Regensburg

It was our attempts to navigate the ginormous van in this tiny city's parking garage that formed our further refusal to drive into any other city in Germany on this trip. Although we cannot be certain, we believe this is where we lost the little Canadian flag formerly attached to the van roof.


Regensburg, dating back to the middle ages, was full of cool stuff. In particular, this bridge over the Danube, the Steirne Brücke (Stone Bridge), was constructed between 1135 and 1146, an engineering feat unsurpassed in the Middle Ages. According to legend, the builder made a pact with the devil so that the bridge would be finished quickly. The builder promised Satan the first eight legs to cross the bridge (one assumes Satan wanted the souls associated with the legs). To fulfill his part of the bargain, at completion, the builder sent two chickens and a dog across. We crossed it halfway—we believe our souls are still attached to our legs. Just below the bridge is Würstküche, a “fast food” kitchen built to serve the workers building the bridge, which is still serving the same medieval fast food—pork sausages grilled over beechwood with sweet mustard. Of course, we ate there.

Altes Rathaus.

Alte Kapelle: yet another impossibly beautiful baroque church. It may have been in this town that Kevin expressed that he was "sick of churches." The ceiling frescoes tell the stories of Heinrich and Kunigunde, the sainted Holy Roman Emperor and his Queen.

Dom St. Peter: This imposing Gothic monument took 600 years to finish. In fact, on the Steirne Brücke is a statute of a little man sitting on a pillar and staring at the church to see if it's finished (Brückemandl). St. Peter is the home of the Domspatzen, an internationally famous boy's choir (I've never heard of them, but maybe you have.) There are no pictures of the inside of the church because we happened to arrive during mass. Oddly enough, tourists are allowed in the church during services and we did go in, but we sat quietly and listened to mass (really, mom, we did).

Regensburg is the original home of Fürstliches Thurn und Taxis, one of Europe’s richest families. Franz von Taxis was the founder of the international postal system in western Europe. Although not born into royalty, the family was bestowed a number of titles and finally achieved a princedom. The fact that they have a CROWN ON TWO CORNERS OF THEIR SCHLOSS may indicate overcompensation for their lack of royal birth.

Although the schloss was amazing, this was our most tiresome and least enjoyable tour. Because it was a Sunday, the only guided tour was in German. We were provided with a tape recorded tour, but we had to stay with the main group. Our tape would provide about 3 minutes of information per room, whereas the guide would go on and on and on and on, pointing and gesturing at things about which we had no information. On our own, we would have completed the tour in about 15 minutes, but, because we had to stay with the group, we were stuck for an hour and a half. We recovered in the nearby biergarten.