Regensburg: Aimless Wandering

I came to Regensburg, Germany because I didn’t want to sit on a train for five and a half hours. That’s how long it would take to get from my last stop, Prague, to Munich, my next and final destination on this trip. I looked for an interesting city or town with a station on the railway line to break that up. Regensburg, which the Internet, the source of all truths, described as an interesting city with a largely intact medieval core won that honour.

By the time I settled in my hotel, it was getting close to 5:00 p.m. I did a little aimless wandering in a steady drizzle around the medieval part of town. The pictures below are streetscapes and a river view from that stroll.

There’ll probably be some photo repeats tomorrow, my only full day in Regensburg, when I do more purposeful wandering to see the sights.

By the way, I haven’t had dinner yet. I’m going to go after posting this.

During my stroll, I looked at a few restaurant menus. I didn’t see a single word of English on any of them. So, this could be interesting.

(I saw some tourists wandering around, including, judging from the “Viking” printed on their umbrellas, a tour group on an onshore excursion from a river cruise. I also heard one or two couples out on their strolls talking to each other in English. Hopefully, that’s a good sign. If not, breakfast is included with my hotel room rate, so I won’t starve.)

My hotel placed some interesting information about Regensburg in the hotel information guide in my room. Here are just some of the tidbits:

• The first settlements in the Regensburg area date back to the Stone Age.
• A Jewish colony existed in the area since before the Common Era
• The Celtic name Radasbona was the oldest name given to a settlement near the present city.
• The Romans built a fort here in 179 AD.
• From the early 6th century, Regensburg was the seat of the Agilofing ruling family.
• From about 530 until the first half of the 13th century, it was the capital of Bavaria.

UPDATE: I’m now sitting in a Trip Advisor-recommended restaurant, one of the ones I passed earlier. It still has only a German-language menu outside. I went in and asked the person at the entrance if she spoke English. She does. So does my server. Quite well. And they do have an English menu. So, that worry is now quelled. And, so, to eat.