Strolling along the banks of the Danube in Regensburg, I felt as if I’d left the troubles of the world far behind. In true fairy tale style the water sparkled under the sunshine. Birds were all a twitter, trees offered shady places to sit, and I walked past gardens heavy with bloom. Had I stopped to listen, I’m sure I’d have heard some very contented bees.
Regensburg is a town of picture-perfect alleyways and old buildings. Like so much of Bavaria, it seems better suited to the romance of forgotten times than the practicalities of the modern world. Few cars are allowed in the centre of the town, adding to the charm.
Opposite the cathedral we found a cafe offering beer from the local Abbey. An elderly priest dressed in a flowing black cassock and leaning on a cane made his way slowly up the cathedral stairs. Out the back of the cafe (always use the bathroom, you never know what you might find) I found some stone steps leading down to an old courtyard. I could almost hear the horses stamping as they waited for their carts to be unloaded.
Regensburg Cathedral is a Gothic masterpiece. It was also virtually empty, the stillness adding to the peace. Among the statues adorning the outside on the wall is the Dam St Peter – a statue of the devil’s grandmother (which in itself has interesting theological implications). The original stained glass windows are reputedly the best example of Gothic workmanship in Germany, as is the cathedral itself. Surprising, near the altar I found an angel who was smiling, sculpted around 1280 by an artist known only as the Master of St. Erminold. In the crypt below, what looked like Celtic knots decorated the walls. I was postulating about possible Viking influences flowing on from earlier churches on this site, only to find the crypt wasn’t built until the 1980s!
Back down by the Danube, the Wurstkuchl Restaurant has been serving the people of Regensburg since around 1608, making it the oldest continually serving restaurant in the world. The building, which was attached to the old city wall, was originally used as the equivalent of a modern site office during the construction the Old Stone Bridge from 1135 to 1146. When the bridge was completed, the building became a Garküche auf dem Kranchen – a food stall on the dam crane. essentially, this was a kitchen providing slow-cooked meals for local dockers and builders, who used medieval cranes to move merchandise. The river was busy at the time, for the wealthy traders and patricians of the free city of Regensburg used port for shipping and receiving goods from all over the known world. The building site of the cathedral also had its far share of workers needing feeding.
It remains unknown when the slow-cooked or ‘simmered’ meats of the restaurant were replaced with their now famous pork sausages cooked over a charcoal grill. (Even today, only a few people know the recipe which is still in use.) The place was bough by Wolfgang Schricker as the start of the 19th century, and is still owned by the family.
A small stone building with a single room, the place has obviously had time to perfect its recipes. We sat at a table outside, watching the world go by as we ate a Wurstkuchl bratwurst with white cabbage sauerkraut (fermented in the restaurant’s cellar) and their famous Wurstkuchl mustard, made from the original recipe of Elsa Shricker. All, of course, washed down with another local beer.
Like my photos? – if you feel like contributing to my coffers, please click the link to buy my photos from my blog (still a work in progress, more photos to come) or else from the micro-stock sites 123RF or Shutterstock. These are affiliate links, as are some others in my blog.