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The Old Town Hall

 Guten Tag aus Regensburg!

Today's excursion was to the Regensburg Old Town Hall. Regensburg seems to be very proud of its Middle Ages past, having been an Imperial City at one time, and the site of the precursors to today's German Parliament. 


I showed up 6 minutes before the next tour and bought my ticket using only German, even though this was a visitor's center and I'm certain they could speak English. Thing is, the tour was all in German, which I understood better than I expected to. I can't help wondering if there was an English language tour, but that I got the German one because I presented as a German. All the other tourists were Germans. 

The detail work on all the doors, walls and ceilings was exquisite. The door area shows some Greek architectural influence, and the wood is Hungarian oak.


Construction on the Old Town Hall (Alte Rathaus) began in 1245 and is in Gothic and Baroque style. 


If you look closely at the clock, it has only one hand. Minutes weren't as important to the people back in the 1300's. The  hour hand slowly made its way between the hours, and here you can see it's almost 11 am, which indeed, it was. 

What appears to be a window is really a grid on the floor though which you can see down into a bare stone room. This room was used as a jail. The accused was left to sit on a cold stone floor with no amenities whatsoever. They certainly had a different mentality in those days. 

If it's any consolation, they also had two low, dark rooms that were made of wood. If you were 'lucky' to be thrown in there instead of in the stone cell, you would at least have the warmth of wood. But when I say dark, I mean, no light when they shut and locked the door. Very claustrophobic! 

And then there was the torture chamber. I bet not many people can say they've seen a real torture chamber. The tour guide told us how the various devices were used, and I couldn't help but think of the many saints who chose to submit to torture rather than deny Christ, and would I be so devoted...

(Sorry for the rough formatting. Blogger won't let me do wrap on the photos, nor put two on the same line.)

I felt very solemn here, and waited to take a quick photo after the tour guide left the room. The other guy taking photos seemed to feel the same. 

The weather here has been in the 70's and clear. We've taken a few walks on trails in different parks over the past few days, as much as my knee at three months post-op will allow. 

For now, Gute Nacht!




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