It almost didn’t happen.

We had planned to get up early and walk the dog and muck out the horses in time to catch the 9.06am from Neumarkt to Regensberg.

Yes, I could have driven us, but that makes the trip more stressful, and would you believe the car we have been (very generously) loaned, refused to start yesterday morning. We just didn’t want to risk that happening too far from home.

We made it to Neumarkt Hbf (main railway station) with loads of time, but when I went in to buy the all-day tagescarte ticket to Regensberg from the very unfriendly, not-going-to-help-you-even-if-I-could ticket man, he said something I did not understand, but I think it was I had to get the ticket from the machine on the platform.

So we did.

We almost did not complete the transaction because of the price, €57.20 instead of the €15.80 we had paid on two occasions to get to Nuremberg and back. That’s a huge difference for an extra ten minutes on a train.

But we thought “what the heck, it is only money and we probably won’t be back”.

This chap “camped” beside us for the one hour trip. At each stop, more people would board, but he would mutter something in Russian, and did not budge.

That is four seats he is using!!!

It was freezing when we arrived off the very expensive, but heated train. Wandering into the old town we spotted the first op shop in Germany of this trip – an Oxfam shop with beautifully clean, well displayed, mostly-high-end items.

I was tempted ……

For only €19.50, it was a bargain.

Or this?

However, I settled on this very cosy red jacket for €7.50, and felt beautifully warm the whole day.

In Regensberg, we came across a very fast running section of the Danube again.

And, as we wandered the streets, we spotted quite a few, mostly English speaking tour groups. We worked out these groups were from the ships cruising along the Danube River towards Budapest.

Regensberg certainly had lots of charming old buildings for us to enjoy.

… a few more …

Plus, Mick was surprised by this traditionally dressed gent.

And became all nostalgic when he spotted…..

… this Blue Nun. 🍷

As we were getting off our train in Neumarkt, feeling pretty pleased with our day, a fellow asked us in German had we used a tagescarte (all day ticket) to Regensberg, and if so had it been stamped. (Only twice on our 6 trips had we to show our tickets and have them stamped.)

I knew he was asking so he could use our ticket if it hadn’t been stamped, and I would have been more than happy to give the expensive ticket to him to use, but it had been stamped.

I went on to tell him about the whole sorry saga about our ticket buying exercise this morning – (refer to the first few paragraphs of this post).

He then said to follow him to the ticket machine where he proceeded to ruin our day.

In a few clicks on the screen, mostly the same ones Mick and I used this morning, he somehow got to a selection for all day tickets (yes, the bloody tagescarte), and up came the total price for that ticket, for two people, as €16.80.

More than €40 ($60AUD) less than we’d paid.

Oh, we did laugh 😂. What’s”Dummkopfs”???

But, I was so cranky.

Luckily, Mick picked up two very good Weissbiers for 82 cents and 76 cents respectively, plus a good bottle of red wine from the South of France for less than €4.

I guess things will balance out OK.