Curious Traveler

(bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) - "Curious Traveler" is made possible by the following.

(train whooshing) (gentle music) (bright upbeat music) (lively music) Here at the northernmost point of the Danube, we have a beautiful UNESCO status old town in the heart of a major Bavarian city, full of curious history, symbols, and traditions, willkommen to Regensburg and Eastern Bavaria.

(bright lively music) The city of Regensburg is in Eastern Bavaria, and it lies along the Danube River, here in Germany.

(bright lively music) It is known for its magical UNESCO status old town, a very old stone bridge, and a quite curious history.

Regensburg once had a funnier name, Radasbona, which has nothing to do with a rat problem, but in fact was the name of the Celtic settlement that begins this city's history.

In the next stage of its history, the Romans move in and build a military camp here.

Remnants of that camp are still here more than 2,000 years later, which we will soon see.

(bright lively music) Then, in the early Middle Ages, Regensburg becomes a capital for the Dukes of Bavaria.

Over the next few centuries, Regensburg becomes a free imperial city of Bavaria, and very prosperous.

(bright lively music) During World War II, Regensburg was bombed, but incredibly, most of its medieval city center survived, and was given its UNESCO status in 2006.

(bright lively music) So, here's what I'm curious about in Regensburg, who threw some gold coins out this window at the peasants below?

What is this ancient gate doing here?

Where can you find the only gothic cathedral in Bavaria?

Why was it so important to build this bridge out of stone?

When did mothers and daughters support their families, thanks to a beaded art form?

And how did a medieval trading route help to create the world's oldest inn?

(Muk speaking in German) - "Gott", I recognize "gott".

(Muk laughing) Who, what, where, why, when, and how, so much to be curious about in Regensburg, Germany.

(bright lively music) We begin our curious exploration into Regensburg with its ancient origins.

(bright playful music) We know that there was a Celtic settlement here called Radasbona, and then as the Roman Empire expanded, the Romans established a military fortress here in the second century AD.

And if you look closely, you can do a little time travel yourself, back to those Roman days.

Here you can see those original Roman walls, and here's my favorite part, the north gate to the camp isn't just still here, but it's preserved in a very curious way.

A modern apartment building was very carefully, I presume, built around it.

How would you like to live right here?

And, it gets even better, the name of the fortress tells the history of the city's name.

This tower and this gate have a little something to do with why we call Regensburg Regensburg, that is because in 179 AD, the Romans stopped here and they said, "Hey, this is a pretty good place to set up camp."

And that's exactly what they did.

They built a fortress right here and called it Castra Regina, which means camp or fortress along the Regen River.

And even to this day, Regensburg still means fortress along the Regen River, and we do have a river just a few blocks this way, the only problem is it's not the Regen.

(bright playful music) We'll get to the bottom of that curious name origin in a minute, but first, we time travel from Ancient Rome to Medieval Regensburg, where just a few hundred feet takes us a few hundred years into the Middle Ages.

Into Regensburg's UNESCO status old town, where there are more than 1,000 protected historic buildings.

(bright playful music) As we've learned, Regensburg was a thriving trading city, thanks to the Danube, that superhighway of trade for Medieval Europe.

At its peak in the 13th century, Regensburg traded with cities as far away as Paris and Venice.

This trade brought wealth and attracted royalty, important clergy, and politicians to the city, who then spent their wealth building these impressive landmarks, including the centerpiece, the Old Town Hall.

Here at Town Hall, there are so many wonderful curiosities, both big and small, to discover.

Like right here on this single gothic doorway, if you look all the way to the top, you have one knight there on the right with a rock that he's about to throw at you, watch out.

And over on the left, you have another knight who is holding a really scary German battle ax, so maybe don't mess with that guy.

And down here on the corner, you have something that at first seems a little less exciting, but it was pretty important.

So what we have here are three iron rods that are stuck to the side of Town Hall, and this represents the measurements at the time.

Because in the centuries before we had standardized measurements, every town, every village, every kingdom, every empire kinda made things up.

So for this particular town, this was a foot.

Now, in some towns or villages, they would actually measure the King's foot and say, "Hey, that's a foot."

In this one, we don't know if it was a King, or a peasant, or just a really nice guy.

This one is not a giant's foot, this is actually an arm span.

So, not maybe my my arm span, maybe somebody a little bit taller.

And then this one, no, this is not a super-sized arm span, this is actually a wingspan, so it's the measurement of two arms.

And so it was stuck here so that everybody in the town knew what these standards were for this particular town.

Now, maybe there was a dispute between, "Hey, I have more apples than you."

Or, "I have more oranges than you."

Or, particularly in the case of Bavaria, who has more hops than someone else.

(lively music) Next, near the Old Town Hall is another 13th century historic building, and it's a curious one, with a giant mural that was painted in the 16th century and then redone over the following centuries, and whose story actually begins over here at the old gate tower, a very regal entrance to the city, perfect for a visit from the Emperor.

So, you can see that main gate behind us in this big long road that the Emperor would have come up on, and you can see it starting to rise already from the river behind us.

So, as he came up here, you can imagine, there was a really beautiful welcome for him, perhaps people cheering along the way, and then the very first thing he would've seen as he entered the city itself is this big, beautiful mural.

Now, if you look closely, you can probably recognize this scene, it's the biblical story of David and Goliath, but with a little bit of a twist.

You can see they are both decked out in Roman clothing, and of course we have Goliath looking much taller and much stronger than of course we have David, who's kind of crouching below, looking a bit weaker, but also getting ready to strike.

So the question is, the idea behind this mural that was made especially for the Emperor, was the Emperor meant to be David, who's the good guy, or Goliath, who's the strong guy?

In fact, there are many theories about the real meaning of this mural, but my favorite theory is about the painting itself.

When it was being repaired in the early 20th century, it is said that because of all those windows, it was simply too difficult to paint Goliath's arms outstretched.

So, the artist chose instead to use the windows to his advantage, and have the giant rest his arms on top of one of them.

It kinda helps with Goliath's relaxed, "I'm not scared of you" pose, doesn't it?

(bright playful music) Next, we go from biblical story to glorious, soaring church, the center of Christianity and power for Regensburg in the Middle Ages, and part of the reason that the city achieved a UNESCO status.

St. Peter's Cathedral is one of the most important cathedrals in Germany, and the only gothic cathedral in Bavaria.

To learn more, we meet up with lifelong Regensburg resident and local guide, Matthias Freitag.

When this was built in the Middle Ages, this was not a city at all.

- Yeah.

- Probably looked a little bit different.

Let's talk about why this location was chosen for a cathedral of this magnitude.

- Okay, so the first reason is Regensburg has always had a bishop, but not every bishop's church has this huge size.

So we have to add something else, which is the economic importance of Regensburg in the Middle Ages.

Regensburg today is like an average town city, somewhere in Germany, but in the Middle Ages, for a certain time, it was, believe it or not, the second biggest city of Germany.

And then it was about showing- - Yeah.

- What the city was.

And, I mean, looking at the Cathedral, you have to be aware this is the style of Prague, Vienna, Paris, Notre Dame.

This is built after the model of French cathedrals for a reason, because they wanted to tell to the people, "Look, we're not a province town somewhere in Bavaria, we are one of the big European metropoles."

And the cathedral stands for that.

- [Christine] Yeah, I don't think there would be any confusion about Regensburg status once a visitor crossed the Danube and saw this glorious testament to the city's importance.

And, St. Peter's Cathedral becomes so important to the city that it inspired the city's symbol.

St. Peter, and the church that's dedicated to him- - Yeah.

- And the symbol of the city and the city crest, and a couple of important keys, how does all that meld together?

- You have keys everywhere on historical buildings in Regensburg, because the key being the symbol of St. Peter, it could be seen at the Cathedral, of course, (graphic dinging) on church buildings, and a little later, the whole city was like, St. Peter is the patron of not only of the church, the patron of the city.

So, for example, the symbol of the key, as a combination of two keys, it became the code of arms of Regensburg.

- Perfect, and that's why- - And that's why- - We see the crossed keys everywhere.

- You see them everywhere.

- We're not in Rome, we're in Regensburg.

- We're in Regensburg.

(Christine laughing) (bright playful music) - [Christine] Next, we visit another important historic monument, probably the most important historic monument of the city.

This is simply called The Stone Bridge, built between the years 1135 and 1146, a masterpiece of medieval architecture.

With its barrel vaults and distinct lozenge-shaped supports, for eight centuries, this was the only safe path across the Danube, into and out of the city.

And its stone material, which may not seem remarkable today, made quite the statement at the time, as important as the Cathedral, or the Town Hall.

- Regensburg was the first city to be able to afford building a stone bridge.

And it was of course, a big message to people coming to Regensburg, most of them have never seen anything like this in their lives.

It's like, "Wow!"

- Right.

- "What is this where I'm coming to?"

- [Christine] In fact, this history of building in expensive stone led to a funny German expression.

- When someone's very rich, extremely rich, we say "steinreich", which will be- - Okay.

- Translated "stone rich".

- Oh, they're stone right, oh, interesting- - Which, does not mean, "I'm rich as a stone."

It doesn't make sense.

- Rich enough to buy a stone.

- But I am able- - Yeah.

- To build a building out of stone, which was the building material of only rich people.

- Oh, that's fantastic.

- Churches were stone buildings, castles were stone buildings, palaces were stone buildings.

In Germany, you have all those fancy fachwerk, what's that in English?

Timber wood- - Mhm.

We call them half timber houses.

- Half timber, but in Regensburg a lot of the buildings you saw that, even in town- - Yeah.

- Are stone- - Stone.

- Massive stone buildings.

- Ah.

So, in this one spot, we have a huge, sturdy, stone statement of wealth, an engineering marvel of the Middle Ages, and as if that weren't enough, we also finally get to the name origin of Regensburg.

Back to the name origin, it's very interesting, so typically, whether it was Roman, or Celtic- - Mm.

- Or whatever ancient- - Yeah.

- Civilization it was, they would take the name from the river that was closest to them.

That's not the case here, because this is the Danube, it's not the, you know, so how did the name come about?

- Yeah, that's really a bit difficult, but the River Danube was the boundary of the Roman Empire for hundreds and hundreds of miles.

So there were many military posts, they were all on the Danube.

- There couldn't be 18 Danuburg, Danuburg- - Danuburg.

- Danuburg, Danuburg.

- So, if you send a letter to the Emperor in Rome, "I have a problem, please help me, I'm in the garrison of Danuburg."

The Emperor would've asked- - "Which one?"

- "Which one?"

- "Which one?"

- So, that's why the Romans decided there is a second river, a smaller one, which comes into the River Danube from Barbarian's land, from the north.

Now this river comes into the Danube right here, where we are.

- And, the name of that river is, you guessed it, the Regen River.

So, the decision was made to call the Roman fortress, or burg, along the Regen River, Regensburg, and it has been thus ever since.

(lively music) We have one last stop here in Regensburg, and it's back here at the Old Town Hall.

There is a very curious legend that combines some gold coins, a beautiful window, and the concept of celebrity.

In the second phase of the town hall, you kind of look up, and you've got this glorious window that kinda sticks out, it looks like it has its own column on the outside, and surrounding it, you have these nice long rows of gothic windows.

- Mhm.

- Why was that one particular window right there in the center, and it looks like almost a covered balcony?

- Let's say an emperor coming to Regensburg- - Yep.

- Which happened regularly, but say hello to the crowd, to the people who gathered outside, so that's why the special window.

And of course, it should look like this is the Emperor's window- - It should be worthy of the Emperor.

- Exactly, exactly.

- I like the idea of the crowds being down below and saying, "Please, please, you know, bless us with your face."

So he opens it, he waves, and would throw coins- - Yeah.

- Real money out?

And then would the people scramble- - Yeah.

- That seems a little mean.

- The fun part is, I love to tell this story, because obviously people did not freak out automatically, like we do.

- Right.

- Imagine, let's say someone- - A celebrity- - King Charles- - Yeah.

- From England would immediately come out, people would freak out, right?

- Yeah, right, right.

- They didn't, obviously, that's why they had to do something to make people- - Oh, really?

- Hail and applaud, which was throwing money out of the window.

- So they're sort of teaching them, "Look, you need revere this person"- - Exactly.

- So we're gonna put him up above you, and he's gonna throw money out.

- I like this pragmatic approach of the people saying, "Just because it's an emperor"- - "What do I care?"

- "Why should I freak out?

What do I care?"

(bright playful music) (lively music) - Next, we head outside of Regensburg, to the small village of Eisleben, where we visit the oldest inn in the world, with a Guinness World Record to prove it.

Guten tag.

(Muk speaking in German) - "Gott", I recognize "gott".

(Muk laughing) Yeah, that one I recognize.

- "Beus gott"- - "Beus gott"- - Means welcome.

- Welcome, excellent, thank you very much.

- Come inside.

- I would love to.

This is the Gasttte Rhrl, and Muk Rhrl is the landlord, his family has run this historic inn for 11 generations.

I recognize the name here, that's your last name.

- That's my last name.

- Yeah.

- And the first name is my great-grandfather.

- While the building dates to the 11th century, his family has owned and run it since 1658.

Why did I just duck, I don't need to duck.

This isn't just a tavern, and a hotel, and a restaurant, and a beer garden, it feels like a history museum, with little historic treasures everywhere you look.

All right, so what's this fun little window for?

- I think you can take a plate there, and the waitress can take it.

- Oh, I love that.

So that's a little privacy there, so there we go, we walk through here, and you will laugh at me, but when we get to visit beautiful, historic places like this, I love how the stairs and the steps- - Yeah.

- They all look kind of worn away.

- Maybe a lot of people will use this over the hundreds of years.

- [Christine] Oh, yeah, a lot of steins of beer and thirsty customers have been served up in this quaint dining hall over the centuries.

Muk kindly opened his popular inn early for us for filming, which is why the restaurant is unusually empty.

But even without those boisterous beer buddies around, the walls are forever telling the centuries of history.

My favorite story is how the inn came to be in the first place.

- We are standing in the oldest part, it's maybe from thousands, 1030, roundabout the first millennium, in the Mid Age, when the knights are on the- - Yeah.

- Horses outside, and a fantastic time.

(Muk laughing) - So, was there a traveler's path along the way and they needed a place to stop to have a drink, get something to eat?

- They all were trading routes to Kelheim and Nuremberg, and surely, Regensburg, 'cause it's in the near.

We know that in 1030 they delivered beer to the Monastery of Saint Emmeram in Regensburg.

- And, it was as simple as that.

Out of the need for basic necessities, yes, beer is a necessity here in Bavaria, (glass thudding) this happy little tavern came to be.

Then, many centuries later, Muk's great-great-great, okay, I can't say great that many times, Muk's ancestors buy the inn in 1658.

You're the 11th generation of the family, this is gonna sound like a really silly question, so forgive me, do you know the names of your family members from the first generation?

- Yes, from- - Oh, that's better than me, I don't know mine 11.

- The first generation was Andreas.

- Okay.

- And Andreas married Susanna.

- Oh, wonderful.

- Maybe she was a fesch- - Yeah.

- It means she was attractive.

- Okay, good, yeah, I figured, that sounds like something nice.

- That's maybe one reason why he married her.

- Why not?

That's a reason why a lot of people get married, that's a reason a lot of people get married.

- So we have a parish register- - Yeah.

- In our church.

And there is, he written down as a brewer and an innkeeper, and so we knew that our family is here since 1658.

- That's wonderful, and speaking of which, I mean, the church, I can see it through the window here, so you have the church, you have the inn and the brewery, I'm going to guess this has been the center of town- - Yeah.

- For many centuries.

- And this is like the classical style of a village center in Bavaria.

You have the church, you have the restaurant, and maybe a place where people can meet.

(bells ringing) - [Christine] What more could you possibly need?

I know, how about a Guinness World Record?

- A friend of me tell me about a TV show he see, there is a oldest restaurant in the world, it's the Botin in Madrid, they are open it up in 1725.

And so I said, "Hey, we are far older."

- [Christine] So, Muk contacted the Guinness World Record officials, and.

- And they want to know if we have uninterruptedly time that we open.

And so we have a chronicle about our family, over the 11 generations, and so we can translate it to English, send it to the Guinness Book Center in London, and eight weeks later, in 2010, they send us a certificate with a typing mistake.

- With a typing mistake, but then you have a second one without the typing mistake.

- Yeah.

- Yep, the original certificate misspelled the word "building", they forgot the "l".

But it is still proudly hung on the walls here, alongside portraits of the generations.

Just one more quirky piece of history in this incredibly historic and beloved inn, built along a medieval trading road.

(bright playful music) But, before we hit the road, I've got one more question for our friend.

How many people have stopped by here to have a beer, to have something to eat?

How many people would you even guess?

- I think- - 11 generations, plus the earlier.

- I think billions.

- Yeah.

(Muk laughing) That's pretty special, that's pretty special.

(upbeat playful music) For our last stop, we go back to the heart of Regensburg and to the old town.

(upbeat playful music) And just across from that Roman gate, where we began our journey, is yet another historic building.

But this one today has a much more modern purpose.

(upbeat playful music) This is Claudia, she owns the Carakess antique shop, here in the heart of Regensburg's old town.

Her adorable little shop specializes in vintage finds, some really great coffee, and traditional Bavarian cakes.

Oh, that's kinda cool.

But, what really makes Claudia and her shop unique are these beautiful vintage purses.

- It was one of my first bags.

- Isn't the intricate stitching, with those colorful threads, just dazzling and remarkable?

Well, look closely, these aren't colorful threads, but in fact beads, teeny, tiny beads.

Tell me the story about how you first discovered your first bead bag, 'cause there's a lot of history to this art.

- Yes, I found a little piece of a beaded bags on a flea market, and the seller told me it is knitted with beads, and I thought, "Mm, it can't be, no, this can't be."

- Yep, it takes about 20,000 little beads to make one pretty purse.

This was a style of bead work and a style of knitting that women, and probably young girls, did in the 1800s?

- It was a work for women with a lot of time, because you spend 140 hours on it.

- A lot of time to make one of those- - You know.

And later, in 1840, it was a work for women and children to earn money.

- To earn money.

- As a, not a lot of money, but earn money.

- Yeah.

- From women and children, because tiny fingers- - So tiny.

- Tiny beads, you know.

- [Christine] These tiny treasures were quite the trend in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

And this super intricate style came out of the need for something practical, a change in dress style, which didn't have an inch to spare for a pocket.

- Fashion changed, and the dresses were, you know?

- Mhm.

Tighter, or more fitted- - You know?

- Yeah.

- And you needed bigger bags to have your things.

- Yeah.

- To put in.

- And, there is a special connection to Regensburg and to Bavaria.

Was it done in all of Germany, across Europe, or do we know?

- It starts to become a industry- - Mhm.

- In Schwbisch Gmnd.

- Okay.

- But, it was sold all over the world.

- Oh, wonderful.

- But also as a, especially to America and to Holland.

- Mhm.

- We wanted to earn money, so the nice one, we sold.

- Yes.

- And the not the nice one, we had.

- You kept.

Claudia became so fascinated with the history, the craftsmanship, and the beauty of these little works of art, that she wanted to recreate them herself.

But, before she started stitching 20,000 beads together, there was one not so little problem, she had to find the authentic, antique materials first.

- Where do I get this materials?

- Right.

- And this was a lot of work, and my needles are from- - England.

- England.

My beads are from Japan, and the yarn is from Madagascar.

And it takes over one year to get all this materials, yeah, to begin, to start to make a beaded bags.

- And, once she got the materials, Claudia went to work, figuring out exactly how the tiny traditional techniques were done more than a century ago.

How many beads on at a time?

I cannot believe how tiny.

And you have one, two, three, oh my gosh, you have four needles going at the same time.

- Yes.

- Oh my gosh.

- Five.

- Okay, explain the technique.

- All right, so, and I take a little bead.

- Yeah.

- It's waiting, just- - It's really one at a time.

- I know.

That's all.

- Oh my gosh.

- That's all but 140 hours.

- But all this attention to the oh so tiny details is worth it, it makes Claudia feel connected to all those generations of artisans who came before her.

Some very nimble, very patient artisans.

I have a fun question for you.

- Yeah?

- Did you wear glasses before you started this?

- Nein.

- Now you wear glasses, because- - Yeah.

(Christine laughing) (bright lively music) - So, from an old Roman wall, to a gothic town hall with some curious measurements.

Double arms length.

A couple of watchmen, and a pretty little window where you could cash in if you were lucky, to two mighty status symbols of stone, a soaring church, and a sturdy bridge, to the prettiest of little rest stops along a trading route with a special award, even if the spelling's not quite right, to the teeniest, tiniest, prettiest little art form you could ever be lucky enough to wear, even if it wears out your eyes.

Now you wear glasses because- - Yeah.

- Regensburg and Eastern Bavaria have so much to be curious about.

(bright lively music) Thank you for joining us on our educational journey, and hopefully now you're even more curious about the who, what, where, why, when, and how's of Eastern Bavaria and Regensburg.

As they say here, macht es gut!

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