The Blue Danube and Regensburg

We sailed through the night, mooring at Regensburg by 10:00.  After breakfast on the ship, we were taken on a walking tour of the city, hitting the high points.  There was so much to see.  Today is Pentecost so all the stores were closed except for the restaurants and small souvenir shops.  We got our first view of the Danube this morning, the river itself and not the canal.  I guess it's blue because of the reflection of the sky.  I need to "google that up" (a funny expression I heard on this trip).

Regensburg goes way back to the Stone Age and, fortunately, was not damaged too much in WWII. It was not a major strategic city during the war so it was spared the worst of the bombing.  Our guide told us the earliest evidence of the city is a stone with a reference to 179AD.  We certainly walked on old streets and admired old buildings.

View of the Danube from the old bridge

Around 1135 this old stone bridge was built and became the only way over the Danube thus making Regensburg a center for trade and making it very wealthy.  We walked over the bridge and admired the views on both sides.  Such colorful little houses!

Just off the bridge was this artist painting a cityscape.  He was there for several hours.

The buildings are very old and are all used today, even though they are historical.  Our guide told us that if historical buildings could be used only as museums then the city would have only museums!  Restaurants, cafes, and coffee houses are in beautiful, old historic buildings.  I wanted to eat at every one of the them!

This restaurant is housed in the old Bishop's residence of the enormous Dom St Peter which was behind me as I was taking this photo.  

Here's Germany's oldest restaurant...they serve only sausages, sauerkraut, rolls, mustard and beer.  I wasn't sure about the sauerkraut but it was really good.  I was stuffed when we left.

It's ridiculous how I had to limit the number of photos I used for this post.  I have so many of these colorful buildings.

These are one of the coolest art installments in the city and apparently they are in other cities where Jews and other people were deported to camps by the Germans in WWII.  These little plaques have been hammered into the cobblestone streets in front of the homes where the person lived who was carried off by the Nazis.  Here's the cool part...they are called Stolpersteine which is best translated (although our guide said there really is not an English translation) stumbling blocks.  They are intended to make you stop and notice them as you are walking along...not to actually make you stumble but to make you pause.  Check out the NY Times article about them.

This is where the Jewish synagogue, built beginning in 1210, stood until it was destroyed 1519 by anti-Semites in Regensburg.  This modern monument honors where the old synagogue stood in relation to the Cathedral and the large Protestant church.

Below is Dom St Peter.  I was able to get a couple of pictures inside before I was told they weren't allowed.

A last picture of the Blue Danube rolling past Regensburg.