The Great Danube Cruise Day Six, Regensburg

Friday we had a lovely day in Regensburg, Germany.

We were on the bus at 830 am to head to the Danube Gorge. There we boarded a boat and cruised down the beautiful gorge for about twenty minutes until we came upon Weltenburg Monastery, the world's oldest monastic brewery!  These monks were smart. When they had to fast for lent they would simply drink beer for six weeks straight and get all the nutrients they needed. 

We sat at the Beirgarten and had a rubbery pretzel and a delicious dark beer made on premises. 

Next we toured the church that I wasn't particularly excited about. But then we walked inside and wow! Baroque madness! We had a wonderful guide who explained how these follies were basically branding for the church. Showing their majesty, wealth and glory. I guess I knew that but hearing him explain it through the lighting, paintings and sculptures, it all made sense. 

 Look up! That is the designer of the church looking down on his proud piece of work.

Finally we met our bus behind the monastery and drove back to the boat for lunch. At 2pm there was a tour of Regensburg. Mom sat that one out and I took in the amazing sights in the UNESCO world heritage town. It is one of the greatest examples of a Medieval town because the town basically went broke after that era so they never 'baroqued' the place and now it is quite special. 

Oh and we saw a wedding and the release of the doves!

While the tour was well done I had money burning a hole in my pocket and found an amazing menswear shop. When I walked in the gentleman snapped at me, 'Can I help you?' 'Do you know the prices of these blazers?' I about turned on my heel and popped him but I just laughed and remembered he is German. Once I started trying on the traditional German coats made from Loden wool with deer horn buttons he relaxed a little. It is the perfect weight for a winter coat in Charleston and it can be a handsome blazer in NYC. I tried on a couple more and then left to think about it. And let that German dick head sit and stew a bit.

I checked out this amazing hat shop. Where is the Rod Keenan? 

Flat Paul seemed to like this ye ole art...

The town was charming and it was nice just to run about and see how the locals live. I found some fun gifts for friends and family - Christmas is on the way! But that damn Tyrolian Loden jacket kept calling my name. So I went back and was thrilled to see a smiling woman behind the desk. She was wonderful, told me all about the mill the wool comes from, the history of the coat and the brand. Sold!

On that note it was time to head back to the boat. Dinner was fun but the real excitement was the German mustached man named 'Hansi' who came on board to entertain us. While he was amusing for the first five minutes, the audience participation got to be a bit much. Of course I was called up to play wooden spoons on my knee. Well it was fine for five minutes but I got bored so decided to do a Bavarian Twirk. That made a HUGE HIT. The next morning at breakfast I got a lot of handshakes...