Regensburg

Sunday 5th August
Regensburg - Bavaria Germany.
The Scenic Pearl arrived at the town after breakfast. We divided up into 5 groups and met out guides. Our guide was 'Ziggy'. He had a very dry sense of humour. All the guides live in the city that they work as guides. He had a real passion for Regensburg. The town was mainly built in the 12th century, but some renovations had taken place in the 17th century. We were on the path next to the Danube (not blue but a lighter shade of brown to previously) and Ziggy described where the water from the Danube had flooded up over the path we were standing and over the top of the ground floor windows of the nearby hotel. There was a Roman built bridge still in use and is the oldest bridge in Europe. (Every town seems to have the oldest/biggest/whateverest and in Regensburg it was the Roman bridge).
Ziggy told us that originally beer gardens were not drinking places but store houses where the beer was stored. The store houses were usually a little way out of town. Horse chestnut trees were planted around to provide shade and help keep the area and the beer cool. These trees were chosen because their roots would not cause a problem in the river and the large leaves provided great shade. Over time it was decided to bring the drinkers to the source of the beer rather than the beer to the drinkers as it was difficult to keep cool taking it into town. And so drinkers would sit at tables and chairs under the horse chestnut trees. This was fine most of the year except for when the chestnuts were falling and landing in the beer mugs and so the lids were designed and so that is why beer steins have lids.
Regensburg is an attractive town. Because it was Sunday all of the shops were closed except for the tourist shops and cafes. There were some very relieved looking husbands. There is a large population of university students living in the inner city apartments in the old buildings. If you are German born university is free There remains a very tall square tower building which in the 12th century and into more modern time was used to keep watch for fire and approaching enemies. There are windows on all four sides and so the watchman would blow a horn and wave a flag out of the window to alert the residents of danger. To get up to the tower the watchman had to use the surrounding buildings and then an internal ladder to get to the top. As with other towns throughout Austria and Germany and in Czech Republic nearly every house has window boxes with beautiful displays. The big church is Regensburg is due to be cleaned in another year and that was where our tour finished just as the bells rang out noon and everyone was nearly deafened.
We went back on board for lunch. Today instead of a wine of the region it was of course a beer. I actually had one and even more amazingly I enjoyed it!!!! Den was rather surprised. The afternoon was spent in the lounge up loading our blog - it is so slow we did crosswords and sudukos while we waited for the computer to do normally quick simple things.
The dinner tonight was a 'Franconian banquet'. The borders of the Bavarian and Franconian tribes overlap in this part of Germany.
The entertainment was an Omm Pa Pa Band. This was great fun. They were dressed in the traditional leather pants and pointed hats with a white feather and a beer in one hand. The music was really good. They taught us to shuckle (linking arms and swaying side to side) leg slapping, counting to three in German and of course just a little bit of yodelling. I thought my yodelling effort was pretty good but our friend from Canada told me it sounded like a wounded moose. It was a good day!!!