Regensburg
So having fled Vienna for fear of becoming destitute in Central Europe we were again headed back towards Deutschland. This was pretty much a flat out driving day going about 400 km. We were on our way to Regensburg in the little explored area of eastern Bavaria. Some interesting facts. All BMW 3 series cars are built in Regensburg. It houses the oldest music academy in the world ... well that's all I can remember for interesting facts. Now let me tell you some more about Regensburg. It is a maze! Now this is not mentioned in any guidebooks. It is very small but it takes a half hour to get anywhere in your car. Also note they do not warn you when you are approaching a pedestrian only zone, you just find yourself there. Now getting back to guidebooks. Somewhere in Vienna is a lovely, well worn lonely planet Germany guidebook. We do not know how it was left there. It just was. This was discovered some whereafter crossing the border. Hmmm ..... (cuss warning for the young'uns) fuck. That book had been indispensable. We were now in some serious tourist trouble. The best part about the book has been the accommodation recommendations and we needed them now. It is now pouring rain in Regensburg and we have no idea where to find a place to stay. The GPS had some for near where we parked the car but the problem is this software is only current to 2003 tops so those ones were gone. We walked through the streets getting thoroughly soaked until stumbling upon the closed tourist centre. After that we headed for the first place that looked like a Hotel. We came across one that had a smaller double bed but came with a bathtub! For 80. Done! After Vienna this seemed like a steal! After walking back to the car it took me 30min as aforementioned the make the 1/2 km drive and find the right street to drive down. The hotel it would appear was on the pedestrian plaza and not easily accessible via automobile. Went and parked about a 5 minute walk away and trucked back with the rest of the baggage that Lisa didn't take when I stopped willy nilly next to the plaza. After this with three bags in tow I was ... lost. Bloody maze I tell you! Thank god for the GPS unit. I might still be wandering in circles if not for that thing. http://www.garmin.com/ they deserve the plug. After getting settled we went for an underwhelming mexican dinner and made a decision between going to sleep or strolling the now closed down town. We chose the latter and were very very very glad we did. We came across a travel book shop as we had to get a new guidebook. After looking for a moment Lisa said "there's our book" and there it was a lonely planet Germany book ..... Auf Englisch!! A choir appearing to sing "ode to joy" would not have been inappropriate. We made a note to return before leaving the next day. Back to the hotel for some much needed rest. Now one thing about this small little town. These people are noisy. About 2am there was some shouting in the street directly below our window. Then @ 7:30 it was time to vacuum right outside our room. Regensburg had officially lost all of it's charm. No wonder it's little explored. We bought our Germany book and also got one for the Netherlands and were on our way. Lonely Planet confirmed it's indispensability by alerting us that we probably spent 30 too much for our room. We shall keep this one under tight supervision.
Weather
Driving north towards Leipzig we encountered some heavy rain on the Autobahn and they don't slow down for it either. That's because it only seems to last for about a minute at a time. We stopped in a town called Hof and had a great asian lunch. This was the first place we had been where english was not spoken. That was great fun to bridge the communication barrier. During lunch we discovered that we were a 20 minute drive from the Czech border and decided to at least take a picture of the country. This lead to us retracing some of the highway we had driven in on. The weather had left quite a mark in an hours time. It looked like there had been a snowstorm. We later guessed that it was hail. We also got to see what happens when you make a mistake at 170 km/hr. In the middle of the hailstorm it looks like an Audi A3 had taken a turn for the worse and was on it's roof and totally wrecked. I have never seen an ICBC commercial up close. I also made note that I would indeed slow down in the rain.
Leipzig
Leipzig (where we are now) is part of the former East Germany and it shows. Right across the street from our hotel is a Karl Marx Diorama. It was also the home of Johannes Sebastian Bach for most of his career. First off Leipzig is small. We can walk the whole city guide map in about 30 minutes. We first went to visit the Ründer Ecke museum. This is a free museum dedicated to highlighting the Stasi or East German Security Service. It is housed in the former Leipzig headquarters of the Stasi and it was fascinating. They tell you how every single person in Leipzig was monitored how the Stasi amassed 6.5 km of files on all the residents f Leipzig. It also showed all the cool spy stuff they had along with pre-packaged disguise kits for every occasion. Very cool in an oppressive sort of way.
After that we made the short walk to the Bach Museum. It is housed in the home of one of his former friends and it is assumed that he spent many a night playing music there. It also had a bunch of old instruments from his time. It is also across from the church where he was the choir director for much of his life. It was very interesting but I think you have to see it. It sounds boring explained but it really isn't. Lisa found some old sheet music for the viola in a cool little shop next door. We wandered around some more until we found an internet cafe. So that's the story up till now. Will talk at y'all later.
So having fled Vienna for fear of becoming destitute in Central Europe we were again headed back towards Deutschland. This was pretty much a flat out driving day going about 400 km. We were on our way to Regensburg in the little explored area of eastern Bavaria. Some interesting facts. All BMW 3 series cars are built in Regensburg. It houses the oldest music academy in the world ... well that's all I can remember for interesting facts. Now let me tell you some more about Regensburg. It is a maze! Now this is not mentioned in any guidebooks. It is very small but it takes a half hour to get anywhere in your car. Also note they do not warn you when you are approaching a pedestrian only zone, you just find yourself there. Now getting back to guidebooks. Somewhere in Vienna is a lovely, well worn lonely planet Germany guidebook. We do not know how it was left there. It just was. This was discovered some whereafter crossing the border. Hmmm ..... (cuss warning for the young'uns) fuck. That book had been indispensable. We were now in some serious tourist trouble. The best part about the book has been the accommodation recommendations and we needed them now. It is now pouring rain in Regensburg and we have no idea where to find a place to stay. The GPS had some for near where we parked the car but the problem is this software is only current to 2003 tops so those ones were gone. We walked through the streets getting thoroughly soaked until stumbling upon the closed tourist centre. After that we headed for the first place that looked like a Hotel. We came across one that had a smaller double bed but came with a bathtub! For 80. Done! After Vienna this seemed like a steal! After walking back to the car it took me 30min as aforementioned the make the 1/2 km drive and find the right street to drive down. The hotel it would appear was on the pedestrian plaza and not easily accessible via automobile. Went and parked about a 5 minute walk away and trucked back with the rest of the baggage that Lisa didn't take when I stopped willy nilly next to the plaza. After this with three bags in tow I was ... lost. Bloody maze I tell you! Thank god for the GPS unit. I might still be wandering in circles if not for that thing. http://www.garmin.com/ they deserve the plug. After getting settled we went for an underwhelming mexican dinner and made a decision between going to sleep or strolling the now closed down town. We chose the latter and were very very very glad we did. We came across a travel book shop as we had to get a new guidebook. After looking for a moment Lisa said "there's our book" and there it was a lonely planet Germany book ..... Auf Englisch!! A choir appearing to sing "ode to joy" would not have been inappropriate. We made a note to return before leaving the next day. Back to the hotel for some much needed rest. Now one thing about this small little town. These people are noisy. About 2am there was some shouting in the street directly below our window. Then @ 7:30 it was time to vacuum right outside our room. Regensburg had officially lost all of it's charm. No wonder it's little explored. We bought our Germany book and also got one for the Netherlands and were on our way. Lonely Planet confirmed it's indispensability by alerting us that we probably spent 30 too much for our room. We shall keep this one under tight supervision.
Weather
Driving north towards Leipzig we encountered some heavy rain on the Autobahn and they don't slow down for it either. That's because it only seems to last for about a minute at a time. We stopped in a town called Hof and had a great asian lunch. This was the first place we had been where english was not spoken. That was great fun to bridge the communication barrier. During lunch we discovered that we were a 20 minute drive from the Czech border and decided to at least take a picture of the country. This lead to us retracing some of the highway we had driven in on. The weather had left quite a mark in an hours time. It looked like there had been a snowstorm. We later guessed that it was hail. We also got to see what happens when you make a mistake at 170 km/hr. In the middle of the hailstorm it looks like an Audi A3 had taken a turn for the worse and was on it's roof and totally wrecked. I have never seen an ICBC commercial up close. I also made note that I would indeed slow down in the rain.
Leipzig
Leipzig (where we are now) is part of the former East Germany and it shows. Right across the street from our hotel is a Karl Marx Diorama. It was also the home of Johannes Sebastian Bach for most of his career. First off Leipzig is small. We can walk the whole city guide map in about 30 minutes. We first went to visit the Ründer Ecke museum. This is a free museum dedicated to highlighting the Stasi or East German Security Service. It is housed in the former Leipzig headquarters of the Stasi and it was fascinating. They tell you how every single person in Leipzig was monitored how the Stasi amassed 6.5 km of files on all the residents f Leipzig. It also showed all the cool spy stuff they had along with pre-packaged disguise kits for every occasion. Very cool in an oppressive sort of way.
After that we made the short walk to the Bach Museum. It is housed in the home of one of his former friends and it is assumed that he spent many a night playing music there. It also had a bunch of old instruments from his time. It is also across from the church where he was the choir director for much of his life. It was very interesting but I think you have to see it. It sounds boring explained but it really isn't. Lisa found some old sheet music for the viola in a cool little shop next door. We wandered around some more until we found an internet cafe. So that's the story up till now. Will talk at y'all later.
posted by Glen Scotia at 3:28 AM
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