It was well after 9am that we strolled through the colourful, cobbled network of streets and lanes of old Regensburg. We passed, purely by accident, the very genuinely historic German restaurant where last night we both enjoyed a small feast of a selection of German sausages, sauerkraut and potato salad. We sipped our ‘water with gas’ while watching most other patrons downing huge glasses of a variety of German beers!
Regensburg just has to be seen to be believed. It is a registered UNESCO Heritage site. It is said that the Old Town of Regensburg is the only well-preserved medieval city in Germany, being a rare city to have escaped any damage from the 2nd World War. Its earliest history dates to 179AD when the Romans built a massive military fortress just where we were presently walking today. We were able to see some of the original parts of the fortress wall and guard house that have been incorporated over the years into the growing old city. The fortress was built to protect the Roman Empire from the many Germanic tribes to the north.
We went straight to the ‘Dom’, St Peter’s Cathedral, which is as big, if not bigger, than any of the massive ‘Doms’ we have seen since leaving Frankfurt. The Regensburg ‘Dom’ was so large and massive that we just could not fit it into the camera lens (nor could the post cards either!). We were simply awestruck though by the sheer grandeur of the interior. It dates to the 11th century. We are still amazed how such grand structures could be built on such a massively solid scale all those years ago.
A special feature of the ‘Dom’ was the ‘Sailer’ Chapel, dedicated by Bavarian King Ludwig 1 in 1837 as a mark of gratitude to his life tutor, the eminent Bishop of Regensburg, Johann Michael von Sailer (1751-1832). This was by far the most spectacular section of the Dom, and carries very specific significance.
We went to the Information Office. We needed help with our computer which has not been able to connect with Internet Explorer for several days, which means we haven’t been able to load our blog, or connect with emails. I needed a PC Repair man. Of course, nothing is straight forward. The closest one was several kilometers away, on the other side of the Danube. We decided it was priority, so Julie returned to the Hotel while I got on the bike and negotiated streets, cobbled lanes, bridges, cars and pedestrians to ride to find the computer repair man. It initially didn’t seem fruitful. He couldn’t fix it. However, when I sat down tonight to give it ‘one more chance’, inexplicably all was working again! We are back on the net!
We spent the rest of the day just wandering this beautiful place, enjoying its beauty, the endless cobbled lanes, the beautiful buildings, the countless narrow shops, and of course the beautiful sweeping views of the Danube which seems to look prettier as the sun approaches late afternoon and dusk.
Everywhere we went, the towers of the Dom could not be hidden from view. What was particularly spectacular today were the colours of autumn, more radiant than we have ever seen them before. There were so many times we just wanted to capture stunning colours on camera, although this was not always possible.
Our day in Regensburg was wonderful. We sat in a sunny Marketplatz outside a small German Pizza shop and shared the best pizza ever served to us! These were delightful hours, lost in the warmth of today’s sunshine and the beauty of history, nature and humanity around us.
We have decided today that we will catch the train tomorrow to Passau, and then ride 20k to a camping ground further along the Danube en route to Linz. This will give us two ‘easy’ days to reach Linz by Thursday, but giving us plenty of time to enjoy the increasing spectacular sites along this magnificent river.
Julie wants me to mention my ‘near miss’ today. While riding to the Computer Repairman, I was on the massive bridge crossing the Danube. I was not aware that I was crossing on the wrong side (cyclists must cross on same side as the traffic). I decided to walk, taking a few photos down river. To take one particular photo, I leaned my bike facing the way I had come, took the photo, then swung the bike around to face the way I was going. I didn’t hear him coming, but a guy on a small motor bike was coming across the bridge passing behind me just as I swung the bike around. My bike and his motor bike collided very firmly, the force of the impact knocking the bike almost out of my hands. I was shocked. The rider was also caught by surprise, and fortunately did not come to grief. No words were exchanged, and fortunately my precious MASI machine survived intact. I could easily have buckled a wheel. Anyway as Julie said, a very close encounter of the unwanted kind!
This has been a wonderful day. For ‘hard core cyclists’ like us, to wander the historic streets in the warm sun, instead of knocking out long miles on dirt bike paths, is hard to take. However we will make up for it!
I have been thinking about King Ludwig 1 and his dedicated chapel to his life mentor and tutor, the very eminent Bishop of Regensburg in 17th century, Johann Michael von Sailer. King Ludwig 1 and Bavarian history recognizes Bishop Sailer as the ‘Bavarian Father of the Church’. The beautiful chapel in the great Dom of St Peter lives on in his honour. History says that the motto of Bishop Sailer’s life and faith was “God in Jesus Christ – the salvation of the world”. The beautiful artwork at the centre of the chapel depicts Mary and Joseph, with the baby Jesus in the manger. It captures the words of the angel announcing the birth of Jesus “Behold the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means “God with us”. (Matthew 2:23). In Luke’s Gospel, the Angel says of Jesus “Today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11)
King Ludwig 1 recognised in his life’s tutor the wisdom of a true man of God who lived his entire life by the motto “God in Jesus Christ – the salvation of the world’.
Let us all be as wise as the Bavarian Father of the Church and open our lives to the truth revealed in the significance of the Sailer Chapel in the great Dom of St Peter, by the banks of the Danube in ancient Regensburg, Bavaria.
From that very place, we send our love tonight. Kelvin & Julie
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