Neil's News

Regensburg

7 September 2009

In 1987 my mother and I moved to Regensburg in West Germany for a couple of years. I went to a local school, figured out how to speak German and explored the city. Regensburg was one of the only German cities to survive the war without being flattened by Allied bombing. As a result its Roman and Medieval heritage remained intact. The choir in the cathedral recently celebrated their thousand's anniversary. Parts of the city walls are over two thousand years old.

This weekend I returned to Regensburg for the first time in twenty years. Obviously for a city which counts time in millennia not a lot had changed. West and East Germany have merged, the Deutsch Mark has been replaced by the Euro, and everyone now has a mobile phone, but Regensburg is much the same.

I had hoped to get back in touch with my two best friends from school, Manuel and Johannes. Finding them turned out to be trivial. Manuel hadn't moved and was living in the same house with his new wife and baby. Johannes' parents also hadn't moved and called their son to come over. Amusingly although both Manuel and Johannes remembered me well, neither remembered each other.

It was a wonderful trip. Good food, good people and an amazing city. Here are a few photos of my visit to Regensburg.

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