November 6, 2019

Each day in the lounge, Jessie gives us a talk about the next day’s town. We have nice maps of each city in our cabin along with a wonderful foldout type map with every town, bridge, lock and more information printed on it so we can follow along as we travel. Between Passau and Regensburg there were 8 bridges and 4 locks. We bordered the Bavarian Forest much of the way.

Today we did a short walking tour with Jessie and then spent the rest of the morning on our own exploring the town. As with most of the towns we are visiting, it was so picturesque. It is the northernmost city on the Danube and after this we will be in the Main- Danube Canal for the next part of the trip.

Regensburg seems to always be in competition with Nuremberg which we will visit tomorrow. Which has the best sausages, beer, art, etc. Can’t give an opinion yet! I don’t eat the sausages so that one will depend on someone else’s vote. But this town is beautiful. It is said to be the best preserved medieval city in Germany.

The famous stone bridge was something to see! It is a masterpiece that took only 11 years to build, which was almost unheard of during those times (1146). It was the city’s only means of crossing the Danube for 800 years. it opened the way to important trade routes and helped make the city wealthy and the cultural center of southern Germany. It is really beautiful. It has its own sausage kitchen, built right next to the bridge to feed the workers and it is still serving sausages today. They say they are the best but Nuremberg says theirs are best!

The Regensburg Cathedral is the finest in Bavaria. It was founded in 1273 but only finished in 1520 with the towers completed in 1872. On the inside you can see the huge stone columns. The crucifix was in the middle of the church and not on the altar, which you don’t often see. One of the oldest boys’ choirs in the world is housed here. We were able to visit and take pictures, I will post a whole section when I return. In the meantime, some are on Facebook.

The buildings are all pretty gorgeous. The town hall is in Gothic style and hosted many important events in Germany.

Famous residents of this town include Pope Benedict XVI and Otto Schindler who is credited with saving the lives of 1200 Jews during the Holocaust.

We stopped into a shop that had interesting hand made jewelry. I bought a lovely pair of silver earrings. The shop keeper gave us his version of the good news and bad news. The good news is that the town and buildings are old. And the bad news is that the town and buildings are old! This means that nothing about the town or buildings can be changed. No air conditioning, etc.

The ship was leaving at 12:30 so we went back for lunch. There was an ice cream social in the lounge just after lunch, with 6 kinds of ice cream and many choices of toppings. Delicious. We watched the ship go backwards until it reached the canal since it cannot pass through or under the stone bridge.

Today will have a talk about the canal and after dinner there will be a crew talent show. It is interesting that most of the crew do multiple jobs on the ship. I had a massage and the therapist told me she cleans rooms and does restaurant and bar duty when she doesn’t have customers. She also does the hair and nails!

Our next stop is Nuremberg and we will be there tomorrow afternoon so I am sure in the morning we will learn more about it. Stay tuned!