We had a late night at the disco evening so the relatively early rise for our optional tour up the Danube Gorge to Weltenburg Abbey was tough. It is also freezing cold, as in a maximum of 7C cold.

We are moored in a busy dock on the Danube River (out of the canal now) at the medieval town of Regensburg. We have the option to have the city tour in the afternoon.

We took the bus back down the Danube prior to where the canal joined it to catch a smaller boat to the Abbey. The Gorge is too narrow and windy for the river cruise boats.

The bus took us through Regensburg which is another wealthy town. It’s the oldest Mediaeval town in Germany that didn’t get bombed.

They have the factory that makes the BMW 100Series cars as well as the headquarters for Osram (lightbulbs) as well as other electronics industries. It is also the hometown of former Pope Benedict, who owns a house there with his older brother (we passed it!)

We boarded the boat at Kelheim which is a cute little place.

Let’s face it, most German towns on this trip are cute.

are cute.

The Gorge itself is very pretty. Not Queenstown but still pretty.

The Abbey is famous for having the world’s oldest continuous brewery attached. We went there for the glass of beer and pretzel.

Unfortunately the kind photo taker had fat fingers. It pays to always check the image.

We were thinking of the little pretzel things but oh no. These are giant bread things. The beer is draught beer and quite dark but very nice. It was good to get inside as Brenda and I sat up on the deck for the view. We were ok with coats and hats and scarves but it was still nippy.

When we came out of the beer/cafe place it was sleeting. We had a look inside the church.

Being Sunday there was a service which was a shame as I’d have liked a loser look at the altar. It has a huge statue of St George on a horse, which is a bit odd for a Benedictine monastery (not that I’d know!)

It also has the most beautiful domed ceiling.

Being a Benedictine monastery the mass was very traditional with incense and lots of chanting. There were quite a few worshippers who had come from the nearby towns.

We then had a 20 minute stroll along the river to where the buses were parked. It was pretty difficult to stay awake on the way back.

We had lunch, which we didn’t need, then opted to have an afternoon on the boat rather than visiting Regensburg. It was a lovely sunny afternoon but still extremely cold and would probably have been very pleasant out strolling through the town or along the river but we are exhausted and have another long day to Salzburg tomorrow.