Regensburg has a population of 150,000...apparently a lot of students just like in Passau. Students in Germany pay only 1000 euros per year to study, although if they go to Austria to study (as a lot do) its free! The unemployment rate in Regensburg is only 3% - this area of Germany is doing very well economically with some large companies here prospering...such as the car manufacturers. The standard of living is also very good....Regensburg is the home town of the current Pope and we drove past his actual house.
In the morning we decided to do a tour of the city ourselves instead of with the guide and we really enjoyed walking around the main part of the city on our own not feeling like conspicuous tourists. All these cities are very clean and tidy with quaint shops and fresh food markets - mainly cobblestoned paths again too
As you can tell the weather changed again yesterday (from 30 degrees the previous day) but we were lucky that it did not rain on us once during the day on our outings. We went in to a few shops to get stuff and had interesting conversations with Germans who don't speak much english!
In the afternoon we went on a tour on a smaller boat up a gorge on the Danube to a Benedictine Monstery in Weltenburg. The monks in the monastery make their own beer so of course part of the tour involved a jug of a beer and guess what else...yep another pretzel!!! Apparently they started making beer as during lent they are not allowed to eat so if they drink beer it keeps them full. The abbey itself was another very elaborate church....
The ships tour guide told us that these tours are nicknamed the ABC tours....Another Bloody Church LOL - we are going to be all church and palaced out before we even reach the UK.....
After dinner we went in to the lounge again with a group of other kiwis and ozzies that has started forming....we had a few too many drinks and did some dancing again until after midnight. Mal is having fun letting everyone know this morning that I had one too many and slept on the floor as it was the only way to stop the room from spinning! LOL - feeling okay today though!!!!
We have travelled overnight through an artificially made stretch of canals which joins the Danube with the Rhine (the Rhine/Main/Danube canal). Prior to this canal system there was no way to get between these rivers. We travelled in an upwards direction last night and this morning have been slowly descending...of course to do this we are going through several locks - the whole system is such an amazing feat of engineering.
We are also going past several low bridges so the top deck has been lowered down including the cockpit where the captain is so that we can fit underneath...again a very interesting system.
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