Es regnet nicht in Regensburg! - Day 17

It seems I should just get used to being perpetually behind with my posts, but I suppose there are worse problems to have.


I had this past Wednesday (April 14, Day 17) completely free, because most of the orientation activities this week were individual academic advising meetings with Hans Peter, the director of the program, and my meeting with him wasn't until Thursday.  A couple of my other friends - Kathryn, Nicole, and Jeff - also had the day free, so we decided to go to Regensburg and do a little exploring there.  It started out as an interesting train ride - we used another of the Bayern tickets, with which up to five people can travel anywhere in Bavaria within a day, and which are fantastic but come with a few limitations.  Last week when we went to Augsburg, we learned exactly which kinds of trains we are and aren't allowed to use.  Wednesday, we learned exactly when the tickets are valid: we left the Munich train station at 7:44am, but apparently the ticket isn't valid until 9:00, so we had to get off the train in Freising and wait there for the next train.  I think it mostly depends on the mood of the person checking the tickets though, because we've definitely taken earlier trains with a Bavaria ticket and had no problems.  We only had to wait about an hour in Freising, so it really wasn't too bad, but we stayed close to the train station the whole time because it was raining and cold, but the little we saw of the town was very pretty.

We got to Regensburg around 10:20, about an hour after we planned on being there, which actually worked out nicely because by the time we got there, the rain had stopped.  I'll throw in another German lesson here: it's a little ironic that it wasn't raining in Regensburg, because "regen" means rain.  While it stormed here in Munich, we managed to avoid the rain by going to Regensburg, although I guess the irony isn't completely correct because the town is named after the Regen River and not rain itself, but still...

There were a few sights we knew we wanted to see around town, but we mostly just explored wherever we could...because really, planning is overrated...

The lack of rain was welcoming, as were the flowers:

We found several more beautiful churches...it's overwhelming sometimes to think about how many stunningly decorated churches there are here in Germany and Europe as a whole, and the fact that so many of them have been standing for hundreds of years.

Nicole, Kathryn, and me in a cool looking alley we passed:

This is the Regensburg Dom (the main cathedral in the city...massive!)

We got a cool picture of each of us poking our heads out from one of the archways here, but it was with someone else's camera, so I'll have to track down a copy.

I love all the stained glass windows I've seen:

This carving was one of the sights we knew we wanted to see.  It was carved and painted in 1820 and is called die Lachende Engel - the Laughing Angel - and depicts the angel Gabriel as he delivers the Good News to Mary:

 

This figure of Mary is on the pillar across from the pillar where Gabriel stands.  Mary's hand is raised in greeting to Gabriel:

I think there's also a carving of Joseph, but I'm not sure, and I didn't get a picture of it.

Around the corner from the Dom we found the Rathaus:

And even better: the first Cafe ever opened in Germany - the Princess Cafe:

Delicious!

Even McDonalds looks more appetizing in Germany than in the States...but I refuse to eat there on principle alone - why come to Germany and eat at McDonalds, when instead, you could eat yummy apple pie at Germany's oldest cafe?

Another site we knew we wanted to see was das Steinere Bruecke - the Stone Bridge - which was built sometime in the 12th century.  The story goes that at the time, people believed that such a bridge would be impossible to build without the help of the Devil.  The townspeople were therefore convinced that the builders had made a deal with the Devil, who would claim the soul of the first living creature to cross the finished bridge.  According to our guide book, the townspeople made sure to send a goat walk across before any humans...though I don't know what happened to the goat.  But the point is that we got to see and walk across this bridge that was build almost a century ago (and by century, I mean millennium, as Kristin was kind enough to point out), which was cool in and of itself, and on the way to the bridge we also found some great views of the city:

A view of the bridge and the park that was on the other side:

We actually first crossed a different bridge, and somehow ended up walking under the Steinere Bruecke, before doubling back and walking back across the Steinere Bruecke itself, but that meant we got up-close and personal with the bridge itself:

After crossing the bridge back into the main part of town, the only other site we knew about was a castle on the other side of town.  As we headed there, we passed another couple churches.  This one had an interesting entryway in addition to its beautiful interior:

I've started to realize that the organs in all of these churches are just as magnificent as every other part of the sanctuary.  Can you imagine an organ like this at Kirkwood (my church at home)?

Back on the way to the castle, we passed a couple guard dogs...

...maybe Salty's long lost German cousins?

 When we finally found the castle, we couldn't quite find the actual entrance, so we just walked around the grounds for a bit.  I think we would have had to pay to go into the main castle, so it was just as well that we stayed outside:

 

By this time, we had circled around to the area near the main train station and it was starting to drizzle again, so we headed back to Munich.  We got back around dinner time, and the rest of my evening was pretty quiet as I tried to figure out what classes I should take (which I'm still trying to figure out, even though today was the first day of classes, but that's another story!)