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Published: November 13th 2013
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To sail under low bridges, the entire bridge deck lowers on hydrolics! This was our Bavarian day. Our later start to the morning consisted of a breakfast of tea, fruit and toast for me, because our lunch was at 11:45: white sausages, honey mustard (very sweet), and excellent sauerkraut. The keyboard player gave us “umpapa” music; some of the staff wore Bavarian dress (real thing – they don’t approve of fake Bavarian costumes); and, the tables were decorated with serviettes and balloons in the Bavarian colours – blue and white checks.
We walked off the ship to meet our local guides – ours never introduced himself, but he was enthusiastic, striding along (tall and thin), talking all the time. I couldn’t keep up with pictures and notes, but I tried. The history of middle Europe is so complicated, with wars and lords and borders! The buildings continue to look beautiful – restored ones, rebuilt ones and originals. Regensburg has lots of narrow attractive streets with many small shops. We walked the length of Brook Lane, which in medieval times was a brook flowing from a lake to the river and which took all the sewage downhill. Later it was overlaid with a stone path: the brook is still there and in the
Brook Lane
Once a sewer, then a path, now a romantic pedestrian way centre of the road is a depression for rainwater to follow. On either side are shops with fronts on two streets – these were medieval home chapels – 60 of them.
There is a magnificent
cathedral , too. We saw the exterior on the tour and later returned for the interior. Meanwhile we walked to the palace of the
Turn and Taxis , a functioning home of the five in the present family. The state rooms are open for touring, if they are not being used for entertaining. The family was ennobled because they invented the European equivalent of the pony express as part of the “post” system. (We heard from someone else that the word “taxi” comes from their name.) They took their noble name from remote family connections, referring to Italian ancestors with the names of tower and badger, which they translated into German and made their coat of arms. In the palace gift shop you can buy postcard portraits of the (fifty year old) princess. In one state room is a huge sculpture of her head, similar to Evan Penny artworks.
Otherwise the rooms are decorated in the traditional baroque fashion. For instance, the dressing room of
Regensburg Cathedral
Built over centuries, each age has added more architectural wonders. the once-princess has a wall that is constructed with full-length mirrors, all hiding another room just as big for her clothes – but she did have to change for each appointment during the day. In the ballroom, the Delft blue heaters now house the music system. Below the royal quarters are the monastic origins of the palace, much plainer.
As this was the end of our tour, after a bit of getting lost we retraced our steps down Brook Lane to the
Princess Café , the oldest one in Regensburg. Deirdre and I wanted our coffee and cake! The service was a bit confusing, using an old system of chits of paper to keep track of the bill. Anyway, we shared an excellent apple strudel while Ian drank beer.
Then we moved back to the cathedral. The interior was magnificent, but for me lacking in spirituality – as if too much effort went into recognizing and memorializing famous people in quasi-religious portraits. The light was better now than earlier for exterior shots so I took some more photos. Then we started on our way to the ship. Ian suggested walking half way across the “
Stone Bridge ”, a medieval wonder
Stone Bridge
An engineering marvel of the 12th century! of length and size, now only for pedestrians and cyclists. Indeed, the views from the arching bridge were beautiful.
In the evening Deirdre and Barbara and I attended the entertainment – a Bavarian brass band. The musical selections were predictable but the quality of the playing was superb – mellow, not rushed, round sounds. The men were all in Bavarian costume and did a humourous job of involving the crowd.
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