Another fun day trip north out of Munich to the old Roman settlement originally known as Castra Regina. Now known as the Bavarian city of Regensburg. It has a long history, as does every city in Germany, and it was neat visiting the old town. It has a really cool 800 year old medieval bridge that still stands, allowing for foot traffic and cars.

“The Stone Bridge (Steinerne Brücke) in Regensburg, Germany, is a 12th-century bridge across the Danube linking the Old Town with Stadtamhof. For more than 800 years, until the 1930s, it was the city’s only bridge across the river. It is a masterwork of medieval construction and an emblem of the city. ”

Nearby to the bridge is also the huge and very old Regensburg Cathedral.

But the first thing I did when I got there is visit a a church called St. Emmeram’s. It’s yet another amazingly well decorated and colorful and… just everything. You’ll see in the images. Next by sheer luck I went out a different door to find out St. Emmeram’s is also a palace – a palace of still-living-German royalty, the ‘Schloss Thurn und Taxis’ (pronounced (more or less) as ‘Turn und Taksiss’)) and also known as St. Emmeram’s. It’s an absolutely massive palace, and just as fancy and decorative as any other royal palace should be. And the tour just happened to be 5 minutes from then, and couldn’t have been more convenient. I thought St. Emmeram’s was just the church.

“The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis (German: Fürstenhaus Thurn und Taxis [ˈtuːɐ̯n ʊnt ˈtaksɪs]) is a family of German nobility that is part of the Briefadel. It was a key player in the postal services in Europe during the 16th century, until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, and became well known as the owner of breweries and builder of many castles. The current head of the house is HSH Albert II, 12th Prince of Thurn and Taxis. The family is one of the wealthiest in Germany and has resided at St. Emmeram Castle in Regensburg since 1748.”

The tour guide said, that depending on how you want to count, the palace has between 900-1000 rooms, with thousands more doors and windows. Stairwell, ballroom, throne room, the silver room, and plenty more. I had to use an audio guide, as the tour was German only. Part of the name came about from an Italian – Francesco de Tasso working as a mail courier between parts of Italy, eventually expanded north into Germany, where delivering one message would take weeks at a time as he had to stop, sleep, take care of the horses, etc. He came up with the idea to set up mail stations along the way, where there’d be people to keep carrying the mail nonstop, reducing the time from 6 weeks, to 5 days. This idea was so loved by German royalty, he was knighted into German nobility – causing him to have to change his name from Francesco de Tasso, to Franz von Taxis, though I didn’t quite catch where the Thurn part comes from. (The name Thurn should be pronunced similar to Turn, as if no ‘h’).

Anyways, here’s some picture from the palace if you wanna see, as photos were not allowed inside.

Funnily enough in some areas you see old fashioned baroque royal palatial rooms with completely random modern items. In the Ballroom, the heaters no longer function – as the prince had large speakers put inside completely hiding them. Inside the conservatory is a large model of a racing car, as the manor’s occupant Prince Albert II, is a famous race car driver. The very room next to the conservatory has dozens of trophies on display, including a 1st place trophy from the German GT Championship. Prince Albert II’s father died in 1990, and left him a 3 billion dollar fortune, at only 11 years old, so he has just a little bit of extra spending money.

Anyways, Regensburg is a pretty cool town, and still has some old medieval wall sections, and an old Roman tower. There’s more, but that’s really all I feel like typing, so I’ll post some images.

Images Here!