Regensburg on the Danube......
We passed through a number of locks in the night, some of the deepest yet. I know this because when I am hard at work writing at 11PM my WiFi disappears within the locks and I cannot download my photos. Finally, I said Enough! and went to bed. I finished yesterday's post this morning after breakfast.
Guide Julia gave us a briefing this morning that contrasted American and European ways of doing things. It was very informative and ran the gamut from money to transportation, social mores to tipping and punctuation in monetary figures. She, herself, speaks Romanian and English and has studied French and Italian. Julia works as a guide for Tauck in the summer when her regular job in Newport Beach, where she has lived for twenty-three years, goes on hiatus.
We have been very pleased with Tauck. Whenever you are away from the mother ship of food for an extended period of time, Tauck just hands you cash to have a snack or lunch. Yesterday in Nürnberg we each received 20 Euro for our lunch and that covers a lot of sausages!
At eleven we passed the Regensburg lock and docked. We are a bit away from the city center today as berths seem to be at a premium. We are quite a distance from the Old Stone Bridge pictured above which is a main conduit into the city. When traffic is heavy, one ship just pulls alongside another and one walks straight through.
It's a brilliant sunny day so the Krupp's newly acquired outerwear is left in the cabin. How good it feels to be outside in the fresh air. It is Sunday and the streets and park benches are full of couples and children enjoying the day of rest. The shops are closed but there is plenty of foot traffic as today was Regensburg's triathlon, Challenge Regensburg. The square is full of riders in their team outfits and plenty of food vendors and live music.
Once we docked we hiked into the town and back and cruised around for an hour and a half before lunch. Only a few contestants crossed the line while we were out and about this morning....they must have been the elite. The running leg was the last one after a lake swim to our east, one hundred and nineteen miles of cycling and now this marathon. I think they deserve a few sausages!
We met our guide, Bettina, who had quite a challenge shepherding us through Regensberg. Every turn she wanted to make was blocked by the cordoned off bike lanes. We must have walked an additional two miles snaking our way around this maze.
I am sorry it is Sunday and all the shops are closed. All the clothes look very inviting especially if you are my daughters-in-law. Regensburg is full of pretty spots, courtyard beer gardens and the ubiquitous flower boxes that adorn most houses.
There is much history here. At one time the Danube south of Regensburg was the northern border of the Holy Roman Empire, but that came to an end when, like any army whose supply lines are too long, the empire dissolved.
There are still some Roman arches here and there within the city. Strategically located at the crossroads of important trade routes, Regensburg played a major role in trading with eastern central Europe and the Balkans, developing contacts with Northern Italy, most notably Venice. This all fell apart when Turkey controlled commerce on the Danube and there were no local markets open for trade. Other Bavarian cities had long ago formed their trade alliances and did not so depend on foreign trade.
Today, as in most of southern Bavaria, many important companies have large presences here, Siemens, BMW, Bosch to name just a few.
After many detours and switchbacks, we finally make our way to the Palace of Thurn and Taxis located at the northern border of the city center. Once a Benedictine monastery, the castle was gifted to the family in exchange for nationalizing the postal service they had successfully developed across Europe, long before the pony express was ever envisioned.
Monika is our guide and she moves us through the rooms, locking and unlocking doors as she goes with Teutonic precision. I have never seen such opulence so it is fortunate that photos were forbidden or I would have been downloading all night. This is definitely the home of a self-made man. While the current family, who maintains family apartments here, may be dilettantes, their founder took an idea and made himself a prince.
On our return home we pass the sight of a former synagogue, now a modernistic monument, much in the spirit of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The outline of the synagogue and its pillars is fashioned in a raised relief near the area where the original stood. The destruction was part of a progrom that saw the killing of many Jews and the razing of their properties. Even the Jewish cemetery was destroyed with the attackers taking souvenirs in the form of headstones from the property. These were then mounted into the stucco of their homes, much like a cornerstone, to advertise and brag of their participation in the destruction.
I've been to a concentration camp or two in my time but this was truly one of the most chilling things I have ever seen
We passed through a number of locks in the night, some of the deepest yet. I know this because when I am hard at work writing at 11PM my WiFi disappears within the locks and I cannot download my photos. Finally, I said Enough! and went to bed. I finished yesterday's post this morning after breakfast.
Guide Julia gave us a briefing this morning that contrasted American and European ways of doing things. It was very informative and ran the gamut from money to transportation, social mores to tipping and punctuation in monetary figures. She, herself, speaks Romanian and English and has studied French and Italian. Julia works as a guide for Tauck in the summer when her regular job in Newport Beach, where she has lived for twenty-three years, goes on hiatus.
We have been very pleased with Tauck. Whenever you are away from the mother ship of food for an extended period of time, Tauck just hands you cash to have a snack or lunch. Yesterday in Nürnberg we each received 20 Euro for our lunch and that covers a lot of sausages!
At eleven we passed the Regensburg lock and docked. We are a bit away from the city center today as berths seem to be at a premium. We are quite a distance from the Old Stone Bridge pictured above which is a main conduit into the city. When traffic is heavy, one ship just pulls alongside another and one walks straight through.
It's a brilliant sunny day so the Krupp's newly acquired outerwear is left in the cabin. How good it feels to be outside in the fresh air. It is Sunday and the streets and park benches are full of couples and children enjoying the day of rest. The shops are closed but there is plenty of foot traffic as today was Regensburg's triathlon, Challenge Regensburg. The square is full of riders in their team outfits and plenty of food vendors and live music.
Once we docked we hiked into the town and back and cruised around for an hour and a half before lunch. Only a few contestants crossed the line while we were out and about this morning....they must have been the elite. The running leg was the last one after a lake swim to our east, one hundred and nineteen miles of cycling and now this marathon. I think they deserve a few sausages!
We met our guide, Bettina, who had quite a challenge shepherding us through Regensberg. Every turn she wanted to make was blocked by the cordoned off bike lanes. We must have walked an additional two miles snaking our way around this maze.
I am sorry it is Sunday and all the shops are closed. All the clothes look very inviting especially if you are my daughters-in-law. Regensburg is full of pretty spots, courtyard beer gardens and the ubiquitous flower boxes that adorn most houses.
There is much history here. At one time the Danube south of Regensburg was the northern border of the Holy Roman Empire, but that came to an end when, like any army whose supply lines are too long, the empire dissolved.
There are still some Roman arches here and there within the city. Strategically located at the crossroads of important trade routes, Regensburg played a major role in trading with eastern central Europe and the Balkans, developing contacts with Northern Italy, most notably Venice. This all fell apart when Turkey controlled commerce on the Danube and there were no local markets open for trade. Other Bavarian cities had long ago formed their trade alliances and did not so depend on foreign trade.
Today, as in most of southern Bavaria, many important companies have large presences here, Siemens, BMW, Bosch to name just a few.
After many detours and switchbacks, we finally make our way to the Palace of Thurn and Taxis located at the northern border of the city center. Once a Benedictine monastery, the castle was gifted to the family in exchange for nationalizing the postal service they had successfully developed across Europe, long before the pony express was ever envisioned.
Monika is our guide and she moves us through the rooms, locking and unlocking doors as she goes with Teutonic precision. I have never seen such opulence so it is fortunate that photos were forbidden or I would have been downloading all night. This is definitely the home of a self-made man. While the current family, who maintains family apartments here, may be dilettantes, their founder took an idea and made himself a prince.
On our return home we pass the sight of a former synagogue, now a modernistic monument, much in the spirit of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The outline of the synagogue and its pillars is fashioned in a raised relief near the area where the original stood. The destruction was part of a progrom that saw the killing of many Jews and the razing of their properties. Even the Jewish cemetery was destroyed with the attackers taking souvenirs in the form of headstones from the property. These were then mounted into the stucco of their homes, much like a cornerstone, to advertise and brag of their participation in the destruction.
I've been to a concentration camp or two in my time but this was truly one of the most chilling things I have ever seen
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