After breakfast a manager of the Katholische Akademie admitted there was no Wifi on the premises (the entry on booking.com said there was), but he found a cable and set us up to use the plug-in system in an upstairs lounge. Later in the day we used a kindle to send emails in order to make last minute confirmations for upcoming accommodations.
With business tasks out of the way, we set off up the Danube river which seemed to be running very fast, so I asked a young man why and he said "It is always the same". This river, of course, is nearly 3000 kilometres long and we found it hard to believe we were standing next to a section downhill enough to produce such speed. It seems more likely that it is a squeeze point that was chosen for building a town because the river is much wider nearby and this is the easiest spot for a bridge.
A sign told us that Regensburg is the only city in Europe that survived 1945 with all Gothic and Middle Age architecture intact. We came across a man painting beside the river.
This is the scene he was portraying. The spire belongs to St Peter's Cathedral which is the subject of many superlatives and claims to fame. The carving is incredibly fine.
Once again the cobbled streets had many old buildings with pronounced leans and bent walls. It took us threehours to walk through all the lanes and "snickleways". We bought some local goods and Lyn had a cappuccino which turned out to be made by an Italian man and was the best yet. On a wall there was a plaque celebrating the fact that Oscar Schindler lived here for five years after the war. He is another favoured son of the town.
After a rest, we joined a pleasure craft called the Crystal Princess for a two hour cruise down the Danube to an amazing palace built like the Parthenon, but called Walhalla. Ludwig 1 who built the Disney Castle Neuschwanstein was responsible, they told us.
Across the top were great German scholars depicted, including Goethe and Einstein. Later in the evening we had dinner in a lovely Indian Restaurant called the Taj Mahal, to complete a day of fine architecture.
But we must take the time to tell you about a local legend relating to the 12th century stone bridge that we passed under in the ship. The architect of the bridge told the architect of the Regensburg Cathedral that the bridge would be finished first. After many years the Cathedral looked like being finished first. So the architect of the bridge did a deal with the devil to help finish the bridge first. The devil agreed but only if he could take the lives of the first three creatures to cross the bridge. The bridge was then completed first. The architect felt guilty about sacrificing his townspeople, so he encouraged a chicken, a cat and a dog to cross the bridge first, The devil was so angry at being tricked that he got under the bridge and tried to knock it down. But it was so devilishly well built that he did not succeed and the bridge will stand for ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment