Thu 7 Aug- Miltenberg, Amorbach Monastery

Thu 7 Aug- we got to sleep a little later today, breakfast at 8 am. After cruising along the Main river, we arrived at Miltenberg, where we visited the Amorbach Monastery, which has a famous old huge pipe organ. We were treated to an organ concert after our tour of the monastery, which itself was very nice - those monks spared no expense, because they had to entertain royalty in the manner to which they were accostomed (apparently lavishly). After commenting on how the marble columns and panels had colors that matched the other decorations, we found out it was not marble, but painted and polished stucco - that was the only way the interior decorator could get the color schemes he wanted.
After another great dinner, we had a glass-blowing demonstration. This would have been of great interest to my chem lab colleagues; the glass blower apparently subcontracts to Corning. He and his extended family came from East Germany just before the wall was finished, bringing their glass-blowing skills and heritage with them. Corning started a factory along the Main river, and hired him and many other East German glass blowers to make lab equipment, such as distillation columns and other scientific glassware from Pyrex glass for Corning. They also make the Galileo thermometer based on little balls of differing specific gravity that rise or fall, depending on the temperature; and the little radiometers that spin when they are heated. He had lots of other glass objects, and did a brisk sale after his demo (but he didn't sell any actual lab ware).