Day 4: Deggendorf and Regensburg

Day 4:  Tuesday December 14^th

We have been on the Amalyra a full 24 hours now and so far have not sailed out of the town of Deggendorf where the bus brought us to yesterday.  However, at the daily briefing this evening our very cheerful and personable Dutch captian told us that the water level is continuing to go down and so 95% sure, we will sail at 3am tomorrow morning.  I don’t really understand why, but we will sail upstream towards Regensburg, the town we have visited thisafternoon by bus, rather than towards Budapest, which is our final destination.  However, it is really refreshing not to have to plan or understand the route – just to sit back and let the tour leaders make the decisions.

Thismorning, after yet another full breakfast (oh the food we are eating!!), Csaba, our tour guide led us into the town of Deggendorf.  Like all the towns we are expeiencing, the shops and businesses were lining the town square which had tall clock towers each end.  We mainly used our time to find Roger a very nice new pair of dressy jeans – will be better for the Mozart concert (see Day 3’s blog if you don’t understand this comment.)

The day was the coldest yet and we walked through light snow most of the day.  We are finding that our purchases of boots and thick gloves, polar fleece and rain jackets was just right.  So far we have had no problem at all with cold or wet feet, nor with keeping ourselves snug and warm. I find my face to be getting very cold and I have nearly succumbed to one of those ugly hats with ear pieces and plaits down the side.  However, I find that if I wear 2 of my hats with my black one, then a scarf over my head and wrapped around my face and then another hat on top of that, I am quite cosy.  Only trouble is that if I use the scarf to cover my face, my glasses get fogged up, so I have to choose between being warm or seeing properly!  Roger bought some ear muffs in Prague, so he is quite cosy with them and his Essendon beanie or his cap.

Those who told us that we would get sick of getting rugged up for the cold and then cooking inside the buildings were so right.  The inside warmth is really playing havoc with Roger’s thyroid body heat.  I am beginning to think that when people ask us what we did in Europe, we will have to say, “We dressed Roger, we undressed Roger, we dressed Roger, we undressed Roger.”   And as you all know, Roger does nothing with speed : oh my! patience is certainly a virtue!

As you can tell, we are already finding the weather, although enchanting, also a bit tedious.  We have a new appreciation of why the celebration of spring became such a big thing in ancient days.

Lunch was back on the ship – a choice between a full buffet lunch in the restaurant or just soup and light things in the lounge.  We wisely chose the latter and will continue to do so.  The lead up DVD and brochures for this cruise were certainly not ‘gilding the lily’’.  Everything is absolutely first class and the whole staff and crew on the ship are wonderful.  One special little touch is that every time we return to the ship after a shore  excursion, the captain is at the door saying ‘Welcome home’ as we each get off the gangplank.   We find ourselves sitting with different people for each meal and having nice chats as we do so.  The ship is obviously not to capacity as there were several empty seats tonight at dinner, and we found ourselves dining without company.  This turned out to be very fortuitous as Roger found it impossible to stay awake.  He had taken some cold medication just before dinner, and I think that didn’t agree with the wine.  He struggled and struggled, went for a walk in the brisk evening air, but nothing really helped,  The very amusing  thing was that the lady at the table next to us was having the same problem and her husband was doing all the same things as me to try to keep her awake.   Finally the meal was over and both couples high-tailed it to our cabins.  There was to be a ceremonial decorating of the tree in the lounge at 9pm, but by then, we were both fast asleep. (Hence I am actually writing this at 6am Wednesday morning, but writing as though it is still Tuesday.)

Well back to the main activity for Tuesday.  After lunch we were bused to Regensburg – an hour’s drive away.  It wasn’t the ‘drive through a Christmas card’ that Monday’s wonderful drive had been, so most of the passengers took the opportunity for an afternoon nap.  Once at Regensburg, we split into three groups to follow one of the local guides whose commentary, with the aid of wireless radio units, came directly to earphone we had been provided with. 

We found Regensburg to be a charming city.  As so many are, it is a medieval city, whose wealth was built on salt.  It was part of the silk road, its location on the Danube making it a central location not only for east-west trade routes but also those north and south. It boasts the oldest bridge in Europe – dating back to about 1300. 

 

Apparently in its hey day, merchants here became fabulously wealthy and some great stories were told to us about how they each boasted their wealth by building  a stone tower taller than their competitors.  Hence  the old part of the city has many very high stone towers – most of them with only the first 10 metres or so of usable space.  The rest of the tower is empty space with false ‘windows’ to give the impression that it is habitable.    But when things went bad for a merchant, he had to start selling off the stone from the top of his tower to pay his debts – hence the term ‘stone broke’.  

Another display of wealth in the Middle Ages was to paint biblical story murals on the wall of the house.  There is stillz one there – David and Goliath.  It is huge and is kept restored.  The street that runs past it is called Goliath St.

There was a lovely Christmas market in the city square, this one selling many German-made wooden tree decorations.  Naturally we picked up a few.  The day was so cold that we retreated into a department store for a warm drink, before making our way back to the bus through the now quite dark and snowy evening (5 pm).  On our way back we stopped at a store which sold beautiful German crafts and we made our first purchase of gifts- a sweet little treasure for Lillian’s 4^th birthday.  My attention to the window had been drawn by three gorgeous wooden figures of the wise men, each looking utterly surprised.  However they were just a little too expensive, so regretfully we left them there and I now realise that I should have taken a photo of them at least. 

Tomorrow, as long as we manage to set sail as planned at 3am, we will dock at Regensburg and will travel by bus to Nuremburg.  Both Roger and I are very keen to see Nuremburg – particularly where the war crime trials were held.  We await to see what another fascinating but very tiring day will bring.