We were only in this charming little city for a couple of hours before lunch. The day was cloudy with occasional sprinkles and fairly chilly. Wertheim sits on the confluence of the Tauber River as it flows into the Rhine River. One impressive sight was the high water marks from floods over the past couple of centuries marked on a wall near the Tauber River. Once again, it was interesting to me that the city hadn’t done much to prevent the floods which happen on the average every three years. They did raise the level of some streets, but beyond that, people just have to live with the high water.

Wertheim is also known for something else: Glass. The city didn’t become a center for glassmaking until the late 1970’s when Corning Glass put in a facility to make fiber optics. A number of glass blowers from Eastern Europe made their way out of the Communist Block countries to go to Wertheim where their skills could be well compensated. There are also several glass companies making decorative glass and we visited their retail store. We didn’t buy anything there because one of the glass blowers from that company would be on the boat in the afternoon demonstrating the art of glass blowing as well as bringing plenty of wares for sale.

Another important find in Wertheim was another big suitcase. By this time we had spent a LOT of money and had acquired a LOT of stuff that needed to go home with us. There was a small store selling somewhat poorly made, but sufficiently large and sturdy suitcases for 20 Euros. We bought one as did a number of other people on the cruise. It was kind of interesting watching the tourists making their way back to the boat towing a black suitcase behind them!

It turns out that all of the Galileo Thermometers are made in Wertheim! All of them. I bought one. It’s quite a unique instrument and will look good in our house in Pocatello. The glassblower who spent the afternoon showing us how some of the decorative glass in blown and prepared was very interesting. He spoke excellent English and was pretty full of himself as well. He certainly had a knack for handling glass, however. He sold a bunch of stuff after his demonstration. When we pulled into a lock, he and his fiancé hopped off the boat and were picked up by his father.

Lock-hopping, as it is called, was the means that we would catch up with the ship if we weren’t on board when it sailed. At the appointed sailing time, the ship left whether everyone was on board or not. We were given the phone number of the ship and if we missed it, we were to call the boat They would tell us what lock to meet the boat at and we would have to take a taxi there to meet the ship. As far as I know, we didn’t have anyone on the cruise have to do any lock-hopping.