Wurzburg Residence & Juliusspital

After a super long hour flight plus 5 hours transit at Dubai, we arrived Frankfurt, with a heart full with anticipation of our first day's itinerary.

While waiting for other tour mates after claiming our baggage, Wei Ying and myself had a chance to steal the big APPLE sign from our tour manager. I wish I could be an ambassador of Apple Holiday........ lol

First stop of the day was Wurzburg Residence, a fabulously ornate palace which has been listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Met our local tour guide in front of the entrance. I forgotten his name but he was really a a good and informative guide who shared the history of this palace.

Didn't know why we had to queue up for quite long (about 20 minutes) outside the building, where everyone couldn't stand the chill in this cloudy day. Sigh! I thought group tour should have better control in terms of the timing since we had made early booking for the entrance?

Photos with two beautiful ladies from Kuantan

Pardon my bloated face due to the water retention and sleep deprivation.

Too bad that we were not allowed to take any photos in the palace due to the patent rights issue. The most famous stuffs in this palace are the staircase and its unsupported vaulted ceiling, which features one of the largest ceiling frescos in the world. But trust me, if you have visited other similar buildings in France or Italy, you will be disappointed as it has nothing to shout about.

I felt bored with this history-overloaded tour and really couldn't wait to have a fresh breath outside. I wanna take photos! I wanna take photos! No-photos site seems not meaningful for me actually.

We finished the tour finally and crossed the road for our lunch!

A tree covered with all the small scarf and I really couldn't understand why they did this to the trees and even lamp posts here!

Super colourful and attractive building on our way to the restaurant

Our first meal in Germany! Can you spot the fresh pumpkin on the table?

Love the ambiance here and everyone was so happy to wait for the meals to be served!

Trying their signature pumpkin soup! It was smooth, creamy and tasty!

The decorations on the table were just too cute!

Grilled chicken breast with creamy sauce and mixed vege and potatoes. Too bad that it turned out to be too salty and I did not finish the main course. Perhaps Germans are more "ham sap"?

Lucky that the dessert did not disappoint me! It was an apple cheese cake (perhaps without cheese because I couldn't taste any). A very delicious slice of cake that I wish I could get a second slice for my tea time later!

Giant pumpkins at the entrance of this restaurant. So cute OMG!

While waiting for the wine tasting session at a place adjacent to the restaurant, we took some photos around. But we had a bad experience on waiting because we were not informed by the tour manager, Allan on the timing of the wine tasting session, so everyone finished the meal quickly and walked out from the restaurant but so unfortunately that it was drizzling and the low temperature outside stopped us from walking around. At the end, everyone was waiting at the restaurant's entrance wasting our precious time. What a poor time management! (Really feel like writing a letter to complain now!) And this had delayed our whole day itinerary, which I will explain more on the coming post (¬_¬)

Photos with the local tour guide and tour manager.

And finally, we reached Juliusspital Wine Estate, a renowned winery that has great social commitment. Why I said that? Because besides from the winery business, they are also associated with hospital, retirement home and nursing school, which are non-profit oriented.

Autumn leaves.

Met up with the lovely ladies who explained the history of Juliusspital in German and subsequently translated by the local tour guide.

After a short introduction, we proceeded for the cellar tour.

And here we go for the wine tasting session!

For liquor-intolerant persons like us, wine was just for photos. We did try to take a sip, but so sorry to say that it really wasn't the taste the we could accept.

A super big wine barrel with amazing carvings!

Look at the wine barrels carvings! They were all meticulously done! What an eye-opening experience!

I just couldn't get enough of all these beautiful wine barrels V(￣ｰ￣)V

Shadow of the gate under dimmed lighting. I like the feel ◕ ‿ ◕

Pretended to be cool... lol

Cheers!

Last pic of wine barrels!

Oh, one more to go! Pls bear with me(ό‿ὸ)

Of course the visit ended with the purchase of wine at a small shop inside, but I returned with empty hand because wine was out of my shopping list! Wanna save my luggage space for chocolates and hangbags!

And lastly, photo with the biggest wine bottle in this winery. And I noticed that the design of the bottle really matched my outfit for that day LOL......

All of us were captivated by this beautiful place where the history and wine were made, really worth a visit!

Few days after our wine tasting tour, I got to know from Chee Lean, one of the tour mates from our group, that actually the wine tasting session was being cut short due to the time constraint. A proper wine tasting session shall be done on the table with snack or short bread and water. No wonder I saw few baskets of short breads were on the tasting tables when we walked around. A little disappointment but no big deal for me as I didn't enjoy the wine flavour at all.

In conclusion, we enjoyed the wine tasting tours so much compared to the visit to Wurburg Residence. If you have limited time in Wurzburg and are not a historic person, then you can skip Wurzburg Residence.

What to post next??? Snow mountain or lovely Medieval town? *Scratching my head (⊙_◎)