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Museum Field Trip

 

Schönen Tag!

They even get freezing rain in southern Germany. But this girl from Alaska is prepared! In an inside zipper pocket of my winter coat I had stashed away a pair of ice cleats. I was beginning to think I wouldn't need them here, but today they proved to be a life saver. While I was in class this morning, the sidewalks and everything else got glazed in ice. I don't know how I would have gotten back to the bus and home again without them. 

I made a one-woman field trip to the Historisches Museum Regensburg after class yesterday. It cost all of 2,50 Euros to get in, and I spent nearly an hour and a half there. The building itself was once a Franciscan monastery, founded in 1221. The displays cover area history from the stone age to the present day. 

Pictured: part of an inscription that used to be over the fort gate. The first floor is dedicated to the Roman history of Regensburg, Castra Regina. What is now the city center began as a legionary fort on the northernmost point of the Danube. This slab proclaims the completion of the legionary fort in 179 AD. 

Who were they defending against? All those Germanic peoples who later sacked Rome. There are traces of this fort all over the Altstadt. This large model shows the construction of the fort, with the arrival of the large blocks by boat, their preparation, and their stacking using cranes. It's mind blowing to me to be able to touch these same stones and think of all the stories they could tell, if blocks could talk. 

Up a flight of stairs and we enter the Middle Ages. 

On display were several models of churches built in Regensburg, and lots of statues and paintings, picture tapestries (kept in a dimly lighted room to protect them), household effects, and weapons. 

Paintings were both of a religious nature, and portraits of prominent and wealthy citizens. There was one supposedly of the Trinity, featuring an old man and a young man seated, and a bird in between. There's a reason this sort of thing is not considered an icon and used in the Church, and I didn't even want to take a picture of it. 


I ended my little field trip with lunch across the street at a bakery. Now I have to say, German bread is fantastic, but...this mystery meat wasn't so impressive. So far, German cuisine (is that an oxymoron??) hasn't excited me. Sausages are good, but that's about as far as it goes. Luckily, I only paid 3,65 Euros ($4.00) for the sandwich, which is average for a bakery sandwich. And in Europe, they don't put ice in their beverages, but the bottle of soda was cold from the refrigerator, and I'm getting used to no ice. 

And now for an announcement: We have just today purchased our tickets for the trip home. We will be arriving in Anchorage on April 23rd at 7:30 PM. 

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