Churches, Churches and more Churches!

Monday, May 30:
Today starts the second week and it is all Regensburg! We biked in to town - like locals! Except, I am not quite ready for the Tour de France and she has high expectations - there are some cultural and language barriers starting to emerge...week 2 is interesting already!

We toured St. Emmeram's, a Baroque church and it really is truly beautiful. Up until now, I have only seen Roman or Gothic churches in my life - Baroque is completely different - all white and gold (or was it blue and black). :) It is magnificent to walk through it - and I have a personal tour guide who studied religious history, so every little detail is explained.

We then headed to what I've been waiting for...the Castle! Thurn and Taxis is the name and I felt like the Dutchess of Cambridge walking through the gold plated rooms with my English audio tour headset on! Princess Gloria was in town, but, like the inside of the castle, was not available for photos. Through my headset, I did learn that the hidden passageways do in fact exist and, the King of Pop, Mick Jagger and many other famous peeps have partied hard in this ultimate venue! Truly, a Princess moment in Germany!

We ate lunch at the Historische Wurstkuchi - a very famous Bratwurst bier garten right on the Danube! While enjoying a true Bavarian Brat, I met a fella from Scottsdale felt a little bit more at home in this faraway fairy tale land. :)

After lunch we continued the tour with many many churches. St. Peter's Cathedral had statues of the Devil and his grandma, along with my favorite statue so far - the Smiling Angel.

St. Mary's chapel is the smallest little church I've ever seen with a population of about 20, but there were cards taped all over the tiny back wall from Regensburg religious folk who have been helped through the prayers of the congregation. Even though this chapel wasn't much to look at, this little wall made my heart smile and illustrated the less showy side of religion in the 'burg.

After lunch we began the shopping quest for souvenoirs - this would continue for the next 10 days. And, I also sampled my first bite of German chocolate - whoa. Then, we popped into a few more churches, checked out the house of the former brother of the Pope and ended with the Niedermunster - a monastery that has been remodeled from the Roman to Baroque style after a war. All in all, it was a great religious introduction to the town of Regensburg. In Cusco, I toured a famous Catholic church and went back for a Spanish mass the next day. These churches in Regensburg are so magnificent and powerful, it made me feel the same way I did in Peru...and so begins the hunt again for Baroque/Roman church in Tempe! :)

For dinner, the whole group got together for the first time since the states and met at, of course, a local bier garten for beers and brats! The german coordinator of Sister Cities, Franz Feldmeier joined us and he is just as great as his US equivalent, Linda! Talking to him made me feel like he really cared what type of experience I have in Germany - it was very comforting - now, I know of at least one friend I will have in Germany forever, besides Veronika.

Tomorrow, we head to school for my first German education experience!