Friday 9th October – Bad Abbach, Germany

The forecast promised us a dry day and so it turned out. It was however much cooler today and having temperatures close to or over 20°C every day so far, the 14°C maximum was a bit of a shock. The T-shirt was replaced by sweatshirt and fleece and we set off before 09:00 to walk the 25 minutes to the bus that took us into Regensburg. The German bus service is very good and here we were able to buy a 24 hour pass for €5.50.
The bus station, next to the train station, is on the edge of the centre of the city and a short walk took us to the cathedral. The hugely high nave is impressive but most of the interior is surprisingly plain, the exception being the stained glass windows, which are dark but beautiful and very intricate. The other highlight is the Baroque silver altar that dominates the view down the nave.
We saw the name Dr. Johann Maier, a preacher at the cathedral, on a large plaque in the nave and also on his grave in the crypt. Using Google we were able to establish that in April 1945 during the Nazi retreat, he publicly pleaded with the authorities to surrender the city rather than have it destroyed during a battle. For that he was sentenced to death and publicly hanged.
We moved on to the Tourist Information Office that is housed in the City Hall. This is also the building where civil marriages are held and there were wedding groups all around the square, with at least three couples waiting for their ceremony.
We always like to try to get a town/city self-guided walking trail and we were directed to a QR code where we downloaded an app. This gave us an interesting guided walk with spoken information at interesting points.
Jane fancied a pizza for lunch and we stopped at L’Osteria, found a table in the window and ordered two pizzas. The waitress explained that their pizzas are very large – did we really want one each? The man dressed in a red T-shirt sat at the next table turned out to be English and he advised us to have half each. He said that he had been starving himself for 3 days so that he could eat a whole one. We now realised that he had ‘Viking’ on his T-shirt and he explained that he was the cruise director for one of their boats. Viking have come under fire recently because their Danube cruises have turned into coach trips with the boats as a base. He explained that the Danube is the lowest ever since records began and many sections cannot be navigated. Viking have boats all along the river that are either stranded or can only move up and down a short section. Viking have had to organise coach trips to transfer the passengers from one boat to another further along the river. It must be a logistics nightmare! Our friend said that it is the most difficult time that he has had in his fifteen years working for Viking. Having said that, he also said that the passengers have been very positive and understanding.
We continued the walking tour to the famous Mediaeval bridge. Built between 1135 and 1146, it has hardly been changed since it was built and looks just as good. I climbed the bridge tower to see a view over the bridge and the city.
We walked back to the bus station and caught a busy bus back to Bad Abbach for the walk back to the campsite.
Photos: The Main-Danube Canal on the way to Bad Abbach; The Baroque altar of the cathedral; A novel method of wine transport; Evidence of the Roman fort of Castra Regina – the Porta Praetoria; The Mediaeval bridge – Steinerne Brucke; Reputed to be the oldest street food shop in the world, the Wurstkuche was built in 1320, probably for the workers building the Steinerne Brucke and it is very popular with tourists, especially those from the cruise boats that dock close by – there was a long queue when we were there; A view from the bridge looking back to the city; A view looking east along the Danube with an old mill on the left and an historic paddle steamer, now a museum, in the distance.