The toilets here remain half full of water, so when you do your business you get a clear view. Fantastic. One should ALWAYS check their poo. If it’s red and you haven’t been eating beetroot, get yourself checked. If things suddenly change with your habits. Get yourself checked.

If you take only one thing from this bog…whoops I mean blog. Let it be that.

So….so many Burgs

Today was Regensburg. We are now on the Danube River.

But first, before this Burg, given my feet appeared to have even put on weight, a trip to the gym. Where I discovered I can get YouTube on the walker. And further discovered I could actually watch GFlip and hence my youngest son.

I’m so in love with their new song Australia. And just a little bit in love with them. That song absolutely highlights and features the person that I think they are, based on my short meet and greet and what Michael tells me about them.

Our schedule today was an ice cream lovers delight. Among other things.

I once again missed the stretching with Petra due to not waking up until 8.17am. After months of 5.30 and 6am starts it’s been nice to sleep in. But I did promise her that I would be at the next one.

After a nice healthy vegetarian lunch in the lounge (in readiness for the wicked afternoon tea spread they always put on) I departed said lounge so as not to be tempted by the ice cream party being set up. 6-8 different flavours, all made onboard with about 15 different and very tempting add ons. Apparently. This on top of the afternoon tea. No wonder even my feet have put on weight. To be honest, I would much prefer a cheese bar.

At 2.15 we set out for our guided walking tour. Our boat had pulled up beside this rather lovely little castle thingy. Yep another ABC.

It was bitterly cold. The long john’s and merino thermals made another very welcome appearance. In a few days, Vienna promises to be 19. We have had to be prepared for all weather.

As we walked I noticed quite a few groups of young men or young women – never mixed – sitting on the side of the river drinking alcohol. There were others wandering around eating ice cream. They sure love their ice cream here. As we walked I also noticed many of the younger people laughing at our group. Not in a nice way. We forged on. You can laugh all you like peeps but we are travelling. You aren’t. Enough said.

One of our first stops was to show us the big fish at the gallery.

Noting that every time any arty building was constructed, a piece of art is required outside the building. Local fish, but unfortunately the eye is actually graffiti.

We then headed to the bridge which basically connected the residential area to the city.

The bridge build commenced in 1135 and took 11 years to complete. Pretty fast apparently. Romanesque architecture. There was a whole story around the building of the bridge. Most of which I don’t quite remember. I did note the Devil was involved in ensuring it was built quickly.

Right beside the bridge stands the oldest ‘take away’ building in Germany, at 400 years. German sausage. I mean who doesn’t love a bit of German sausage. Probably the pretend vegetarian. Wait I forgot, I’m pescatarian.

We continued on into the city area.

And then it hailed.

Only a little bit. Our guide told us it isn’t really hail until it dents the cars.

At a crossroads our guide explained the mural on the wall of David and Goliath. Given it was the main entrance to town at the time, and the first thing the Dutch Duke saw when he visited what was his old capital, the message to the Duke was – don’t mess with us, we may be smaller but we are stronger. The artist also drew an ugly green frog complete with a moustache – you can sort of make it out beside Goliath. Legend has it that the Duke always wore a green robe and had been whacked fairly heavily with the ugly stick. However when the mural was ‘renovated’ the artists changed it to a normal rather pleasant looking frog not understanding the significance.

Below is the site of the Bishops Brewery which was torn down due to the smell. Pity. They only drank wine and beer for a long time, once again due to the lack of water quality. 4-5 litres of wine or beer every day, including children. After tearing down the brewery they found a Roman portal with 2000 year old stones. Porta Pretoria.

The Cathedral of Saint Peter took 200 years to build with the last part of the build being completed in 1493.

As we walked towards the Cathedral I was quite fascinated by these gates. The arch behind is actually steps. I wondered why they would have gates to nowhere. MoD suggested it may be to stop the hoons from driving down the steps. Could be MoD. Could be.

This building is the site of a visit by Napoleon Bonaparte. I think he only visited once but that was worthy of a plaque on the wall and a stop by every tour guide. He was after all, a rather famous man.

And of course no place is complete without a Rathaus.

The Prinzess is the oldest cafe in town dating back to 1696.

We enjoyed our guide and his stories. Particularly the one about the chamber pots. The people who had the stores in the alleys also lived upstairs and owned the buildings. Before cobble stones were placed in the alleys it was just dirt. Chambers pots would of course be thrown out of windows. It was so rank that a law was passed forbidding you to do such a thing. If you were caught, you would be dressed in an extremely itchy woollen jumper full of bells and be forced to sweep the alley. Not a quiet job. I’m betting a few people did it but didn’t get caught and you would be left cleaning your neighbours mess as well as your own while they stood and laughed. Purely speculation on my part of course. My previous life wasn’t in this era.

After our guided tour it was a wander around the city centre then back to the boat for afternoon tea.

At 6.45 each evening we have a debrief for the next day’s activities with our host Johan. We all meet in the lounge prior for a cocktail. Because there is 8 of us, sometimes 10, just before Johan finishes his talk and tells us the restaurant is now open, two of us usually scoot downstairs to be first in line. Why you might ask? Are we hungry? With 10 meals a day I don’t think so. It’s so we can get the small dining rooms at the front of the restaurant which allow us all to sit comfortably together.

Mr. Young is our usual server. From the first day he remembered all our names, even though we haven’t worn our name badges since. He gives us special service. It seems even though I rarely order ‘Yum Yum’ (dessert), he always brings something for me. Did I mention even my feet have put on weight? True story.

And then, in a food coma, we headed upstairs for the evenings entertainment. Tonight was a mini Oktoberfest with um-pa-pa and traditional biergarten music presented by a Bavarian duo. Apparently participation was required.

I headed to bed.

Big day tomorrow. We are going to Salzburg, home of Mozart and of course The Sound of Music.

Gute Nacht.