As with every other day on the trip so far, we began with breakfast in the hotel after finishing our packing to leave Salzburg. I stuck with my German breakfast tendency, and in addition to the prosciutto, ham, and smoked salmon, I had some kipper and a couple soft cheeses. They may have just been cream cheese, but it could’ve been a different soft cheese. One had oregano and basil or something like that on it, the other had little sun dried tomato bits.
Before leaving, I mailed a couple post cards we filled out, both to my family. It cost 3.85 EUR to send a postcard to my grandma and my parents. We boarded the bus and prepared for a basically 3 hour drive up to Regensburg. There either was no Autobahn route to Regensburg, or I may have overheard Thomas saying something about a main route being closed, but it seemed like most of the journey was through back roads. It was great seeing more of the Bavarian countryside, and Sergei showed off his impressive skills maneuvering the bus around roads it shouldn’t have been able to navigate.
At some point the bus stopped to let everyone go to the bathroom at a gas station. Shannon got me a peach tea, which was good. First tea I’ve had in the country. The 0.75L bottle had less sugar in it than a 12 oz can of coca cola. She got a cookies and cream white chocolate ice cream bar for herself, but did not much care for it.
We finally arrived in Regensburg and immediately began a walking tour of the city. Regensburg is old enough there was a Roman presence here in ancient times, which is rare in Germany. It was the site of Casta Regina, I believe that was the name. Essentially a large Roman fortress. On top of that, a wooden Bavarian city, and eventually a stone Bavarian city was built over time.
The exposed stones shown in the image below are remnants of the Roman wall and/or citadel. This may have at one point been a gatehouse. You can see how successive buildings were just built into/on top of the Roman structures.
The large Catholic church was being renovated, as seems to be the case in many of the churches we’ve seen. The adjoining Bischoffshaus or Bishop’s House, was now a rather cool looking brewery.
We eventually arrived to a town square called Neupfarrplatz, or new church plaza. This area had been a Jewish quarter, but the residents were driven out in the 1500s, their buildings torn down, and a church and town square built on top of it. There was an underground excavation where you could see the layers of Roman castle, Jewish cellars, the Lutheran church, all surrounded by a WW2 era air raid shelter. A Canadian lady who has lived in Germany since 1986 was our guide at Document Neupfarrplatz, the museum/excavation site below the church. Prior to going down into the cellars, we were able to visit the interior of the Lutheran church above.
From there we were supposed to visit a brewery, and made our way over, but not enough time had been left for lunch, and the trip participants were becoming peckish. Rather than taking the brewery tour, the group decided to head over to the market street and get lunch. This abrupt change in the schedule was much more troublesome to the Germans than I think it would have been to Americans. Thomas had to call the home office and explain everything and get permission to deviate from the plan.
The simple solution would’ve been to order some pizzas from the place right across from the brewery, take the tour while they were being cooked, then eat them afterward in the biergarten. Thomas had expressed to the tour planners that the itinerary was too tight timing-wise, but they hadn’t listened.
We walked along the road after lunch to the bus, which took us to Coburg. This was another 2.5 hours or so further north. The hotel we are in is built like a fun house. We had to climb stairs to get to the reception, which was difficult with baggage. Then we had to go down different stairs to get the elevator to the 4th floor, then down some stairs and up a bunch more stairs to get to our room, which is at the top of the structure. There is definitely no air conditioner here. The mini fridge does not appear to be functional, but the contents are free, a gift of appreciation from the Mayor, according to the gentleman at the desk who checked us in.
The hotel provided dinner, buffet style. I had a couple bratwursts and some fruit. There was a bunch of other stuff available as well, but it was not to my liking. Shannon said the brat was the best item she got, and she does not much care for sausages, so this is high praise. The brats were grilled, and had a very smooth interior, which is not that similar to the brats I’m used to in the US which have a more coarse interior.
We took a brief walk to a nearby square after dinner. There is a statue of Prince Albert, the husband of Britain’s Queen Victoria. Nothing was going on in the square on Monday night around 9pm. The area was mostly deserted. One of the most picturesque squares we’ve been to so far.
Back in the room, I called my mom and filled her in on the last few days activities. Then I took a shower, and though I would have found it hard to believe, the shower here is even worse than the one we had in Salzburg. No room to maneuver at all, although it was less of a step up to get into it at least.