Regensburg Trip - more really pretty old places!

Saturday we made the 45 minute drive to Regensburg where the Medtronic HR guy lives. He offered to be a tour guide and show us around his city. We started at a brewery where we hoped to be able to get a tour. He called ahead and they said they don't have normal tour times, but if the owner was there he would do one. Unfortunately he wasn't there, but the food was still good! This brewery specializes in Palmator, which is a very strong beer that I think you can only get during Lent (except that's not true because they already have it). The story is that the monks can't (or couldn't a long time ago?) eat during Lent, so instead they brew a high-calorie, high-alcohol content beer. Doesn't sound like the best plan to me, but I guess it worked for them! We bought some to go since we didn't want it before sightseeing! It was 7 Euro (about $10) for 6 half liter bottles of really good beer.

The first sight to see on our tour was the old courthouse, where kings of the middle ages made the decisions about who they were going to fight next. In this picture, the metal bars hanging by the door were standardized units of measurement. I think the smallest was used to define a cubit. It is a sign of how important Regensburg was that they had measurement standards.











I like this picture of a street in Regensburg that we would consider an alley. They had streets downtown that you could drive on, but many more of these narrow pedestrian passageways lined with shops.

Of course, we had to see another beautiful old cathedral in Regensburg. They see to be everywhere! It's fascinating that there are buildings here that were built long before the United States was even thought of. We've been told that these smaller cities in Germany are much better that the large cities for seeing historical sights because they weren't bombed during WW2 like the main cities were. This cathedral dates back to the 1300s. They still have services here, but I don't know how people can handle the cold! It was frigid in there in the time we looked around. I can't imagine a whole church service, but you can't really heat a 700 year old building. Check out this stained glass!

Here's a pretty shot of the Danube with the city on both sides. We're standing on a bridge that dates back to the 12th century. It was open for cars until about 5 years ago, but now it's only open to pedestrians. It's amazing to me that they could build a bridge to last that long!

 A picture of the bridge: 

A pretty picture of the countryside just outside of Regensburg: 

It was a beautiful city, and other than being really cold, a great way to spend a Saturday after a long, hard week of work!