A Few Hours in Germany

When we first arrived in the Czech Republic we knew that we had ninety days to earn our work visa, because tourists are allowed for ninety days without trouble. But our ninety days were about to expire, and we did not want our names to appear on a list or to have trouble when our visa applications begin. Long story short, we rented a car and headed directly west.

A few hundred kilometers and we found ourselves in Regensburg. The snowy roads of the autobahn proved no match for our tiny Skoda Fabia rental car. In front of St. Peter's Dom (Cathedral)

Regensburg is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Germany. The tiny streets have not changed much in 800 years! Except for the yearly decorations for the holidays, of course...

At this point in the afternoon snow turned to rain, but nothing stopped us from enjoying the Germany city. (Except maybe the Euro--ouch! After the Czech Republic we certainly felt "wallet shock" while trying to buy lunch here) Perhaps the best thing about being here for me was speaking a little bit of rough German. It is amazing how all those dialogues that you practiced in school come right back. And although I couldn't necessarily make myself exactly clear, I could understand a lot of what was being said around us.

After a late lunch, we walked the streets once more while heading to our rental car...

Only to stumble upon a brilliant and busy Christmas market! The children in red in the foreground are playing on blocks of ice. Their mothers never warned them...

If you look really closely at the small neon sign on the building in the center of this picture you'll realize that St. Peter's Dom was not the only reason I took this one.

Staying warm is easy... especially when the price for warm drinks includes the cost of the mug, which you can keep or return for a refill or refund.

This rental car was a bargain, mostly because we were driving advertisements.

A bicycle shop in Regensburg lights the street with glowing bikes! Ingenious!

We came, we saw, we got our passports stamped. And with four people, the entire trip (rental, gas, food) for all of us cost less than train tickets to Dresden would have cost us!

Thanks for reading. No quiz this time around. We've added to new posts but put them in chronological order, so if you scroll or click down to "Karlovy Vary" and "Alex's Day of Sports" you can read about some of our adventures from last month that are only finally being published.

Happy Holidays! Czech Christmas greeting of choice: Vesele Vanoce! (Veh-seh-leh Van-oats-eh) means "happy Christmas".