Regensburg- Fri, July 18

As I've mentioned before, Viking River Cruises do a great job with their program.  Lots of variety between relaxing sailing the river, viewing gorgeous scenery from the sun deck or air conditioned lobbies, dining room or staterooms.  Most people have a full door-window and/or little balcony as part of their room, but not us.  We are on the bottom level, so only have a little window, but we're mostly out of our room except to sleep, so not a big deal.  We are served three meals a day, with lots of choices for our dining pleasure.   The presentation is a work of art.  I like to eat and try things, so I've been eating....lots!  We don't usually eat desserts at home, but I've had to try some of the ones that are offered...just to let them know we appreciate their culinary skills, of course!

We have walking and/or bus tours everyday.  In between, they offer lectures, concerts, live piano music, games.  

I am going to brag a little.  I love playing games, but I'm terrible at Trivial Pursuit.  Most of my family usually don't want me on their team (although they don't really say that!)   But on this day on the ship, they had us playing "Last Man Standing."  They should have titled it:  "Last Woman Standing" because I won the first round!  It was mostly trivia about the crew and statistics of the longboat we are on.  They had given a lecture about it earlier--I wished I had paid more attention to the lecture or their brochures when I realized what the game was about.  But I made some lucky guesses, and I was the last WOMAN standing!  The prize:  a bottle of red wine from one of the castle areas!   A proud moment indeed!

We disembared at Regensberg, a 2000 year old community.    This is one of Germany's best-preserved medieval cities and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We saw the stone bridge that was the first bridge ever built over the Rhine during the Roman era.  It is now being refurbished.  Our guide pointed out a plaque on a building that indicated there was evidence some of the formations had been there since 718 AD.   Some of the streets were very narrow, and the houses had a slight curve to them.  

We went into the big St. Peter's Cathedral with it's beautiful stained glass. (The photo doesn't do it justice.)    Such fine gothic architecture. 

We also found a shop with lots of Bavarian cuckoo clocks, and a young woman giving a presentation about them.  One of the cuckoo clocks was just like the one my mother bought when she traveled with me in Europe in 1969.  My daughter now has that clock.  

We have been doing a lot of walking, mostly on cobblestone streets.  It has been getting warmer each day now.  We walked back through a street faire — signed a statement supporting Amnesty International.  It was written in German so we hope what we signed is what we would want to support!  There were other peace-type organizations there, too, including Green Peace, so it was fun to see the more progressive side of Germany on display.

For the evening entertainment on the ship, they brought on board three local singers who sang a variety of songs, changing costumes based on their music:  Opera, Sound of Music, and some fun tunes where they engaged the audience.  They were very good.