Friday, 23 Dec 2022
We arrived Regensburg this morning. This was our last city on the tour, and we had signed up for two tours today: Walking Tour of the Jewish Quarter in the morning and a Christmas Market tour in the evening. It was a fairly gray, but not too cold, day and rain was forecast. We had our last sit-down breakfast on the ship and bundled up for the morning tour.
Our guide, Christine, met us on the pier and walked us upriver toward the central, older part of town. We passed by a small shipping museum housed onboard an old steamship as we continued to an open area by the river with a good view of the old Stone Bridge. The bridge had been built in the mid-12th century to replace an older wooden bridge nearby. This bridge cemented Regensburg as an important commerce center in the are, as the stone bridge was for many years the only bridge over the Danube between Ulm and Vienna.
Right next to the bridge is the old Saltzstadel, or Salt Warehouse, which was an important market for the area. Salt was a major export item for this part of Bavaria, down to the more famous Salzburg, or “Salt Town.” Salt was traded in this marketplace in Regensburg, and right next door, to make sure all the merchants and customers were well fed, is the “oldest hotdog stand on earth” known as the Historische Wurstküche or Historic Wurst Kitchen. This remarkable bit of marketplace entrepreneurship has been in operation for over 500 years, and you can still go in there today for a tasty sausage!
Gradually we walked into the old town and the Jewish Quarter, noting along the way the various centuries of building architectural designs and construction methods and the parts of the cathedral built over the several centuries. We walked through a nice peaceful courtyard inside the old bishop’s residence next to the cathedral. There is now a nice “goose preacher” fountain there for a bit of whimsical decoration.
We exited the courtyard and walked in front of St. Peter’s Cathedral – our first city cathedral on this trip that wasn’t St. Stephens! As with the others, it was a very handsome bit of gothic, baroque and neo-gothic architecture with some remnants of Romanesque architecture from its past. The twin spires commanded attention and must have been fine landmarks beckoning parishioners from all over the local area.
We took a moment to recognize the home of Oskar Schindler, famous for his list of “Jews essential to his war manufacturing business.” Through this device, as well as bribes paid to various Nazi officials through the war, completely draining Schindler’s fortune, he was able to save 1,200 Jews from certain annihilation. He lived briefly in Regensburg before moving to Munich, Argentina and then back to Germany by 1960. He died virtually penniless, but was honored by his Jewish charges who ensured he and his wife were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations for their services during the war. Oskar is buried in Jerusalem.
We took note of several buildings with brass markers in the cobblestone streets in front. The brass markers identified and commemorate the Jews who had lived there, but were victims of earlier pogroms or later of the Nazi regime. It was chilling as we walked along and saw so many of these in the narrow streets. We also saw tombstones that had been taken during the earlier pogroms and used as building materials by some, and some used as taunting markers, displayed in upper story walls. Our guide actually teared up as she described how some of these things occurred.
Gradually we walked through town and saw the Town Hall and some markets and stores selling traditional German clothing, such as lederhosen and dirndls. We came to the site of the original synagogue, currently in the town market square outside the Lutheran church. The first synagogue in Regensburg was built in the 13th century, and was destroyed during an early revolt against Jews in Bavaria. A new synagogue was built in 1841, which was demolished in 1907 due to fears of collapse, and rebuilt in 1912 at new location. This building stood until the Nazis destroyed in on Kristallnacht, 9 November, 1938. Finally in 2019, the current synagogue opened over 80 years after the previous had been destroyed by the Nazis. We stopped here to see the new building and the new hope for Jews in Germany it represented.
From here we walked back toward the center of town and to our last stop, the side of St. Peter’s Cathedral to view one last slap at Jews. On the south wall of this fine cathedral was a but of sculpture that depicted Jews sucking at the teats of a pig. It was both figurative, showing Jews taking from society, but also profane, showing Jews suckling an unclean animal, forbidden in Jewish religious law and tradition. That this monument still stands is a testament to the strength of character and ability of people to overlook and ignore ridiculous slights.
Here our tour ended, and we tipped our guide and decided to stay and walk around town on our own for a while, since the rain had not picked back up again. We quickly walked through the smallish Christmas market, and Halie did some shoe shopping at a nice store nearby. We were getting a little peckish, so we had some tasty crepes at a crepe stand facing the Christmas market. Halie enhanced the personal decorative scheme of her new down coat, adding Nutella to the already fading mustard from the day before.
Now fed and ready for more, we started walking through the shopping district. We walked through ha very fancy kitchen store. They had some marvelous hand-cranked Victorian style meat slicers and other very artful kitchen gadgetry. It was fun to see all the stuff! Lynn and Halie had spied a “T.K. Maxx” store that they wanted to see. Must be the German brother of T.J. Maxx. We wandered until we found it. John and I found a quiet place to hang out while they walked through. Mercifully, it wasn’t long before they came out stating that it was pretty disappointing.
It had started raining a bit more steadily, so we decided to go back to the ship. Not knowing exactly where we were, we followed our guide’s instructions form this morning and just walked more-or-less downhill and it returned us to the river. We trekked downriver along the riverbank, finally catching up with some of our landmarks from this morning, like the Saltzstadel and the oldest hotdog stand in the world. Soon we had the ship in view, just as the steady rain picked up a little more.
Since the forecast was for more rain, we elected not to go out for the late afternoon tour of the Christmas market, since we had already seen it, and didn’t feel like cold rain and soaking before bed. We lounged about the ship for the rest of the afternoon, and then attended the departure brief in the lounge before dinner. We had our final dinner onboard, and posed for a picture with our tablemates and our fantastic hostess, Carmen. We had had a blast with these people all week, trading stories and getting to know each other. It was a little sad saying goodbye this evening before we went below to pack for the trip home.
But pack we did, and got everything ready to go. We had a 0600 departure, so we would be up dark and early to get a quick snack before departing. We got to bed as early as we could!