Day seven of our journey arrived with us feeling more than a little worn down. On Susi’s advice, we had decided to visit Regensburg (as opposed to Nurnburg or Rothenburg), but we decided to get a later start than usual in order to try and recover somewhat. Incredibly we made it to our train 20 minutes early and had time to leisurely find our seats. After an hour and a half ride we made it to Regensburg.
Upon arrival we hopped off the train, and felt a now familiar sensation: A total loss of what to do. Even worse, our go-to man, our source of knowledge in crunch time, our ace in the hole, was of no use to us here. Rick Steves had failed to write about Regensburg.
Seeing there was nothing else to do, we put our tourist ways aside and headed out into the city to do what we do best: wander. Making our way down the main street from the train station our first stop became apparent. Rising above the city were the two largest church spires we had ever seen, done in a fantastic gothic style. This turned out to be the 12th century St. Peter’s Cathedral. This was by far the most interesting church we had visited. It was magnificent but not overdone. Gothic carvings and gargoyles covered the exterior, and the entire church was built in white, stained stones that exuded a sense of age. (Some of this was a show, however; the towers had been added by none other than King Ludwig II in the 19th century). The inside was equally impressive, with stain glass windows that rose for what must have been 60 feet, and the highest vaulted ceiling we had yet seen. The dim interior added to the ancient feel of the place, and not even the construction work being done on the organ could take away from it. Around the interior edge of the building there were the tombs of saints and priests that had served there, set into the floor. Each was covered with a large stone plate that you could walk on (if you so chose), with life-sized images of the deceased carved into them, and grave markers on the wall above. We felt like Indiana Jones, especially while writing notes in the moleskin journal from Deborah. And no matter what we did, we couldn’t quite shake the sense that if we were to step on one of the tombs, spikes would shoot out of the wall, or a large boulder would come rumbling down the center aisle of the church.
When we were finally finished visiting St. Peter’s Cathedral, we were once again slightly at a loss as to what we should do. We felt like we had already seen the most impressive thing in the city, and didn’t have any idea where to go next.
And then Libby got Hungry, and our next destination became exceedingly obvious. We knew that the best place in town to eat was supposedly the old Wurst stand on the Danube river, so we began heading downhill, hoping that eventually we would end up on the waterfront. Sure enough, five minutes later we emerged directly next to the stand. The only problem was that it was packed, and Libby now proclaimed that she couldn’t stomach another bite of sausage anyway. With Libby’s Hunger becoming increasingly insistent, we hurried back into the city looking for a café that wasn’t too crowded. Unfortunately, everything we passed was either packed to the limits, or an ice cream shop. I thought the ice cream shop was a fabulous idea, but with my life increasingly in jeopardy, I thought it best not to mention this. A half hour later, we finally stumbled back to the main square at St. Peter’s Cathedral, where we had seen a small café that looked promising. Sure enough, there was plenty of seating. We sat down, and soon were enjoying our lunch of… currywurst? Apparently Libby’s definition of “not another bite of sausage” was flexible. She was very proud of herself though, as for the first time she managed to order her meal entirely in German by herself.
The Hunger at last satisfied, we carried on. We still didn’t have a good idea of where to go, but we now at least knew where the waterfront and the historic stone bridge across it were. What we really wanted though was a map of the interesting things in the city. Susi to the rescue! We texted her with our dilemma, and five minutes later, we knew that the Alte Rathause (old city hall) had everything we needed: maps, historic sites, English language help, and bathrooms.
Twenty minutes of wandering later, we had our maps and were ready to continue. We went back to the waterfront and crossed the stone bridge to look at the other part of the city. From there, we got some beautiful pictures of the bridge and the water, and got to see part of the park that ran along the river. After a short exploration of this new area, we decided that the final thing we had to see for the day was the castle located at the opposite edge of the city.
The trek to the castle was relatively short, and certainly scenic. Along the way we wound our way through tiny little streets with gorgeous buildings rising on either side, saw several more churches (including a pretty, but very small and obviously newer Catholic church directly next door to the cathedral), and an interesting memorial to the persecuted Jews. When we came to the area surrounding the castle, the first thing we saw were two more churches. These two were especially odd, in that they seemed to share a common wall and entry area. The first, and smaller of the two churches seemed especially old; in fact it seemed more ancient than even the Cathedral we had seen earlier in the day. There were more of the tombs set into the floor of the building, and also into the walls of the entryway outside. The interior of the church had the feel of something well-worn; the floors were cracking (and several of the flagstones were loose) and the pews were completely smooth from use. This was possibly my favorite church of the day. Aside from its age, which made it special all on its own, it was also the least overpowering building we had been in. While still beautiful, like all old Catholic churches, it didn’t have the overdone gilding, or hundreds of paintings covering the walls, or even the massive statuary and towering ceilings of the Cathedral. The church was simple, and you could imagine a small congregation from a thousand years ago worshiping together there.
The next church over was yet another beautiful medieval church. We did not get to see much of it, however, except for a few glimpses inside through the window. All day long we had been seeing men dressed in tuxedos, women in formal dresses, and in particular a girl in an all white dress wandering around the town with cameramen. It all made sense as we saw glimpses of the wedding taking place. It seemed like a pretty posh affair, with a string quartet, a couple of incredible singers, and a guest list that probably topped 500. The fact that they had apparently rented out the cathedral and the car waiting for them outside the reception area was a flower-festooned BMW 7-series was the cherry on top.
Leaving the churches behind us, we finally made our way to the castle Libby had been waiting to see all day. It became obvious that it was more of a palace than a castle, but it still looked very interesting. It also became obvious that it was more closed than open. Oopsie. It turns out that it closed at 5:00 PM, and we had arrived at precisely 5:05 PM. It looked very nice from the outside though.
The castle being closed turned out to be a good thing, as we were both by this point utterly exhausted. We therefore headed back to the train station, this time walking onto the train with a comfortable 10 minutes to spare, and settled in for an hour and a half ride and an early bedtime. The train was extremely packed, and we ended up sitting on the floor in the bike area profusely sweating, but by this point we were beyond caring.

We returned back to Munich in the early evening and walked through the city. We stopped of course for ice cream before making it back to the hotel.

Traveling question of the day: Do Germans get food poisoning more often than we do, or are the US laws perhaps overly strict? The world may never know.
(Perhaps the German intestines ‘o steel play a factor)

Signing off, on the way to England,
Me and her.