Grand European Tour – Day 7
August 16 – Regensburg, Germany
I was so excited for today’s tours, but it was a rainy, cool morning, and I was wary of the cobblestone streets in one of the best-preserved medieval cities that had survived WWII. It is the oldest city on the Danube and still has Roman gates standing since 179 A.D. So I opted for the easy walk.
Not far from where we were docked, there was a bridge that was the first completely stone bridge to be built—and was once considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world. Right next to the bridge was the oldest sausage house, which they believe was there to feed the workers who built the bridge in the 1100s. The sausage house is still in operation serving sausage
Below: 900-year-old sausage shack; first bridge ever completely made of stone.
This town is sometimes referred to as the “Manhattan” of the middle ages because of the tall buildings that were constructed by merchants to show off their wealth. Bigger was better, and the faux Italian look was popular. However, the upper floors were empty (so they didn’t have to be heated), and the faux Italian aspect was just balcony bars and no actual balcony. Today the pink faux Italian building’s exterior is used as the residence of a popular TV show character in a German criminal series that is like CSI Regensburg, and the character of Mrs. Lucas lives in the pink tower Oscar Schindler lived her after WWII, and he is still remembered in the city.
The Rathaus, or city hall, had a two old guys depicted in a frieze over the entrance. They are Mr. Schutz and Mr. Drutz—protection and defiance. Another sculpted figure along the street was the woman sticking out her tongue and showing her butt to her neighbors (sounds like the campers we saw along the river).
Below: Mr. Schutz and Mr. Drutz; Kiss My Butt stone lady
Walking around we saw lots of little shops – and I love German shops with their interesting little gift items and their Christmas ornaments. I didn’t even try to bring home a glass ornament, but went into a tin shop and got a couple. We passed this hat shop that has a photo inside of Johnny Depp, since they made his hat for Alice in Wonderland.
There were lots of bier gartens around the city, too, but that afternoon, as the sun came out and the air heated up, I was on a mission to make white sausage at the Ratskellar—the pub in the city that is beneath the Rathaus..
The owner is a master butcher and he has set up a huge room in the lower level of the restaurant to specifically teach people how to make this traditional homemade white sausage that you cannot buy, even at his restaurant, to eat, because of the laws for selling sausage along with the need to make enough in advance of each day’s business changes the flavor. So we had the benefit of mixing it all together, stuffing it, cooking and eating it with glasses of wheat beer and sweet mustard, which actually tasted pretty good with it all. I do not like sausage, generally, but this sausage was amazing. It was a combination of pork and veal, mixed with onion, lemon zest parsley, baking soda and spices and then we added fat and ICE, the key ingredient. The processor had a temperature gauge and it could not go higher than 15 Celsius. I really liked it. I ate four pieces!
Other passengers went on a Jewish Walking Tour of Regensburg and some took a trip to Munich.
One thing I have to say about meals as a person traveling alone—it’s not always easy to find a seat. Most people traveled with partners or spouses, and some with family members. So the tables had an even number of seats and settings. But while on the beer and pretzel boat in Passau, I met two sisters traveling together and a single woman sitting with them. They had two other single women traveling together that would sit with them at their meals. So there was always one empty seat, and we eventually ate quite a few meals together (you are not assigned seating at meal time). We were on the basic drink plan, which normally means the same red and white wine every night at dinner – except for a couple of nights. So some of us would buy a bottle of good local wine while we were on a tour and bring it to the table to share with the others rather than pay extra money on board for a glass of the better wines, which were often priced per glass what we paid (or more) for the whole bottle.