Bavaria: Munich and Regensburg

We took a 7:30AM bus from St Gallen train station to Munich ZOB. While the bus was nowhere close to what you would expect to see on the luxury coaches plying Singapore to Kuala Lumpur or within Indonesia, they are reasonably comfortable for a 3 hours ride.

I can't help but to notice is that the seats on the bus appear to recline on different degrees. The first seat I was on. Though since there were only a few passengers that wasn't a problem at all as

One thing to note is that the seats are not reserved, so it pays to turn up slightly earlier so you can get a better seat (or sit together with friends) if the bus were full.

And the best part was that there was free wifi onboard the bus, although the connection was rather intermittent. The bus driver was not only responsible for selling tickets, but also sold drinks and snacks. 

We arrived at Munich ZOB on time at 10:30AM, and were picked up by my friend's uncle, who took us for the next hour and a half drive to Regensburg, passing by the Victory Gate on our way there.

Photo credits to Cheryl

Our hosts were extremely hospitable, and we even got a warm reminder of home with the Chinese New Year yusheng.

Photo credits to Cheryl

After lunch, Philip gave us a quick introduction of the history of Regensburg and suggested some places of interest. It was a real eye opener. While I might knew that the capital of Australia is neither Sydney nor Melbourne, but the much less well known Canberra, I would not have guessed that Regensburg was actually the first capital in German history.

Connie was our host for the afternoon, bringing us around the old city of Regensburg, with the first stop at the Old Chapel.

Photo credits to Cheryl

The fresco and was absolutely beautiful.

The next stop was also a church, the Regensburg Cathedral. When we got off the car, we stepped back in awe at the sight of the majestic Gothic façade, complete with elaborate sculptures.

The interior was stunning too, with beautiful stained glass. It was a real pity that we could not see the sunlight flooding the cathedral through the stained glasssince it was rainy and that I had to cheat by using Instagram filters.

I always believed that a trip is never complete without trying out the local food, and apparently my friends share that belief, so it was apt to round up our tour of the old city with a visit to the Regensburg Sausage Kitchen.

The sausages were served with sauerkraut (a pickled cabbage) and tasted really good, though I suspected the cold weather contributed to that feeling.

The Regensburg Sausage Kitchen was facing the Stone Bridge on the Danube, which was another historical monument. While the chilly winds drove away any romantic association with Strauss's Blue Danube, the mandarin ducks partially made up for it.

Connie sent us to the train station at Regensburg, where we boarded the train to Munich Central.

On the return trip the wifi did not work on the bus, so it would be hard to kill time, though that was alleviated by the fact that its was a night bus.