And still I continue to be amazed.
Now that the first and the third days of
our visit to Regensburg are nicely organized (Ingolstadt museum and Abensberg
battlefield on Thursday, courtesy of the Director of the town museum, plus a
guided tour of the historical sites – and hostelries – of Regensburg itself on
the Saturday), I’ve been working on seeing if I could arrange some kind of
guided visit to the battlefield at Eggmühl on the
Friday.
This is not critical –
I have a couple of good guidebooks to the field, and I understand it is laid
out in such a way that a knowledgeable visitor can find his way around it.
However, our success and good fortune thus far in finding people prepared to go
to astonishing lengths to help with our mad trip encouraged me to see if I
could just come up with someone prepared to take two total strangers –
Anglophones at that – around our battlefield of choice on the single day we
have available.
Bingo.
In fact, no credit is
due to me at all. The gentleman recommended by the tourist board at Schierling
turned out to be unavailable on the date we wanted (imagine – the chap must
actually have a life), but he was good enough to email me and say that he had
passed the message on, and someone would be in touch shortly. Sure enough, a couple
of days ago I got a delightful note from Georg, who does battlefield tours of Eggmühl, asking would we prefer to start
at 10:00 or 14:00. We have to meet him at the Gastätte Napoleon, in the centre of the village, and everything
will be taken care of.
Georg, it seems, has
been doing this for 20 years now, and he will be wearing the uniform of a
fusilier of the regiment Graf Preysing.
Yes – that’s right. For a brief instant, the imp of perversity whispered to me
that I should email Georg and ask how we would recognize him, but some jokes do
not translate well, so I thought better of it.
 |
| Georg, in uniform, with some French visitors |
So Regensburg is
organized. I have never come across such helpful people, nor such enthusiastic,
humbling kindness. Just astonishing.
We have agreed that the
Vienna leg of our trip will be rather less regimented, but we are working on a
wish list of things we would like to see.
I’m getting nervous.
Things are going too well – you know the feeling?
Excellent - I am totally envious... a thought... perhaps a painted miniature of a fusilier of the regiment Graf Preysing might go down well????
ReplyDeleteVery good idea - thanks for that. We are thinking of taking a couple of bottles of Glenkinchie along as diplomacy gifts - if you are not an enthusiast (I'm not, in fact), Glenkinchie is the last remaining Lowland distiller of single malts - just down the road from here near Pencaitland.
DeleteCheers - Tony
I have found that enthusiasts, whatever their field of interest, are very often prepared to go the extra mile for the genuinely interested (hell, we form clubs just to meet and chat). The greatest let down for him must surely be the unappreciative "freeloader" who takes advantage of their time and generosity. Enjoy your visit and leave Georg with the satisfaction of a job well done! And I agree with Steve -that would be a nice touch. He can admire the figure while sipping the single malt!
ReplyDelete