamberg. The weather forecast was similar to the past few days. I debated the down jacket, but at the last minute I took the red fleece jacket, as it is more water-resistant, and the temp was supposed to be around 50.
I snoozed for most of the 70-minute drive to Bamberg. We got off the bus, and there were no tour guides there. Then we were told to get back on the bus, as we were apparently in the wrong spot. We drove a short while, and where we stopped, there were three people waiting, who looked like (and were) tour guides. We split into three ad-hoc groups and set out on the tour. It wasn’t really raining, but we got various levels of drizzle.
When I was looking at church schedules, I kept seeing “Don”. I asked our guide what that meant. It turns out (not entirely surprisingly) that it means “cathedral”. This was useful information later.
|
|
|
|
We crossed one bridge, which was just downstream from a dam (with open sluices). Interestingly, it looked like they had set up a white water kayaking course (with hanging gates) just downstream from the bridge.
|
|
|
The trip had been described as a 1:10 drive, a 1:30 tour, and a 1:10 drive back. However, when the 90-minute tour ended, we were told that we had an hour to explore the town on our own, and to be back where the bus dropped us off at 4:45. The tour ended at the cathedral at 3:45, and there seemed to be a 4:00 Mass about to start. So Amy and I slipped in to check out the building. I couldn’t really stay for the Mass, as there wasn’t enough time before we needed to leave.
|
|
|
|
We left the church and started to work our way towards the pickup spot. At one point, we were approached by a German couple who apparently spoke no English. In a strange role reversal, they were asking *us* for directions! Through pantomime, she was asking us which way to the “dom”. Fortunately, because I had asked our guide an hour earlier, I knew what a “dom” was, and as we had just come from the cathedral, we could direct them there. Otherwise, I would have had no clue what a “dom” was, and we wouldn’t have been able to help them. It tickled my fancy that these two American tourists who spoke essentially no German, and who just arrived in the town two hours ago could direct a native to where they were going.
We stopped by a bridge that paralleled the one we took on the tour. It gave us a good view of the other bridge and the building in mid-stream.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It wasn’t clear how quickly we should get to the pickup spot. It was drizzling a bit heavier at this point. I didn’t want to get there too quickly and just stand around in the wet doing nothing. On the other hand, perhaps the bus was already there, and if we got there early, we could get out of the wet early. We split the difference and got there about fifteen minutes before the deadline. We turned the corner and found...the bus waiting for us. So we could go straight in and not wait in the drizzle.
When we got back to the boat, there was only about 15 minutes before the special Christmas dinner. We heard the end of the farewell spiel, had a champagne toast, and then dinner was served.
They had a special Christmas menu. I didn’t care for either special dessert, so I finally (my last chance) got the Creme Brûlée for dessert.
|
|
|
|
I now have about an hour to write this up and pack up the room (we need to leave our suitcases out at 6am tomorrow morning), and then head over for a Polish Christmas mass.
- -
|
|
The Christmas Eve Mass was about as I expected. It was definitely Catholic, and definitely Polish. I didn’t recognize any of the songs (until the end), and about the only words I recognized were “Maria”, “Bethlehem”, and “Gloria”, although at the end, I did recognize some “dziekuje” and “tak”.
It was sort of like our Easter mass back home in that it started with the lights off, with people having candles that got lit, and almost all of the light coming from candles. Then they put the lights up after the Gospel reading.
The church was pretty cold. Most people, if not all, kept their coats on. There was a heater under the seat, which rather confused me, but was nice to have a little warm air wafting out from under me.
After communion, they had a male baritone soloist sing a song. When the organ started up, I recognized it as “Joy to the World”. I figured that finally I could sing along, at least in my head. Then the singer started in with “Joy to the World!” Suddenly it struck me: he wasn’t singing in Polish or in German. He was singing in English! Then he sang “Venite Adoremus” in Latin. The first verse at least I knew. Afterwards, everyone sang Silent Night, but this was presumably in Polish.
One strange event was towards the end. There was a family in the same row as me but on the opposite side of the aisle. We were all kneeling, and suddenly an older girl or younger woman starting barfing her guts out over the kneeler and floor in front of her. The family made a token attempt to clean some of it up, and then they hurried out of the church.
It wasn’t raining on the way to the church or the way back. When I got back, Amy was already in bed, so I just got ready for bed as quickly and quietly as possible, then hit the sack.
|