Regensburg

July 20^th, 2025

Well, the mattresses are not as wonderful as the Cunard ones, but after all of the walking yesterday I was exhausted and slept well anyway.

Our tour today was Historic Regensburg and Jewish Heritage. The great thing about Regensburg is that everything is within walking distance, no need for a coach ride.

We started off with walking along the river to the old stone bridge

and the old salt storage warehouse.

Our guide took us all over the town explaining the history of the Jews in the area. It was very interesting, but so sad as the community didn’t survive the war. It felt very strange to be walking through the neighborhoods and talking about the families who gave so much to the city, but they didn’t survive the war. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the everything around us looked like it was flourishing, but the dark history was ever present. It was hard to take in. Very sad.

On the tour we also got to see the interesting buildings in the city

And the outdoor cafes were always full.

We also went into St Peter’s cathedral.

Instead of going back to the boat at the end of the tour we had lunch in town and then went to visit the Palace of Thurn und Taxis. We had worked out where the entrance was, so we thought it was worth another go.

By now I remembered where I had heard about Thurn und Taxis before. When I was at university, I read Thomas Pynchon’s Crying of Lot 49. The book is rather weird, but at the time I was totally fascinated by it, it was quite the best book I had ever read. In the book there was mention of the Thurn and Taxis mail service. Back then I just thought it was a made up concept, Thomas Pynchon is good at writing about absurd events, but to find out it was real – the family did run a mail service in the past. I just had to see the palace.

We did find the entrance, and bought our tickets. Then we found out that parts of the palace were closed and we would be doing the tour in reverse order. As the tour was in German we were given hand held devices with an English commentary.

As our guide was expounding in German we listened to the commentary at the first stop. The English commentary was short and sweet. We waited for ages for her to finish the German version so we could move on to the next stop. We waited and waited. Finally she finished and we moved on. Suddenly she admonished us for taking photos.  There was no indication that photography wasn’t allowed, but of course we all obeyed. The tour continued in the same fashion with us listening to the very short version in English, and the guide giving loads more information to the other folks. We really shouldn’t complain as we are in Germany after all, but I was sorry that we were clearly missing out on important facts. I think they should record a more comprehensive version of the information in English.

Then half way through the tour it came to an abrupt end and we all had to turn around and go back to where we started from.

The palace was very interesting, and I am glad we did the tour, but I’m not sure it was worth what we had paid for it.

We headed back to the boat. I had hoped that we would have time to stop at the dachshund museum, but we didn’t. Maybe next time.

We were back on the boat in good time for the sail away, and we were introduced to the senior officers, and the chef (again).

The captain had said that the river water levels were very low, and the people in cabins on the lowest deck may be disturbed by us scaping the rocks on the bottom as we sail out of Regensburg. Apparently this part of the river had been impassable last week.

I didn’t know if he was joking or not about scraping the bottom. I am sure it’s not that safe to do so.

Kane, the program director gave us a briefing on tomorrow’s activities.

We headed down to dinner, and from where we were sitting we could watch as we slowly left the dock and started our trip down the Danube.

There were a few other boats on the river

But I was surprised that there weren’t more.

We have 14 locks to go through until we reach Budapest, and after dinner we went through the first one. It took ages, but was great fun to watch. Not quite the Panama Canal, but still amazing.

After the lock we were treated to a lovely concert of music and song from German composers. A great way to start the cruise!