Wed. 6-27 to Regensburg

Another fine weather day.

The route was right along the river, except for a little winding through the town, and it made for enjoyable riding. We saw the first large vessel in the river, a powered barge heading downstream faster than we were riding.

The riding event of the day was following a cycling sign to Regensburg which led us astray from the river route. It was a shortcut across a loop of the river, but it took us over some very steep hills. With the help of Garmin and local advice, we swooped back down to the river and on to Regensburg the right way. A few drops of rain as we approached the city.

We made our way to the center of the old city, found the "i", and booked a hotel room for the night.  Too early to check in, but it was just the right time for their semi-weekly walking tour in English. No one else signed up, so we had a personally guided tour.

Regensburg has one of the best preserved medeival old cities in Germany, thanks to the fact that the Messerschmidt factory was a few km out of town. It was an independent city-state, subject only to the Holy Roman Emperor, until Napoleon came. It is the starting point for large vessel river navigaiton, so it has always been an important commercial center, and it was the largest Roman fort, protecting against the Germanic tribes in the forest across the river.

In 1519 the Jews here were blamed for plague and an economic slump, so they were expelled from the city on three days notice. The town fathers not only desecrated the Jewish cemetery, they even took the Jewish gravestones and embedded them like trophies in the exterior walls of the merchant palaces. We saw two of them. Jews eventually came back, but the synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis in Kristallnacht, and of course nearly all the Jews were later transported to their deaths. Amazingly, there is a Jewish community here now, and they are about to build a new synagogue. Let's hope the lessons of the past have sunk in.

Local notable: Johannes Kepler's home town. Joseph Ratzinger (Pope-emeritus Benedict) taught at the university here. Oskar Schindler lived here at the end of WW2.

In the evening we went to an organ concert at the cathedral. Overwhelming cascade of sound; not our cup of tea but something different to see and do.