Meanwhile in Germany...

  Guten Tag! The summer-like weather is back and I'm taking all the advantage of it that I can, including making another all-day excursion, this time to part of Germany's wine country in the city of Würzburg. I enjoyed a glass of locally grown and vintnered Weissburgender on their old stone bridge (which is charming, but still doesn't compare to the Alte Steine Brücke in Regensburg). By the way, my title is actually a rhyme: "Wine on the Main" (pronounced "mine"). The wine was very good, at least according to my amateur and unsophisticated taste, but I expect the real wine sophisticates would like it, too.  Würzburg was a two-and-a-half hour train trip from Regensburg, north to Nürnberg and then west, but still in Bavaria. Their Altstadt was almost as beautiful as Regensburg's, but a lot of it was reconstructed after WWII, so it's not as authentic. Ninety percent of the city was destroyed in fire bombing in a British air raid.  Würzburg boasts ...

Gruß Gott! With only two weeks from today remaining in Germany, I want to get the most out of it I can. After class today I hopped a train for a 40 or so minute trip to Landshut, It's not "Land Shut", but "Lands Hut" (Hut pronounced "hoot"). Today was much cooler than the past two, when we got up into the 80's Fahrenheit. That was uncomfortable. Today was in the low 70's with a strong breeze.  The highlight of the trip was St. Martin's, built between 1389 and 1500 in the Gothic style, which I prefer over the Baroque, as it has cleaner lines and less busy ornamentation. The spire is the world's highest church spire of its kind, at 130.6 meters (428.5 feet).  As I walked about inside the church I read the posters they had along the left side (not in photo) about their restoration efforts-- auf Deutsch . My reading comprehension has really improved in the past 8 months. Wind and rain and time all take their toll on the structure, and it ta...

  Guten Tag! After waiting on weather and illness, I finally made it to Austria, this making three European countries that I have visited. Europe is a very pleasant place, especially in spring, and there's not a lot of things, such as snakes, scorpions, bears, tornadoes, earthquakes, and such that want to kill you. Europe is generally very pedestrian and cyclist friendly. I enjoyed walking along Salzach River, which originates in the Alps and eventually becomes a tributary of the Inn, which is a tributary of the Danube. The temperature was in the 70's, and the sun was shining, which made shade very desirable. I was fortunate to be able to see the Alps, which I'm told remain hidden in clouds a lot. Being glacier-carved, they resembled the mountains of Alaska.  I have concluded that Austria is to Germany what Canada is to the US. They speak the same languages as each other, but are still 'foreign', but not as foreign as a country with a different language, such as the...

  Gruß Gott von Regensburg! It's April in southern Germany, and it's a spring as spring can get. I'd forgotten just how spring unfolds in lower latitudes than Alaska. The weather is very changeable, and can literally go from sunny to rainy and back again in minutes.  So, now that I'm over the creeping crud, I'm ready for adventures again. My original plan was to go to Salzburg, Austria on Easter Monday, which is a public holiday here, but the forecast was for rain, so I'm saving Salzburg for another week, probably next week, as I have less than 3 weeks left in Germany. My Monday excursion, then, was to Bamberg, north of here on a 2 1/2 hour train ride. People say Bamberg rivals Regensburg for its picturesque Altstadt , and surroundings. It was the most beautiful place I've visited so far, but I would still say Regensburg holds an edge.  The photo at the top of the page is the old town hall, built on an island in the middle of the Regnitz River. According to ...

  Guten Abend aus Regensburg! See this train? I'm not on it (although I was when I took this picture). Nor have I been to church, nor have I been to German class. Where have I been? Home, in the apartment, mostly lying down. Nothing like the cold/flu/covid (or whatever) to make one missing in action. Since Pilsen, when I think I was coming down with it, I've been stuck at home. Not having all my normal things to do, I've actually felt boredom. I've been coughing my head off, and consuming tissues by the fistfuls. Ugh! But tonight I can say I seem to over the worst of it.  In my forced convalescence, I've watched a lot of German TV, including Aschenputtel , known in English as Cinderella, which I started watching a few months ago, but couldn't finish. I wanted to find out if the stepsisters actually hacked off parts of their feet to make the shoe fit, as in the German version of Cinderella. I also wanted to know if the birds pecked their eyes out. Sure enough, th...

Guten Abend aus Regensburg! Today my wanderlust took me to Pilsen in the Czech Republic. I cut class and took a 2 1/2 hour train ride (one way) to a totally different and foreign country, and I'm so glad I did. I will be thinking about this experience for a very long time. Germany is foreign, but I can communicate and I can read all the signs, and understand all the announcements, but in the Czech Republic, I don't even know one word of the language.  I wandered into an open-air market sort of place, and food was one of the things they had on offer. One of the first things I tried was hot honey wine. I exchanged some Euros and got Czech Crowns in change (which are my souvenirs). It was really good. I think I like that better than the Christmas Gluhwein we have here. Pilsen is actually more famous for its beer: think "Pilsner" beer...They invented it. They offer a beer brewery tour with beer tasting, but it would have been wasted on me.  Instead, I went back to try ho...