Yes! This time… Augsburg! (City Date: 11/26/2023) A absolutely wonderful gem of a city. Pretty classic and medieval looking buildings everywhere you turn. A settlement founded by Roman emperor Augustus in 15BC, it is Germany’s 6th oldest city. After checking into our hotel room – not a fancy dang ship, we made our way to an interesting historical part of town – an area called the “Fuggerei”, named after the notable Jakob Fugger. The Fuggerei is a tightly knit neighboord community with a an interesting history. Jakob Fugger is a man who is considered to be the wealthiest man who ever lived up to and including modern times. His family got into textiles, and mining and banking. Over his lifetime, (1459-1525) he acquired wealth roughly equal to a whopping 2% of all medieval Europe’s GDP – or very roughly 400 billion dollars today. After a while he got into religion and philanthropic works and founded a neighborhood for the poor, for the cost of 1 guilder a year (about a dollar), and 3 daily prayers.

That neighborhood still exists today, for poor Catholics who have been living in Augsburg for at least 2 years, for a nearly identical cost. 88 cents (Euro cents), and some prayers per year.

At this neighborhood, is also a bunker where the town’s residents would gather during Allied air raids on the city in WW2.

After visiting this neighborhood, we simply strolled the streets and checked out the Christmas market, which sadly, like many others had not yet opened.