Regensburg
Regensburg Tour
The Viking Egil was docked near Old Town, and the view from our balcony was lovely—even if it was too cold to sit outside. After a buffet breakfast in the dining room, we set out on the Regensburg Walking Tour.
Our guide was excellent—possibly the best of the entire trip. He was very knowledgeable and shared plenty of interesting, often humorous, stories as he led us through Old Town in Regensburg. He led us past visible sections of the Roman wall built in 179 AD. The massive stones were set without any mortar, their weight and careful placement holding the structure together for nearly two thousand years. A quiet archway, the northern gate of the wall, was just steps away. Today, this arch tucked into a residential wall in Regensburg’s Old Town, where Roman ruins sit beside cafés, shops, and the towering cathedral.
We stopped near the 800‑year‑old Old Stone Bridge, where the oldest sausage kitchen in Germany still stands. Behind it is the old customs house, a 17th‑century building that once managed river trade along the Danube. There we status towers built for no purpose other than to show off the owner’s wealth. This one has since been converted into student housing. Our guide said he applied for a room and when he didn’t get one—his friends told him he was lucky, since the rooms are miserably cold in winter and blazing hot in summer.
The curved cobblestone streets glistened in the misty rain as we walked along, surrounded by seasonal displays. At the Cathedral Christmas Market, vendors were setting up their goods, and only a few bundled-up shoppers moved along the wet stone-paved street. There was quite a contrast between the colorful market and the Regensburg Gothic Cathedral that towered behind it.
The cathedral was magnificent, with its tall spires and elaborate stonework rising above the square. One of the towers was under renovation, and our guide laughed when he said that in all his years living in Regensburg, he’d never seen the place without scaffolding somewhere on it. Inside the beautiful church a service was in progress. We watched quietly for a few moments before leaving to make our way back to our ship.
We walked through the market, browsing a bit before on our way back to our home on the water: the Viking Egil. After a nice lunch in the ship’s dining room, we spent a few minutes unwinding in our cabin before bundling up for another venture into town.
Our Afternoon Stroll
With coats, hats, gloves, and a map in hand, we started our afternoon adventure — exploring Regensburg on our own. We retraced some of the steps from the morning and had no argument with a sign we passed along the way: “Baby, it’s cold.” Festive decorations lined the streets, and even in the chill there was no shortage of people heading toward the Christmas market. By the first hint of dusk around 4:00 pm, the Cathedral’s pink lights began to glow, and the market felt more alive than it had earlier in the day. We joined the crowd to browse the stalls, enjoyed a cup of Glühwein, and then asked the phone to guide us back to the ship.
On our way back to the ship, a short walk onto Stone Bridge offered adifferent view of the Danube. Our ship waited just beyond the bridge in the distance. Dinner and some entertainment by the ship's crew ended the day.
Regensburg is a great city, and the Christmas market added a layer of holiday excitement. It had been a day full of fun and far too much food.
