Regensburg, Germany

Regensburg, Germany

The ship sounds like the respiratory ward at the hospital, and I have not escaped.  If it were the time of the black plague, I’d be one of the unlucky ones. Most of the towns we’ve visited have a monument to the plague.  Fortunately it’s just a head cold, but I do not suffer well. 

Yesterday we visited Regensburg, ABCT, another beautiful charming town, undamaged during WWII and a UNESCO world heritage site.  It dates to the Stone Age.  Around 90 CE the Romans built a small settlement here.  In 1135-1146, a stone bridge was built across the Danube, which opened major international routes between Northern Europe and Venice. It became a city of wealthy families, a political economic, and intellectual city.  Napoleon presided over the decline of the Holy Roman Empire from here.   It is a university town and judging from the high -Bend stores, it must be an affluent town.   We visited DOM, (1275-1634) an ABC , another bloody cathedral,  huge (I’ve never seen a small one) in the German Gothic style.  I have literally (don’t take me literally) visited a zillion cathedrals, but this one was very impressive with a magnificent silver altar, a hanging organ, and exquisite stained glass. 

While in the cathedral, I met one of the elderly widowers on our cruise—there are a # of them; in fact, one couple met each other on this same riverboat cruise 6 years ago. 

Again, I’m fascinated by the diversity of the passengers.  He was a retired professor from both Cal and Stanford,

where he had taught comparative religion.  He wrote his thesis comparing Tillich and a Buddhist writer.  What was surprising is that the man is a Mormon! 

The most interesting place we toured was a castle, inhabited by one of the wealthiest families in Europe:  Thurn-Taxis.  I’ve never heard of them, but I guess they like it that way.  Again, I’ve seen many palaces, but I really liked this one because it’s smaller than Versaille, Peterhoff, or Shöenbrun so easier to tour yet quite lovely. Besides the exquisite crystal chandeliers, my favorite piece was a beautiful tapestry that depicted a white horse.  I felt as if he could have jumped out of the tapestry.   At the end of the tour we went through a room that had a 6 foot plaster cast of the head of the current “grand dame’ of the castle.  It was creepy but even creepier was the next room that had video portraits of the grand dame, her mother, her 2 daughters, and her son because their eyes blinked and followed you.  It was like the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland.

Today we were in Nurenberg, but there’s a lot to write about it so more later.