Photos of our Danube Cruise: Regensburg and Passau

Columbus, Ohio is about 200 years old--Regensburg is about 2,500! I thought my architect husband would have a melt down--Romanesque, Gothic, Italianate, Baroque, Roccoco, neoclassical and romantic all within a few blocks. One thing we heard from all our outstanding local German and Austrian guides, important for any era--fame, power, ruling families, governments, churches and wealth come and go. A "global economy" was flourishing in Regensburg 1000 years ago due in large part to the Jews for 500 years then they were driven out, according to our guide. Around 500 B.C. Regensburg was a Celt settlement, and then the Romans used its strategic location to build a fortress, the walls of which are exposed and showing beneath many of the "modern" (17th century) buildings.

The Roman fort walls peeking out below

St. Peter's Cathedral, started in 1254 and finished around 1520.

Steinerne Brucke, over the Danube, built in the 12th century

Our story-teller guide showing us a door used during the black plague

The organ of the Cathedral at Passau where we heard a wonderful noon concert

Parish church in Passau