Regensburg

The cathedral here dates back to the year 700. Downstairs there is a reliquary from 1272, with all the bones wrapped in gold ribbons, all lined up tightly in an 18x18" box. Oddly I felt claustrophobic for this old bishop or nobleman. 

We got hopelessly lost trying to find our way back to the hotel this afternoon, but the upside is that we explored every little cobblestoned alley way in this Unesco world heritage site. We ended up helping an older women from Hawaii order some mint tea at a little bakery. She and the barista were in a stand off, talking at each other with no common ground. We actually have a small working German vocabulary now.

Mallard siesta by the Donau (Danube in German)

It felt good to be unencumbered by the bikes for a day. We considered taking a 3 hour train ride up to Prague but there is so much to see in every town here and we have some big cities coming up anyway. 

At one point this was the only bridge across the Danube and the towns on both sides warred against each other for years.

Keeping an eye out for a dress to wear to Elizabeth's wedding. This little number cost 1,379 euros! Maybe I will find a 20$ number in Slovakia or Hungary.

Grocery stores are my favorite. Katzenzungen! Kitten chocolates! The chocolate selection is ridiculous here.

Tonight we had a picnic of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, sesame wassa bread, sun-dried tomato/chili cream cheese, pickled herring and smoked trout, and Milka Noisette chocolate (super creamy). Honestly I am getting tired of cold cuts. German breakfasts and dinners are mainly bread and salamis, liverwursts, and bolognas. The difference is that you also get muesli and yogurt at breakfast. I used to like liverwurst as a kid, but we had it the other day for lunch and mine had some unprocessed purple veins in it. I found I actually now hate the stuff. 

Our third WarmShowers stay was the night before last at a lovely young couple's house. Kerstin and Rene are both social workers, with 2 angelic children. They wanted to talk about the mysteries of the stars, the small-minded ness of their neighbors, their travels in New Zealand, and many other topics. I was spellbound by their charisma, excellent parenting, curiosity and acceptance of strangers, and their sheer attractiveness and happiness.

Onward tomorrow on the bikes, with the intention to slow down a little and do more investigating. We are ahead of schedule by several days. Hopefully we'll be camping tomorrow to even out the expensive (and gloomy) city hotel stays.

We had every sort of weather today, including hail. April weather for sure!