Friday morning found us docked in Regensburg, Germany. Regensberg is a charming old city, with many narrow streets and medieval-era buildings. For the most part, it was spared destruction by Allied bombing in World War II. Our morning schedule was a walking tour of the older part of the city, ending up at the very Gothic St Peter's Cathedral, with some time to explore on our own before walking back to the ship for lunch. Our afternoon was to be a trip on the Danube Narrows above Regensburg, a visit at the Weltenburg Abbey, and a short walk around the city of Kelheim. The afternoon was to have included a stop at the Hall of Liberation, built by King Ludwig I of Bavaria to commemorate the German victory over Napoleon early in the 19th century. Unfortunately, the rain began, we fell behind in our schedule, and we all decided a dry bus trip back to the cozy lounge of the ship, now parked in the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal above Kelheim, was just what the Viking doctor ordered.
Remnants of the east tower of the Porta Praetoria, built in 179 AD by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius as part of Castra Regina, an expansive fort built to protect the Roman Empire's northern frontier. Our guide told us that a large portion of the tower is now below ground level, the surrounding streets having been built at a higher level than those of Roman times. Note pink-shoes Patty moving out smartly.
Our ship activities director following our tour group. This cruise, as we found out later, was his very first cruise done for Viking. We thought he did a good job.
St Peters Cathedral off to our left. The square tower closest to us is, I believe, an older structure known as the "donkey tower." It predated the construction of the present St Peters Cathedral and is now used to move building supplies in and up to other parts of the cathedral.
The "sausage kitchen," Germany's oldest restaurant. It sits next to the river by the old stone bridge. We didn't go in, but it is a very popular place with the locals.
A rather plain statue of John of Austria, illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and a local burgher's daughter. He served as a military leader under the King of Spain and an admiral in the Holy Alliance fleet against the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto.
We started our walk along the Danube back to the ship after the tour ended. Many ships, different cruise lines. The Danube is a very popular river to cruise.
The Danube River begins in the Black Forest mountains of southwest Germany and flows southeastward towards the Black Sea. In 1992, a canal was opened from the Danube just above the city of Kelheim that connects the Danube with the Main River, a tributary of the Rhine River. With the opening of this canal, the North Sea was connected with the Black Sea. Our tour on Friday afternoon would take us up the Danube River above Kelheim to the Weltenburg Abbey, then back down by boat to Kelheim to meet up with our cruise ship. The Danube above Kelheim is known as the Danube Narrows or Gorge, and the Danube flows between magnificent cliffs cut into the mountains to either side of the river. Our bus parked next to the river and we walked a short distance to the Weltenburg Abbey. After a tour of the Abbey, which also houses a brewery said to be the oldest monastic brewery in the world, we boarded a boat (in the rain) that headed back down the river to Kelheim, where we would tour some of the city.
Thie statue of Saint John of Nepomuk stands outside the Weltenburg Abbey. John of Nepomuk was a Czech Catholic Church official who supported the Pope in Rome against the Avignon Papacy. For his actions in support of the Pope in Rome, King Wenceslaus IV, who supported the Avignon Papacy, ordered Nepomuk tortured and thrown into the River Vltava in Prague to drown. He was canonized in 1729 and is considered the patron saint of water and bridges. Many representations of Saint John can be found in central and eastern Europe.
The inside of the Abbey church (known as St George) is ornate and quite beautiful. It was built by the Asam brothers in the early 18th century. Cosmas Asam was a German painter and architect; his brother Egid Quinn was a sculptor and stucco worker. Cosmas added a small sculpture of himself overlooking the nave, and painted a picture of is brother as one of the angels.
After our tour of the church, we were treated to a beer (or a Coke, for non-beer drinkers) and a large pretzel in the Abbey restaurant. The two tour-mates to our left at the table were, I think, from Macon. Most of the folks on the cruise were from the USA, although we spent some enjoyable time with two nice non-US couples during several evening meals, one from Scotland and the other from north of Birmingham in England. Nice folks, all.
