SS Suzi Q: Day 10 - Church Bells are Ringing

Hello from Regensburg!

Today we cruised on the last bit of the Main-Danube canal and finally joined into the Danube River. But not before crossing over the Continental Divide. For those who don't know what that is, it's the point in all land masses where the water changes direction. While we were going down the Rhine and then the Main we were going against the current, because those rivers are flowing towards the North Sea. The Danube flows down towards the Black Sea, now we are going with the current.

Danube and Main-Danube canal come together

As we floated along we enjoyed a carol of bells as the churches announced their meetings for sabbath. Really an amazing chorus of bells from medieval times to the present. Wish we had those on Sunday to welcome us to church.

We arrived in Regensburg around 1.30p, half hour later than expected and in the wrong spot. We had our first opportunity to "lock hop". Our ship pulled in along the side of a lock and we all quickly hopped off as the captain was waiting for his turn in the lock. Our guides first took us across a bridge built in 1135, and is currently being renovated, but part of it was done and we were able to walk on it and take in the view of Regensburg. Which like all towns thus far is a tight grouping of houses with clock towers and spires popping up amongst the tiled roofs like flowers.

This is our ship barely squeeking under the bridge at the lock

View of Regensburg from the bridge in the 1800s

View of Regensburg from the bridge 2013

The Regensburg bridge crossing the Danube

Regensburg was a roman fortress at one point around 90 AD. In 179 AD the Romans built up the fort because of it's military importance on the Danube. You can see in the plaque below as well as in the picture of the fort that some stones still stand from that time period. Fortunately during WWII the bombings on the town were more focused on the airplane manufacturing and oil refinery outside of town, so most of the houses and churches were preserved.

What's left of the roman fort, the grey rocks on the tower and arch are original to the fort

The roman plaque indicating that this was a roman fort during Marcus Aurelius' reign

Regensburg was also the permanent seat of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire, which became known as the Perpetual Diet of Regensburg. Thus, Regensburg was one of the central towns of the Empire, attracting visitors in large numbers. A diet is not what you think, it is a group of catholic bishops and princes who meet together and help to rule and manage the country. The Rathaus was where the Diet met for their meetings. Regensburg was also important because that's where the salt came to be weighed, measured and distributed. Salt was important because it helped preserve vegetables, fish and meat so that it wouldn't spoil and they could have food during the winter.


Entry to the Rathaus where the Imperial Diet met, notice the guys in stone above, they are prepared to throw rocks and weapons at those who enter

The tallest house in the town, only the rich would build towers in their house to show how important and rich they were. After the first 2 floors no one even lived in the towers, it was just for show. They did use the towers for fire watch though, because during that time most homes were built of wood.

Regensburg in approx. 800 AD had Jewish settlers and they became a community within the city. But like all Jews living in Europe they were highly persecuted. In 1096 a crusader knight heading to Israel convinced the city to mob the Jews in the town and try to force them to convert to Christianity, those who didn't were killed. In the 1300-1600s Jews were not allowed to have a job, they couldn't be carpenters or bakers or anything because the guilds/groups for those particular jobs wouldn't let them join. If you weren't in the guild you couldn't do your job. Then in the 1600s the church clergy decided that it was a sin for any christian person to lend money to another so the Jews became the bankers and would lend people money. Unfortunately around the middle of the 1600s in February the governors of the town decided to kick the Jews out of town, some of them left by boat and were drowned when the ship hit ice. Others moved to outside of the town limits but were kicked out by the King 50 years later. The Jews returned eventually and around the 1800s they were allowed to be tradesmen, but when Hitler came to power the Jews were once more taken from their homes and sent to concentration camps.

During one of the raids on the Jews, the townspeople knocked down all of the headstones in the Jewish cemetery and then people took the stones to use wherever. This is the headstone of a Jewish woman who died 700 years ago. This home owner took her stone and used it to build his house. Some did other awful things to them to spite the Jews.

Grandpa and I asked the tour guide for a good restaurant that the locals eat at. She gave us two and of course the first one we picked was closed for the summer break, So we hiked across town to the next option and it was good. I had a chicken schnitzel salad, with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and good german potato salad. Grandpa had a pork roast with boiled potatoes and green beans in a creamy mustard sauce. And of course we topped that off with ice cream. :)

The story of the day...
In the 1400s there was a Duke of Bavaria, Albert III, he fell in love with a servant girl, Agnes Bernauer, that he met at a jousting tournament in Augsburg. Agnes was not a pretty girl but he loved her. Against the Duke's fathers wishes he married Agnes. They soon had a daughter and lived in Vohlburg and Straubing. Agnes learned how to be a duchess and was soon well liked in court, which made her sister-in-law mad. Duke Albert's father, Duke Ernest, had planned on his son marrying another duke's daughter and so he was very angry with his son. He thought the son had ruined the royal line of succession by marrying a common girl, so he plotted to have Agnes killed. Duke Ernest had Albert leave on a hunting trip so he would be away for awhile. Then Duke Ernest had Agnes arrested and condemned for witchcraft. She was tied up and thrown off the bridge into the Danube river. But Agnes was smart she got her leg ropes off and swam to shore, but waiting for her on the shore was the executioner who pushed her down in the water and drowned her. Duke Albert was so sad that Duke Ernest built a chapel in Agnes' name in the cemetery of the Church of St. Peter at Straubing and had a sculpture of Agnes carved in her headstone. The people of Bavaria still celebrate the memory of the "Angel of Augsburg".