Regensburg through Frankfurt

9 September (Tuesday).

We were delayed leaving the Wirth's as Christian and I could not get the FPS to work.  We ended up going to the nearest Volkswagen dealer where I realized the problem was that the English version said 'Enter Location' which I took to mean where we were, which seemed strange as it supposedly knew where we were.  It should have read 'Enter Destination' and all would have been well.  We drove into Austria, heading for Innsbruck then Vienna.   We expected to see lots of the mountains and valleys of Austria but primarily saw the inside of tunnels.  Some were as long as 6 k.  The country we did see looked a lot like Switzerland only everything is at a lower altitude - only a few mountains are over 3,000 meters and still had snow.  The amount of traffic on the road amazed us, especially on the 'back road' we took to a place named Bad Hofgestein that the Wirths recommended.  The Palace Hotel there was very nice, with meals included at a very reasonable price.  We arrived about 6:30 pm, just in time for dinner.

10 September (Wednesday):

I managed to set the GPS to have Vienna as a destination but the system doesn't have the details about Austria to be able to take us to our hotel.  It can only get us to the centre of town.  (This had caused us to have to ask 3 time yesterday before we found the Palace Hotel).  We got to the centre of town and then followed the small map in our guide book and were amazed that we got to the hotel on the first try.  The hotel is excellently positioned so we can easily walk to everything.  Our Guide Book has 3 walking tours, so we did number 1 in the afternoon.  the old buildings are truly magnificent.  For dinner we found the street in front of our hotel has nothing but restaurants for several blocks.  They all have most of their seating outside.  The weather was quite hot (high 20s) so outside was perfect.  It was fun watching all the people walking past and there were a lot of them!

11 September (Thursday):

Last night we discovered a flaw in the position of our hotel.  Traffic and other strange noises woke us in the early hours and prevented me from going back to sleep until I remembered I had ear plus.  What a difference they make!  Today we started out following walking tour 2 but in reverse.  By the time we reached the Hofburg (the huge complex of official buildings) the museums were open.  we went through the Imperial Apartments where they have rooms full of silver, gold and porcelain dishes; cutlery; serving dishes; and everything related to eating.  There was a set of porcelain dishes with appropriate crests on them for each monarch from the late 17th Century on.  Each set had servings for at least 100 people.  It was an astounding collection.  Then we went through the rooms that were used by Franz Joseph and his wife Elizabeth of Bavaria (18th - 19th century).  Everything is in amazingly good condition.  next we toured the Schatzkammer (Imperial Treasury).  It is divided into two sections, the Imperial Profane and the Sacerdotal )religious) Treasuries.  They have the imperial crown which dates from 962 (10th Century).  They also have the 9th century saber of Charlemagne and an 8th century holy lance.  It is an awesome collection of precious things.  In the evening we went to a concert in the Konzerthaus.  The building is fairly recent for Vienna - not quite 100 years old.  the acoustics are first class.  The 'Wiener (Vienna) Hofburg-Orchester' performed for an hour and a half.  the music was mostly Johan Strauss and Mozart with three pieces by other composers.  there were also six opera singers who sang the parts for the opera pieces the orchestra played.  it was almost like being at the annual New Years concert the the Opera House that we watch on PBS TV every New Year's Eve.

12 September (Friday):

To day was mostly cloudy, q welcome relief from the hot sun.  The temperature was still warm so we were quite comfortable in T-shirts.  We visited The Albertina Muesum to see the Van Gogh and Picass/Monet paintings they had on display.  We also saw some of the rooms occupied by royalty in the past.  They are beautiful rooms even without much (or in some rooms any) furniture.  After that we did the third walking tour from our guide book.  It took us to an area not reached by most tourists.  all the streets are lined with beautiful buildings.  We saw two of the nicest churches we have visited.  we stopped at a Greek restaurant (included in the tour) for a late lunch and I had the most delicious meal I can remember.  It was pumpkin stuffed ravioli with walnus, cheese and vegetables and the total flavour was amazing.  After that we walked along the Danube Canal for a few blocks, finished the tour and eventually returned to our hotel.  Our last day in Vienna.

13 September (Saturday):

Since our destination for the day was in Germany I was able to enter the exact address into the GPS system.  The hotel is on the main plaza and, the system told us, access by car is restricted.  The town we were to stay in is Regensburg, a picturesque old town in Bavaria.  We had not yet reached the destination of our hotel when we found a big underground parking lot and went in and parked.  The distance to the hotel was farther than we had thought it would be and rolling suitcases for several blocks on cobblestone roads and sidewalks was noisy!  We had the entire afternoon to see the old town.  It is very compact and easy to get from one interesting building to another.   We also walked along the shore of the Danube River and crossed over most of the way on a very old stone bridge (now pedestrians and hose carriages only).  The Turm and Taxis families had a monopoly on the German Postal Service for several centuries thereby becoming very rich.  The now own the old Schloss in Regensburg and are still very prominent in the business world.  They have a major development well under way in the heart of Frankfurt.  We ate dinner at the Gaensbauer Restaurant, in a very old building near the river, with two or three small rooms for diners.  We chose their special 8th anniversary set menu with 6 courses! We hadn't had any lunch and were hungry.  The food was excellent and beautifully presented.

14 September (Sunday):

This day we wanted to just wander some back roads in the Wiesenttal, a part of Bavaria.  It is called that because of the steep rock cliffs and narrow river valleys with lots of hills and meadows.  I didn't set the GPS.  It asked if we wanted to continue the interrupted trip - getting to the main square of Regensburg.  I told it NO.  This caused it to start showing on the screen exactly what road we were on and what the nearest town was.  It was a great help when I wasn't sure how far to the next town or turn.  I don't know how you get that to turn on because after we stopped to visit the Burg Rebenbeck it didn't come on again.  We ended our wandering in Colberg, the town Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert was from.  It was the capital of a very rich part of Bavaria and has the most splendid buildings we have seen.  the photos are labeled in the Kodak Gallery.

I set the GPS to get us out of the town and to our hotel in Frankfurt am Main.  It waved us a lot of trouble.  Once checked in to the hotel we walked across the Main River to a restaurant recommended by the receptionist at the hotel.  It had the atmosphere of a medium size beer hall in Munich.  The food was good but finding something I could eat was difficult - 80% of the items on the menu contained pork and all the rest had something I'm not supposed to eat.  I ordered a chicken salad and it came with breaded chicken pieces and little cubes of bread in the salad!  I are around the bread and was quite satisfied.

15 September (Monday):

I used my ear plugs last night as there was quite a bit of noise outside our window when I went to bed.  In the morning I was very glad I had used them as the trams that go down the street, under our window, were extremely noisy.  

We have flown in and out of the Frankfurt Airport several times but have never been in the city of Frankfurt.  In planning the trip we decided to spend a day here.  We have spent the day walking around the old centre of Frankfurt.  There has been a strong wind from the east all day and we got very cold (the temperature out of the wind was 10 degrees C.), especially Hans as he hadn't expected it to be so bad and didn't have on warm enough clothes.  I always expect the worst and was OK.  The old buildings are marvelous.  The new buildings are even more so.  The contrast is dramatic as they are frequently sids by side.  The old church spires are disappearing from the skyline.  we walked back to the Opera House to find a restaurant for dinner.  There is a good selection of restaurants there.  We chose an Italian place that was fairly expensive but the meal was worth it.  We move on tomorrow.