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My Tower is Bigger Than Your Tower

 Guten Abend aus Deutschland!

Patrician towers...if there ever was anything that was a status symbol, it's a tower built in the 13th century by a wealthy family to show their prominence. It literally 'towers' above the city at 9 stories (165 feet). At one time, there were 60 of these in the city. The taller the tower, the more prominent the family. Talk about one-upmanship! Now I wonder, who had to climb 9 stories worth of stairs to get to their bedroom, but when they did, what a view. On the other hand, it could be that the tower wasn't really used for housing, but just to show off. Nothing I've read about them says they had a real function. 


The "Golden Tower" seen from down the street. 


Nowadays, all the palatial homes are apartments upstairs, and shops on the ground floor. There are shops for bedding, bakeries, coffee shops, clothing boutiques, doctor's offices, restaurants, and ice cream shops. All sorts of shops and offices. We played tourist and got an ice cream to enjoy as we strolled down the narrow alleyways, dodging bicycles, and even cars. That was our Thursday excursion into the Regensburg Altstadt. 

Today's outing was a nature walk. We walked all around the lake that's in the Donau Park (the park by the Danube). With binoculars in hand, I went in search of birds. Since the tree birds were so elusive, and still have lots of cover, I focused on the waterfowl. I might be the world's worst birder, for I can't tell a duck from a goose! I was getting frustrated because I would spot a bird on the lake and look in the duck section of my bird app and come up blank. In all, I saw four different kinds of water birds, one of which was a mallard. At home, I looked on the laptop at a birding website just for Regensburg, and identified my mystery "ducks". One was a Graylag goose, one a Eurasian coot, and the other a Great Crested grebe. Score 3 new birds, and one old friend (the mallard). 

According to Pat, this was the farthest we've walked so far on this trip, and so far, my knee hasn't hurt at all. 


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