Day 3.... This day started out at leisure. Our Scenic Spaceship was not scheduled to arrive in Regensburg until 1:00pm. Nonetheless I woke early and upon opening my drapes had the most beautiful view of the Danube as we cruised - forests on both sides of the river shrouded in early morning mist and dotted with little, pristine villages along the banks. After the usual hearty breakfast from the breakfast buffet, I decided to read up on Regensburg. It is the capital of the Bavarian region of Upper Palatine with about 135,500 inhabitants. The large medieval center of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Around 846 AD, Regensburg became the starting point of the Christianization of the Czech people, and the diocese of Regensburg became the mother diocese of Prague. In 1542 the city adopted the Protestant Reformation with its town council becoming entirely Lutheran. A minority of the population stayed Roman Catholic and Roman Catholics were were excluded from civil rights. Amazingly, and in contrast to almost all other German cities, Regensburg had little damage from Allied air raids during World War II and thus has an almost intact medieval city center, which, as I said before, is listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. The morning also included Towel Folding lessons by Danilo the Great, Scenics housekeeping impresario. You can see samples of his work below. We had three sightseeing choices in Regensburg - a guided walking tour that ended with an organ recital, a guided biking tour to Valhalla (a Parthenon modeled palace commissioned by Ludwig I of Bavaria sitting high above the Danube several miles down river from Regensburg), and an on-your-own tour of the city using Scenics GPS enabled Tailormade devices. I did the guided walking tour of the city and, while it was interesting, it was not overly memorable. Dinner this night, however, was totally memorable. Tonight I had dinner at the specialty Table La Rive Restaurant. This restaurant offers a set menu of dishes and wine paring with each course, all created by Scenics Executive Chef, Alexei Anisimov. The word restaurant is somewhat of a misnomer here. La Rive is two tables set up and aside at the very fron of the main restaurant, the Crystal Dining Room. Dinner here is not available to everyone. All guests staying in suites receive and invitation. The maximum seating for dinner is 24. There are six courses and each is paired with a recommended wine. Theres not enough room here for me to describe the total experience. Foe that youll have to come to our cruise night when I return. Suffice it to say that on a scale of one to five with one being unedible and five being out of this world, my dinner was an eight. More tomorrow from Passau and Salzburg.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 18:24:20 +0000
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