After breakfast, Christine, Steffan, Hermann, Sandy, myself, and Gustl (their sheepdog) piled in the car and went to the picturesque town of Kelheim. Christine drove us around the town showing us the highlights including where she has her orthodontic practice. Then out of town just a little ways to a pier on the Danube where we boarded a big boat, three decks tall, with a restaurant inside. We are always surprised to see so many dogs traveling everywhere. Even on the boat they are allowed and we see them everywhere, in the airport, shops, and even in the biergartens. Certainly a different custom than in America! We were surprised to see that outside of restaurants and biergartens they have doggie bowls of water for the pooches to drink from.
The boat held a surprisingly large amount of people, Sandy and I estimated about 200 or so. There we were, two American girls in the middle of 200 smiling, laughing, sight-seeing, Germans all speaking a language that we couldn't begin to understand! We just smiled and enjoyed the sights and sounds with the rest of the crowd along with an ice cream treat called a Cherry Lady. Yes, Greg I am eating the ice cream! Greg told me that I must eat the ice cream because it is the best ever and I sure wouldn't want to disappoint him! The Cherry lady was in a tall glass with cherries and chocolate shavings in the bottom, then vanilla ice cream in the middle, topped with whipped cream. Yum, Yum! I sure did enjoy that lunch!
Up the river we headed for about 45 minutes toward our stop in Weltenburg. Along the way we enjoyed a beautiful sunny, clear day with beautiful scenery. The shore looked much as it would back home with many, many green trees lining the bank and a bike path following the shore. There were also many outcroppings of rock walls like you would see in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Very pretty! One boulder balanced on top of a mountain of rock was said to be Napoleon's suitcase. He left Germany so quickly that he forgot his suitcase! Our final destination was a Benedictine Monastery built along the river where monks formerly lived. The sanctuary was incredibly painted with frescos on the ceiling and a confessional draped in velvet and elaborately carved wood. Very impressive with lots of huge marble columns and beautiful statues everywhere. Along with the religious stuff they interspersed a very nice gift shop, an artist's studio, and of course, a biergarten! What a way to spend the afternoon!
After viewing the monastery and grounds we headed back to the boat for the ride downriver. As we got to our pier another sight came into view. It was a tower called Liberation Hall which was built to commemorate the victorious battles fought against Napoleon in the early 1800's. Steffan likened it to our Statue of Liberty, a symbol of freedom and they were quite proud of it, just as we would be showing off our Lady Liberty.
Our next stop was the Dr. Seuss Tower. It's not really called the Dr. Suess tower but we called it that because that is what it looked like! It was a tall whimsical tower of vibrant colors and assorted shapes topped off by a golden dome. It was built at a brewery by a famous artist interested in recycling and preserving nature. It is rather hard to describe so I have included a photo below. The tower is only two years old and created quite a stir amongst the residents of this city filled with buildings of several hundred years old. The residents put up quite a fight to prevent it being erected but common sense won out when they realized how many tax dollars they would receive from tourism. I found myself wondering where I could have one constructed in Orion and how our townspeople would respond! We stopped in their biergarten of course, for a snack and a little bit of drink. We are starting to lose track of how many biergartens we have visited and decided to keep track with an official trip count!
Heading down the road through the countryside we spotted a field of hops. It is harvest time and the vines grow straight up a wire attached to a tall pole and were quite green and lush. We pulled over into the field and started snapping pictures. All six of us (Gustal included in this count, LOL) piled into the car and started to leave the field when a tractor with cutting equipment in the front and a wagon behind pulled in. Hermann got excited and announced that they looked like they would be cutting it and we stopped and stayed to watch. The cutter in front chops the vines off a couple of feet from the ground and then the tall vine is thrown into the wagon. It was quite efficient and we marveled at this procedure. We were in the right place a the right time!
Not very far from the hops field was a site Steffan knew about and so off we went. Just outside of Eining was a former Roman Empire fort site. The Romans, 2,000 years ago, built a fort overlooking the Danube. It covered quite a large area and we envisioned Roman soldiers eating, training, and living here. Exactly where I was standing, 2,000 years ago, people placed these stones and formed a city! Here we were, in 2011 after flying across the sky from another world where white men would not even see my place of residence in Illinois for many hundreds of years, standing at the ruins of buildings this old! It was quite humbling. I am just a very minuscule speck in the big picture of life and I am grateful to be reminded of this.
Supper was not very far away down the road and it was at a delightful biergarten next to the Danube where a ferry takes people, cars, bikes, whatever across without the use of power of any sort other than the river itself. The current does the heavy work of navigation while the small ferry is attached to a cable above. This country truly is another world! We watched the ferry work for a bit and we ordered fish, I am not certain but we think it was trout. Christine recommended this as the best fish around and it was very good! The trout. (we think) was filled with herbs and onions and coated in spices then baked. The head was still attached and I was NOT going to eat fish lips! However, Christine said that the cheek meat was the best part so I did eat fish cheek! A tiny morsel of beautiful meat from that poor fishes cheek! We laughed and enjoyed! There was a gentleman there in traditional German dress complete with lederhosen (translated leather pants) and we asked to take a photo with him. He was quite happy to comply and after let us look over his outfit. He asked if we wanted to feel the real leather and of course, we did. He joked laughingly, in broken English, with a wide naughty grin, we could touch anywhere but maybe should avoid the front! Ahhh, the universal language...sex!
It was dark as we headed back into Regensburg but we still had one more thing to do. There was a festival, carnival, pretty much like the county fair, in town and we wanted to go. Everyone went back to the house and Sandy and I walked across the bridge to the festival. It had a HUGE ferris wheel with many lights and was quite impressive! But we were not interested in the carnival rides, we wanted to do what girls do best...shop! It was basically a small flea market and we wandered around there, purchased a few things and got a late night snack to eat in one of the several beirgartens. Starting to see a theme here? LOL We knew that a storm was rolling in and soon it started to thunder and lightning as we headed for home. By the time we walked home in the warm rain, we were pretty wet and laughing pretty hard. People were still walking along the river, biking and just getting wet while doing so. No worries, 'cause we are on vacation!
The night came to and end with us writing in our journals and hopping into bed at 12:30 thinking we should surely sleep soundly after this very full day. However at 3:30 we were still talking and laughing! (wish you were here, Gin) and it was gonna be an early morning! What a great day on this exciting, eagerly anticipated, vacation in Germany! Talk to ya tomorrow!
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