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Regensburg Rejuvenation

 By Inder Raj Ahluwalia


Take a pause before you take a bow.

Let the picture sink in slowly, or else it will be wasted. That’s the kind of place it is.

Smart shops featuring designer labels peer out of the gothic vaults and narrow medieval alleys, while cafes and restaurants proliferate all over town, especially along the fast-flowing Danube. At the end of it all one is left marveling at the depth of quality retained in such a small urban area.



There’s no ambiguity here. It didn’t take me long to get a sense of the quality that defines the city. It’s a centre of history and beauty. From picturesque old alleys you step out into wide streets and squares flanked by splendid castles and patrician palaces that bear witness to almost a thousand years of history. You stroll along the river’s banks and onto the two islands in the river, and gaze at the pretty skyline.

Not surprisingly, tourists flock here from the world over, and shopping, dining-out, and old-fashioned lazing about are priorities for most visitors. (I personally am rather fond of this activity known as ‘lazing about’).

Hugging the swiftly flowing Danube, the ‘Heart of Bavaria’, as Regensburg is known, reflects a millennium of history. Green, flower-filled and charming, it’s a riverside city on the banks of the mighty Danube, and a port on Europe’s great Rhine-Main-Danube waterway that connects the North Sea with the Black Sea. For 700 years, it was Bavaria’s capital, and for a hundred of those years, it was also the seat of the Carolingian Kings.

Emperors, princes, and diplomats all came to the free imperial city to hold assemblies, turning the Old Town Hall into a centre of political activities. Today, tourists from around the world flock here to savour the heady local experience that includes everything from exploring the famed medieval buildings to tasting sausages and beer by the river, in the country’s ‘original sausage kitchen’.

Germany’s only and largest completely preserved surviving medieval city, offers visitors a special urban experience. Other European cities have been modelled on the overall ensemble of the historic centre that’s been restored in an exemplary fashion.



There are several historical landmarks. In the 12th Century, locals built the then equivalent of a world wonder-the ‘Old Stone Bridge’-whose huge arches have spanned the Danube for 850 years. And for three centuries, they financed the construction of the massive Gothic Cathedral St.Peter’s, the town’s pride and the culmination of Bavarian Gothic architecture.

Dwarfed by the Cathedral whose stained glass windows are a mass of glowing colours, we filed in into a special world. A stone angel bestows a smile on the Blessed Virgin, and the melodious voices of the Domspatzen, the cathedral choir, resounded in the lofty vaulting as we toured the massive courtyards.

Just a few steps brought me to the river, flowing swiftly through the Old Stone Bridge’s gaping arches. This is the city’s tourist heart, especially the area around the stone bridge with the 'Historische Wurstkuche’ (Historical Sausage Kitchen), where hundreds of visitors fanned across the boulevard just by the river.

Featuring a hundred rooms, and displaying evidence of human ingenuity and skill, and works by Albrecht Altdorfer, the ‘Master of Regensburg’, the City Museum is worth visiting. From here we moved on to the house of Johannes Kepler, the famous astronomer. There’s more art awaiting visitors in the East German Art Gallery which contains paintings by Lovis Corinth and Oskar Kokoschka.

Lunch was an affair to cherish.  The world-renowned ‘Historical Sausage Kitchen’ isn’t just the restaurant in town, it’s a historical relic, being 850 years old, as old as the ‘Stone Bridge’ itself. And its legendary fixed menu of sausage, saurkraut, and potato soup, applies to breakfast, lunch, and dinner.



I settled down to polite questioning by our gracious guide. Was I ‘very hungry’ or ‘just hungry’? My ‘just-hungry’ declaration landed me a huge ‘bratwurst’, as the grilled sausages are known, and a huge tumbler of fresh juice. Query the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Meier, about the reason for their phenomenal popularity, and they just smile shyly. Interviewed repeatedly, they have grown used to their fame. I lingered on at the famous café, with the river flowing by and the air thick with barbecue smoke.

It was now time for the other celebrated local eatery. ‘Dampfnudel-Uli’ Café is small, compact, and world-famous for its ‘steamed pastry served with vanilla sauce’. Definitely worth tasting is their typical Bavarian fare, which starts with dumpling of pork liver soup, with a main dish of potato dumplings, saurkraut, roasted pork, potato salad and green salad. Rounding things off is the famed steamed pastry, a dessert fit for royalty.

Regensburg continues to thrive. The Danube continues to flow swiftly under the ‘Old Stone Bridge’ creating the whirlpools and eddies immortalised in famous songs about the city.

Fact File

Regensburg is well connected by train with most German cities, and is about two hours from Frankfurt.

Accommodation options include deluxe and standard hotels, and also budget establishments.

The food department is particularly well served with dining-out being a local highlight. Offered is a range of cuisine that includes vegetarian and ‘Asian’.

Tourists flock here throughout the year.

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Romit Theophilus

Romit Theophilus, Director for India, German National Tourist Office (GNTO), feels heritage and culture are among Germany’s great attractions and tourist offerings, and towns like Regensburg exemplify this asset.

What makes such destinations top-priority for tourists is the fact that not only do they pack in enormous history and culture, but possess complete infrastructure inputs like hotels, guest-houses, restaurants, galleries, museums and tourist information offices. Almost all tourist segments are catered-to.

Romit asserts that the GNTO constantly strives to bring potential visitors to Germany abreast with the latest offerings, developments and trends. The idea is to continue to keep Germany ahead as an ‘all-value’ tourists host country.

Going by Germany’s overall fame and success as an international tourist destination, and all that is visible in terms of visitor-arrival trends in the country, it seems we have got our finger on the button. 

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