Regensburg | Wieder im Lande

On the Danube, which the Germans call the Donau...my old friend Gustav Hoffman. 

Regensburg exists because of the river. The Romans were here in 179 CE, probably earlier. But now I'm here with old friends, Gustav and Petra. Their Finnish bed business, Fennobed, is right along the river. In the next few days I'll go with him to Tirol, perhaps to the Reinhold Messner Mountain Museum, to Schwarzach to visit Petra's home and her family and then in a week to Oslo and Anne.

My German is ok.  I can understand everything. But speaking in it, comes harder, like I'm having to pull every word out of my brain. One region of my brain speaks English. Another German. Communication between the two is...well a struggle. Uebung macht den Meister, as they say.  Practice makes perfect. Gustav and Petra have bicycles which we use to travel around the city of 125,000.  Much of it is "car free".  Regensburg is the finest example of a city of the Middle Ages in Germany. And it has the oldest stone bridge to cross the Danube in Germany.

There is something wonderful about the German and European lifestyle which is healthier, I think, than the "American" way of life...they take time for coffee and conversation. They walk. They spend time at the dinner table. They know how to enjoy a good bottle of wine.

Gustav and Petra live in a beautiful simple 300 square meter apartment across the river from their business. The building was constructed 500 years ago for people with the Plague.  But now it is a "gemuetlich" house...a place of hospitality far removed from its history.

Their apartment