Yesterday we arrived in Miltenberg, Germany in the early afternoon. We actually arrived 2 hours earlier then expected due to being able to transit one of the locks sooner. Throughout the cruise we will transit 67 locks and so far we have been through 10 I believe. Miltenberg is an old Bavarian town and many of the buildings are decorated in timbered facades. Above the hill in Miltenberg you can actually walk up to the old castle if you want. The town has a pedestrian only street with a variety of clothing stores and other local shops.

Originally we had only planned on doing the included tour since this was the only option. Once on board though, a culinary addition was added on to the included tour for only an additional €12. We decided to add this option since it sounded interesting. On the walking tour we stopped by a schnapps shop, a brewery, a chocolate shop, and a cake shop. The first stop was a schnapps shop where we tried 4 different schnapps. Also 4 different chocolates were available to try that were filled with schnapps as well. The first schnapps we had was the typical peach schnapps, which tasted like fresh peaches. Next we tried the hazelnut schnapps and it was really tasty. From there we tried my favorite the black currant and also tried the black currant schnapps chocolate. Last was milk chocolate schnapps, which most people on the tour seemed to love but I thought it was nothing to write home about. I actually did end up purchasing a bottle of the black currant schnapps to take home because I thought it was unique and really tasty. The bottle was a great deal and only cost €7. From the schnapps shop the walking tour continued and we stopped at Faust, a local German brewery in Miltenberg. We were able to look at some of their property and could take with us a bottle of beer. After this we then started walking along the main road and hearing about some of the sites and buildings in Miltenberg. We then stopped at a chocolate shop and tried two different types of chocolate: a marzipan chocolate and a cherry chocolate. My favorite of the two was of course the cherry. I didn’t buy any to take home but they were certainly delicious.

Next we headed to a local bakery and were given slices of some sort of apple cake. The cake was really good because it wasn’t very sweet. The topping was similar to a streusel topping and gave the cake a little bit of crunch. Inside the cake slice there were apple slices as well but they weren’t loaded with brown sugar like other cakes or pies do. The cake was really good but we resisted buying any to take with us. Unfortunately I did completely forgot to take a photo of the cake.

The May Pole is still out in the town

After the tour ended we had about 2 hours to walk around Miltenberg until Viking provided transportation back to the ship. We decided to walk back to one of the main squares with a Church since there weren’t a lot of people from the boat heading that way. We decided to stop at a restaurant in the square and ordered a hefeweizen and a delicious freshly baked pretzel. This was a fun place to people watch and spend sometime before heading back to the boat. Ironically even though we arrived two hours early in Miltenberg, the ship was at least 2 to 3 hours behind due to traffic on the river and a backup at some of the locks. Due to the delay, Viking bussed everyone to a new location to meet up with the boat. Really talk about embarking in the middle of nowhere. This is one thing to be careful with if you go on your own. Also just to note, the sun deck (which is the very top open deck) is currently closed to passengers. Right now all the railings are down and the deck chairs are put away. For about three days the deck will be closed because of low bridges. The water is actually still a bit high, but there is very little clearance at some of the bridges, so it is understandable now why the deck is closed. This sounds like it happens every cruise transiting the Main River.