Regensburg

Regensburg is another town in northern Bavaria, not far from Ingolstadt and further downstream on the Danube. It will probably remain offstage in the novel I'm doing with Virginia, but it figures prominently.

This is a picture of the medieval stone bridge which crosses the Danube from the center of old Regensburg. The view is looking from the south bank, by the way.

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The Danube, looking west from near the stone bridge.

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This is the center of Regensburg, looking at it from the stone bridge.

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These are some street scenes from Regensburg.

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Here's the town's Ratskeller, located in the Rathaus. This is a centuries-old tradition in German cities, going back to medieval times, which is still maintained in many of the smaller ones. (And even still in Munich, I'm told.) The Rathaus was the rough equivalent of what we'd call a town hall, and it always had a tavern in the basement. (Or, sometimes, the lowest floor.) It's one of the many little ways in which I was reminded that the social and political traditions of Germany, at least until the devastation caused by the Thirty Years War, were in many ways more democratic -- or, at least, "popular" -- than they were probably anywhere else in Europe. (Including England.) Most of these towns had a real political life to them before the princes locked their hold on Germany after the TYW.

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Alas, 'twas at Regensburg that Lucille lapsed into ancient barbaric rites and traditions. "Shopping" reared its ugly head.

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It started with fancy chocolates, naturally. Always the entry drug to more dangerous shopping habits.

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Here she is, cheerfully displaying her scalps. What women call "shopping bags."

(Yes, yes, I know I was aiding and abetting her. That's because ursus is low-browed but not stupid and learned many many years ago that the only way to deal successfully with the savage shopping gods -- usually goddesses, actually -- is just to placate the monsters with bribes and sacrifices. Way it is.)