A piece of Greece in Regensburg 希臘，就在德國雷根斯堡

Fresh from our previous trip, my friends and I were out and about again just one week afterwards, and we set out to the nearby city of Regensburg on 30th March.

Regensburg is famous for its St. Peter’s Cathedral (Dom St. Peter), which could be reached after a casual stroll through the many little streets of the city centre from the railway station. The Cathedral impressed us not only with the grandeur in its architecture but also the colourful mosaic windows.

From the church, the river Danube was only a short walk away. We walked on the Stone Bridge (Steinerne Brücke) and back, for some exercise before lunch at the oldest sausage restaurant of Germany. We treated ourselves to the local Regensburger sausages, eaten with a bun which was almost like stone!

After lunch we ventured out of town to the Walhalla Palace as recommended by the travel guides from two of us in the group. The Palace was built on a hill, during the reign of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and is meant to be a replica of the Parthenon in Athens. It wasn’t such a bad idea to visit this replica after all because the original has in fact suffered from considerable destruction while this Walhalla Palace is still intact. It was hard not to be awed by the colonnade and its series of pillars, the layered terraces and the stairway leading to the entrance of the palace. The beautiful weather has enlivened the stretch of countryside by the Danube at the foot of the hill and attracted a crowd of sunbathers and picnickers around the palace.

Just before we reached Walhalla on our bus trip, I managed to see the ruins of a castle and a look-out point on top of a hill. When we finished our visit to Walhalla, we had so much time left before the next bus would arrive that we decided to walk down one bus stop. We saw the castle again just before we reached the bus stop and thought that it must have been the same castle that I spotted. After asking for directions, we could make our way to the top and uncovered a place that our travel guides neglected altogether! How could that be, we wondered, as it was such a good location to appreciate some scenery. We could see the Danube once again, as well as the village of Donaustauf beneath us and the Walhalla tucked in its hill. It must have been such a natural choice to build a castle at this location where the surroundings are in full view. We were, however, somewhat disappointed that there was no description or background information of the castle whatsoever on site. Regardless, we were glad that we could make up for the lost opportunity to visit something similar in Samobor in Croatia through this unexpected discovery. What better joy of travelling can there be?

上月最後一個星期日（3月30日），我和朋友又再出發，前往離慕尼黑不遠的小城雷根斯堡（Regensburg）。

雷根斯堡最有名的是其聖彼得大教堂，從火車站要經過市內的小巷方可到達。大教堂除了外觀宏偉外，窗上色彩繽紛的玻璃鑲嵌亦值得欣賞。

然後我們從教堂走到市內的多瑙河畔，取道石橋走到對岸再返回起點，到號稱全德國最老子號的香腸屋，品嘗地道的雷根斯堡香腸（配以硬得像石頭的麫包！）

午飯後我們跟據我和另一朋友的旅遊書介紹，前往市外的Walhalla神殿。該殿位處山上，彷照希臘的巴特農神殿Parthenon而建，「真品」已遭局部損毀，可幸環繞神殿的走廊的一列柱子、一層層的台階和神殿正門陡斜的石階都表達出原有的氣派，盡顯當年巴伐利亞國王路易一世的地位。那天大好天氣，從神殿望到多瑙河畔的田園景緻份外美，很多人也前來曬太陽或野餐。

就在乘公車差不多到達Walhalla時，給我發現另一座山上好像有座破城堡和觀景台。從神殿走下來，時間尚早，等車也要大半小時，我們都決定走往下個公車站，快到那個站時又看到山上有個城堡，心想應是同一城堡吧，問路後，大概花了十分鐘，終於給我們發掘了我們兩本旅遊書也沒介紹的城堡廢墟！那裡果然是觀景的上佳地點，多瑙河和山下的小村Donaustauf盡收眼底，Walhalla神殿亦遙遙可見，躲在小山後，若推想那裡從前是軍事瞭望據點也不足為奇，不過整個廢墟範圍一點說明或簡介都欠奉，有點可惜。想不到上次在克羅地亞Samobor與廢城堡無緣，在雷根斯堡卻有如此意外收穫，旅遊最精采之處，莫過於此！