Today was a foggy morning along the Main-Danube Canal, but it did clear off soon enough. After breakfast, we spent quite a bit of time on the sun deck like normal. Mom is feeling better this morning, and I’m glad.
I’m having fun with the crowd from California and New Mexico: Linda and Harry, Cheryl and Stan, Melanie and Steve, Carole and Bob and Carol and George. Maureen and Paul (from Canada) are their “adopted friends” from this cruise. They are all a hoot!
We went through a few more locks this morning. We’re starting to be old pros at it.
We passed a large liberation monument for Germany from the Napoleon era. It was spectacular! We could see the monument for miles on our cruise.
We passed more rocky cliffs this morning. Very pretty! It kind of reminds me of some of the scenery down south in Kentucky, Tennessee or North Carolina.
We also had several low bridges right in a row, where we all had to duck down to avoid hitting our heads. That is really quite an experience – the sensation and fear that you might not clear the bridge. But we lived to tell about it another day and cleared every time without any injuries.
At the last low bridge, Ben (hotel manager) was up front hanging out with us on the sun deck, and since he is so tall, I took a photo of him which I termed “a possible last shot of Ben,” and he laughed at that. We all ducked down and were just fine!
We had another great lunch today, and then got ready for our 2 PM walking tour of Regensburg. Everyone was impatient to get our tour underway, I think. Most of us were hanging outside near the boat when our local guides arrived. I think we are all eager to do some walking and see more stuff.
Suzanne led the yellow team through 2,000-year-old Regensburg, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Suzanne wore a traditional Bavarian ladies costume, which she claimed was a bit too warm for the weather we were having, but she kept in good spirits anyway. It was a really hot day!
We saw the medieval Stone Bridge and heard the legend of the building of the bridge. The picturesque Stone Bridge spanning the Danube was completed in 1146. It was the only Danube crossing for hundreds of years, and the knights of the 2nd and 3rd crusade used it to cross the Danube on their way to the Holy Land. The bridge opened major international trade routes between Northern Europe and Venice, and this started Regensburg's golden age as a city of wealthy trading families.
The bridge has a slight hump in the middle, and legend has it that THAT is where the devil arched up his back underneath the bridge because he was irritated at being out-maneuvered by the builder. Only one of the sections of the bridge was hit by the Germans in WWII to keep the Allies at bay. It didn’t hold the Allies back for long! Most of Regensburg was undamaged during World War II and is thus one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Germany.
Regensburg is known for their sausages and claim to have the first sausage café or something like that. We passed the oldest one in town on our walk. I am beginning to realize that Germans take their sausages and beer very seriously!
We saw the Roman Ruins of Porta-Praetoria Arch, which was part of the four walls of the Roman legionary camp. Each of them had in the middle of their length an entry gate flanked by two massive towers. The northern gate facing the Danube, called Porta Praetoria, was discovered in 1885 during renovations in the Bischofshof brewery. Regensburg's Porta Praetoria gains significance as the only remaining gate of a Roman military camp in northern Europe.
We passed by Saint Peter’s Cathedral (dom). The church is a prime example of Gothic architecture in southern Germany. The Cathedral has been built and rebuilt from the Carolingian times to 1514-1538.
We walked through some of the town and saw where the small merchants had shops and where they lived. Suzanne pointed out the “bench” like stones on corners of buildings. This was to prevent carts and other things from colliding into the buildings themselves.
We walked through the courtyard of a wealthy medieval family’s dwelling as well. Wealthy families would erect a tower on their dwelling as a status symbol of their prosperity.
We saw the old town hall with its measurement standards posted outside the door. This was our last official stop on the tour, and so we had free time to shop or sight see on our own.
We walked back up the street so that Dad and I could get some ice cream, and Mom and Aunt Peggy got pretzels at a local shop instead. Dad took his ice cream and went down by the river to wait for us, while Aunt Peggy, Mom and I opted to see some more.
First, we tried on hats at the hat shop. That was fun! Then we toured the Dom or Saint Peter’s Cathedral on our own as well. Then we headed back down by the river to collect Dad and walk back to the ship. We started sailing again around dinner time.
Dinner was pretty good as usual. But I ran back up on the sun deck to take some pictures of the neo-classical Wallhalla Temple above the Danube. I spotted it from our dining car window, and I had to go.
I was up there on the sun deck admiring the building when one of the program guides (Lubo) came up to see it, too. We then talked about the monument, and he gave me more details about it. The temple seems to just pop up out of nowhere amidst the hills. I’d like to see the inside of the temple one day. ![]()
I headed back to my dinner, but then I was back to the window throughout the meal to take pictures of the beautiful sunset behind us. It was lovely! George kept encouraging me to take more and more photos, and I’m glad he did. I love them!
After dinner, the program managers put on a “Liar’s Club” for us. Louise was not able to participate since she is in the hospital back in Regensburg, but the other 3 managers put on a great show. Basically, they each read off their definitions of a word, and we had to guess which one of them had given us the actual definition. It was similar to other games that my family used to play.
Our team consisted of Gladys, Susan, Iva, Carl, Susan, Gail, John, Mom, Aunt Peggy and me. We called ourselves “The Fabulous Fabricators.”
Tineke, Sandor and Lubo did a fabulous job. We learned that Tineke is a fabulous liar. She totally got into stories for her definition and expounded on them for several minutes. It was a hoot! We wanted to vote for her even when she couldn’t have possibly been right! J I couldn’t tell when Lubo or Sandor were lying at all, and I could tell they were all having fun with it as they tried to maintain their composure especially during Tineke’s lengthy definitions. J
A couple of the words were:
Slibber-sauce: mud beauty treatment
Quidnunc: a gossip
Our team was not so good at detecting fact from fiction. We lost, but we had some great laughs! I think this was my favorite evening entertainment so far. I love to laugh!
Favorite Thing or Funny Moment
- Me: Discovering that people born on the other side of the globe can still have common interests and passions – we are not all as different as we like to think we are.
- FEELING: Whimsical and happy!
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