Tulip Inn Amberg

... ago to feed sausage ,sauerkraut and beer to the workers on the Cathedral and the Stone Bridge. That is still all that they serve from a small building with a wood-fired grill inside and a lot of long wooden tables and benches. I had two sausages and sauerkraut and a hard roll which was delicious.
We walked back to the ship in time for lunch. Today was a special Bavarian lunch so I had more sausage and sauerkraut but ...

... I write things (i.e. spacing letters too far apart, not dotting my eyes, switching from cursive to print, and writing some little letters like the capitalized letters would be written) because our teacher takes points off for that stuff (which sucks!). German 105 (culture) is actually pretty boring, which I knew it would be. But hopefully after we get through all the formal stuff it will get better. But our teacher is great (though very opinionated and doesn't mind to ...

... and which is connected to a nifty shopping mall). A few days later, we all successfully made it onto the IKEA bus and got to do a little shopping for the things we needed.

We also enjoyed several fun nights at beer gardens (I am beginning to be able to tolerate beer more now) with great company. I've made several good friends here, but the entire group is pretty cool in general, which is great!

... in World War II and thus has an almost intact mediaeval city center; which was recognized in 2006 when Regensburg was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Regensburg's most famous attraction is the Steinerne Brücke (Stone Bridge, see pic) over the Danube River which dates from 1146. At the end of this bridge we met an archaeoligst who was digging up the street to learn more of the bridge itself and how the ...

... and industry from from the 14th to the 16th centuries. it was also the capital of the Upper Panatinate until 1810. at that time it was considered one of the strongest fortified towns in medieval Germany. in 1796 the Austrians defeated the French here leaving prominate buildings still standing: town hall, the ducal castle and the electoral palace (see pics)

Today, everyone from the program got up and went on a boat ride to a site called the Wahalla, which is a replica of the Parthenon. It was a nice, peaceful ride with great company. The sun was out, it was just an absolute lovely day. When we got to the site, we had to climb many steps, but it wasn't anything new for me, I'm quite used to climbing steps these days. We walked around for a while, then went inside to see the busts and sculptures inside. We then trecked ...

... up (aside from Billy, who we had to hunt down) and all ate breakfast. I had a simple croissant with butter and marmalade that hit the spot. After breakfast, we headed to Griffin’s building to go over everything we needed to know for the program. We then headed to the bus to go to the University’s campus. It was simple to get there (although I’m not sure if I will be able to do it on my own, guess we will see Sunday). We were given a quick tour of the campus, room and ...

... waiting, Griffin took us to a department-type store that has 5 floors, including what a normal department store would have (clothes, shoes, makeup, perfume, etc), as well as cooking supplies, dishes, towels, bedding, and- my favorite- groceries. I grabbed some towels (so I could give Griffin his back).

Once we met up, we sat down to eat (aside from a few of us who had had later lunches) and enjoyed each others’ company. When we were finished ...

So Dave and I got up yesterday morning -- ok we got up at the crack of noon after a hard night of drinking (hard night for guys in their mid to late 30's) -- and he drove from Munich to his new home of Amberg, which is reasonably close to Nurenberg and close to the Czech border. They just bought their house and are in the process of selecting their kitchen. There are many things that I really like about Europe (the "about to turn green" light is inspired as are the apparent ...