Checking back through old posts, it would seem like the last update on Bavaria’s Slowest Construction Project® was over a year ago: Bridge Work Still in Progress. But maybe this story is coming to a close, after more than 8 years — four years longer than originally planned. ((Still doing better than the Berlin-Brandenburg airport fiasco!))
Despite major distractions from local life due to work stress and a few short trips out of town in May (did you see our Cinque Terre post?), we somehow managed to hear that the Bruckmandl ((“little bridge dude”)) is back at his post since a week or two ago. Continue reading Perhaps the last bridge update…..EVAR!?
For the first time in a while, we took a stroll back to the old neighborhood for the Maidult festival running there for a few days yet. You can count on the Dult, in May or in the Fall, to provide plenty of good people watching. It’s like an American amusement park in that regard — it takes all kinds and all kinds do show up for the beer tents, rickety rides, carnival games, and odd specialty goods for sale.
We were there with some of my work peeps whom I don’t see much anymore.
You can see that the middle of the bridge is still covered up in a tenty, shed-like thing. We haven’t heard any news about progress, or the lack thereof. Have you?
Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter much, especially if you’re one of the people enjoying a warm evening with friends on the bank.
Dang. Not yet a quarter into it, and this year is flying by already. After our inconvenient-but-still-lovely Mallorcan long weekend last year, we returned to Regensburg to get to work on our new digs. We’ve learned a lot about wiring and installing ceiling lamps, and options for furniture, and some life lessons about paint contractors. ((Hint: when they tell you to buy paint, get their estimate IN WRITING. Anyone need some teal or lavender paint?))
We’ve been busy, like everyone, of course. We’ve been concentrating on the resolution of a small real estate drama, and trying to squeeze progress in that area around not one, not two, but three vacations planned out in advance. But that’s all coming to an end REALLY SOON. Continue reading Bridge Update, Sep…um…October 2016
Yesterday we were excited to see that the scaffolding and tarps obscuring the south end of the bridge are coming down!
Bayerischer Rundfunk is reporting that the third phase of the project (arches #3-5) is nearing completion. Arches #6-9 are up next, and the auxiliary pedestrian bridge that’s been standing around with no way for anyone to use it will be connected to the main bridge to divert Fußgänger and Fahrradfahrer traffic again soon.
Two weekends ago the Reinheitsgebot turned 500 years old. ((At least, the Bavarian version of that law did. Wikipedia knows more.)) Whether that law is still a good thing, or is worth respecting for its age (versus similar, older laws), is kinda irrelevant, if the weather’s getting nicer and you’re looking for an excuse to party. So, lots of areas of Germany did, including Regensburg. Continue reading Some Bierfests, Ascension, and not really a Bridge Update
I was in Iași, Romania on my usual early-part-of-the-year business trip in February. The Cultural Palace has been under renovation for as long as I have been visiting our location(s) there. It’s coming along nicely. My local contacts tell me that it should be open for visitors by the time of my next visit — presumably this summer.
The last couple times I’ve been there I’ve visited their enormous new mall built up around the palace grounds. There’s a giant Auchan store attached to the mall, too. I bought a couple non-perishable specialities back, but not borș.
Reminds me a lot of the malls of my youth.
Essential for sour soups, like Ciorbă Rădăuțeană.
A Drippy Visit to Seligenstadt
Ourtravelbuddy the Resident on Earth completed her farewell tour through Germany, and we met up with her in Frankfurt at an Ebblwoi ((Apfelwein auf Hessisch)) bar for dinner and brunch the next day in Seligenstadt. A tip of the hat goes to her for recommending Motel One, which might be our new favorite hotel chain in Germany. We have had good results there in Frankfurt and Munich and heard good things about the one in Nürnberg and Berlin as well.
The weather in Frankfurt that evening was terrible, but I was determined to park the car at the hotel and do the rest on foot — despite the rain. We got soaked on the way there and opted for a taxi back. The taxi driver was a chatty dude, and we thought, at first, that must be dumbing down his German for us, because it was so comprehensible. We didn’t have to ask him to repeat anything or use a non-regional expression or slow down or anything like that. Then we remembered that that’s what German can sound like outside of those deep pockets of localized dialect, like d’Obapfoiz. ((die Oberpfalz, or the Upper Palatinate)).
Brunch the next day was nice, and we took a stroll around Seligenstadt to walk it off a bit and try not to be sad about our buddy’s return to the USA.
The whole Altstadt looks like this.
On the grounds of the Basiika
Bridge Update March 2016
Somewhen ((I love it when Germans translate irgendwann into somewhen.)) in the last week, another big piece of the auxiliary bridge has been dismantled and moved off the scene. Sarah captured it. I took a stroll around today on my way into town for some groceries.
First thing I noticed: a coffee bar on our street is undergoing a change. Not sure if it’s just a face lift, like when the Spital Café opened up next to it where the Cat Pee Chinese ((Not its real name. We only ordered from there once. Guess why?)) joint had been. Or maybe something bigger is happening here. Assuredly they better hurry up — Café Blanket Season is already upon us.
That tent on the South Bank side has been up for … over a year now? Something must be happening in there, but at this point, there’s more visible activity on our side. Spring is very nearly upon us, with Easter and Pentecost vacation periods and the heavy influx of visitors they bring with them.
If the plan is to have the next section of auxiliary bridge — diverting traffic off the big middle section, which as far as we can tell has had little to no work done on it yet — up and serviceable before then, they better step on it. And not on these little purple guys.
Is it really February? It feels more like April, or maybe even March.
A few (more large) pieces of the auxiliary bridge disappeared recently overnight, revealing even more of a “bridge to nowhere” scene. Sure would be nice to get some more progress in place here. As it stands now, it seems like the biggest part of the project — the middle — is going to be in progress right when the weather warms up and all those Bavarian holidays kick in, with tourists from all over Germany (and the rest of the world, really) swarming the bridge and clogging the already-narrowed auxiliary sections.
Widened gap between auxiliary bridge sections:
Mucky bank at Trattoria Marina due to dropping water levels:
Note the outdoor lunchers soaking up every bit of sunlight they can. Sure can’t blame them for missing the sun. Who knows when it’ll return?
Green-but-swampy bank and lonely auxiliary bridge tower:
