Bavarian Towns

Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009, 9 AM local time

Friday I elected to just stay aboard and not go out to look around Passau. While it wasn’t raining when the tour set off, it was windy and around 1 or 2 °C and the walking tour was steeply uphill to the cathedral. Around 1 PM, it began to rain steadily, and as we approached 5 PM, it changed to snow.

Large flakes falling as the River Melody...

I took some pictures that show the snow coming down as a neighboring ship left dock.

Earlier, I’d taken a few pictures of a group of adult

Adult swan

and sub-adult swans who swam by while we were docked. The picture of the sub-adult swan

Sub-adult swan

shows the rain drops beaded up on its brown back.

Today I joined the walking tour of Regensburg, which has some well-preserved medieval buildings

Typical narrow cobblestone streets of Re...

, and is a Unesco World Heritage site. Unfortunately, while it was warmer (~44°F) with no wind, it was raining steadily. We saw the preserved ruins of a 2nd century Roman fort, a Gothic cathedral, the old town hall, a lovely clock tower, and the remains of a 12th century stone bridge across the Danube.

12th century stone bridge across the Dan...

The streets were all cobblestoned and narrow. I didn’t complete the tour; when the rain became heavier, I headed back to the boat.

The sun came out for a few minutes later in the day so I took some pictures from the boat of the waterway where we were docked.

Sunshine on the Danube at Regensburg

As we were leaving Regensburg, I took a picture of a lock we were entering. Some of the locks along our rate are enormous and raise or lower a river boat more than 20 meters. But this one

Entering a lock shortly after leaving Re...

is a more manageable size and makes a better photograph.

Today we are en route to Nuremburg where we will have an afternoon bus and walking tour. We reached the highest point on the cruise’s river route last night on the canal connecting the Main river to the Danube. After being raised in each lock as we cruised up the Danube, we are now being lowered when we enter each lock. The Danube flows south to the Mediterranean, while the Main and the Rhine rivers flow west into the North Sea. The weather is still cold (45 °F ) and overcast, with light rain.

Oct 18, 2009

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