Is This the Most Underrated City in Germany?

Today we're exploring Regensburg, Germany, a city that most travelers have never even heard of. But with colorful streets, medieval architecture, and over 2,000 years of history, it might just be one of the most underrated places in the entire country. So today we're putting it to the test to see if this hidden gem is actually worth adding to your European itinerary. And if you're new around here, we're Matt and Nat, and for the last 5 years we've been making fast-paced, bucket-list travel videos and itineraries to help you get the most out of every trip. In that time, we've visited all 50 U.S. states and more than 20 countries as we attempt to see as many of the 1,000 places to see before you die, well, before we die. In our last video, we were on Iceland's south coast, where we walked behind towering waterfalls, hiked across ancient glaciers, and cruised past floating icebergs. This week, we're in Regensburg, Germany. This is a city that gets overlooked by many tourists, but it is packed with history and charm. It's considered one of the best-preserved medieval cities in the entire world, and it's been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2006. It was also the capital of Bavaria before Munich, and we are so excited to explore today. But first, let's go get some caffeine. Yes, please. All right, so the reason my voice is gone is because we went to Oktoberfest yesterday, and we didn't film a video because we already have an Oktoberfest video, and if you guys haven't watched that, we'll make sure to link it above. Oktoberfest was so much fun, obviously. We lost our voices. And we had fun hanging out with our friends, Chris and Sarah, and if you see a third person here in shot with us, this is James, aka Hammo. You may recognize him. We were on his podcast, the Winging It Travel Podcast, but he also has a YouTube channel, and it's called Roaming with Hammo. So today, we're going to be roaming with Hammo, and we're super excited about it. We never get to travel with friends, especially creator YouTube friends. It's rare, isn't it? Yeah, I'm ready to explore today. Yeah, it's going to be exciting, isn't it? He is such a kind, awesome human being, so make sure you guys go follow him. Too kind. Stop lying. Are you going to pay me for that, or how are we going to be doing that? What do you think? It's like a cheesecake. Berries on top, like cream cheese-y, sugary cheese in the middle, and a little bit of biscuit at the bottom. Not too intense a flavor, quite soft. Is this like almonds on top? Almonds on top. Slices on top. Very nice. Decent, yeah. Would you recommend it? 100%. It looks quite, and sounds quite local, so. We weren't sure how to say the name of it. Something stook? Kirkenshtook? I think that might have been it. Kirkenshtook or Kirkenshtuck? Yeah. If it's wrong, we know you'll correct us in the comments, so. And that is fine. We need some correction at times. We appreciate it. As far as I know, I've never had a Cruffin. It's a croissant muffin. One of their most popular items here at this bakery, recommended by the kind woman that was helping us in there. I don't even know what flavor I got. Do you remember? Pumpkin spice? Oh, man. They already know my love language. Very autumnal. Very, very. Oh. Yeah, that was very British. Oh. Excuse me, sir. Your British is showing. What's American, mate? Very fall. Yeah. Very fall flavored. Very basic fall. Yeah, fall. Autumn is a much nicer term than fall. No, autumnal. Autumnal. We don't have forks, knives, nothing. I'm just going to dive in and make a mess of it. So, here we go. Where's the bee? Oh, gosh. Mmm. So, that's a delicious croissant. It's buttery. Flaky as well. That pumpkin cream is delicious. They insert it and fill the inside of it with that cream. Very tasty. It's going to pair nicely with my cappuccino. You guys know me. I got a chai latte and I was so excited. The price, not bad either. 360 euros. So, that was probably one of my cheapest ones so far. What is it good? It's a vanilla. Mmm. It's delicious. I went in for two sips, so that tells you right there. I got the pistachio cruffin. I've never had a cruffin either. I do love that it is coated in powdered sugar. Oh, that is delicious. The pistachio filling is so good. The powdered sugar does give it a little sweetness. It's not overly sweet. I like cruffins. Okay. Let's go and enjoy our breakfast. So, after breakfast, we're going on a little bit of a self-guided walking tour around the city center, the old town. And we've come up on the New Parish Church, which we were prepared for, but we didn't know that they were going to have a nice little market on the square around the church. So, we're going to go roam around and see what we can find. That little market reminds me so much of the Christmas market with the candy cane striped roofs. And, obviously, they're selling stuff, but it was really cute. It was cool to be here when it's not winter time. Very... What was the word you used? Autumnal. Yeah. It's an autumnal market. It's 13 degrees. The colors are out. And I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit, but I'll put it on the screen here. First impressions of Regensburg, super idyllic, super cute, quaint. I love the colors. Yeah. And it's very chill. It's not super crowded here. It's just a really charming city. I'm really loving it so far. When you come to Regensburg, you're going to notice a lot of these towers as you're walking around. They're called patrician towers. They were a symbol of wealth way back, I believe, in the Middle Ages. But Regensburg has more of these towers than any other city that's north of the Alps, which makes it a really unique thing about this place. So back behind me is the Golden Tower, which is one of the most notable patrician towers here in Regensburg. It was built in the second half of the 13th century and is really cool to look at. We're getting postcards for our patrons. A huge shout out if you're part of our Patreon family. Thank you so much for helping and supporting our channel. If you're interested in becoming part of our Patreon family, check out the link down in the description. So if you watch some sort of TV program where they were interviewing people on the street in German and you saw me and James in the background, please tag it below. Okay? I really hope I made it somewhere. All right, we want to take a quick break because we want to talk about something that we think a lot of people can relate to. If you've ever tried to eat healthier or improve your nutrition, you've probably noticed the internet is full of conflicting advice. One article tells you to cut carbs, another says carbs are essential, and it can be really confusing and hard to figure out what actually works for you. That's where Nourish, who we're partnering with on today's video, comes in. Nourish is a platform that makes it really easy to connect with a registered dietitian online so you can get personalized nutrition guidance from the comfort of your home. You can book an appointment in just a few minutes and meet with your dietitian over Zoom to talk about things like improving your nutrition habits, boosting your energy, gut health, or whatever your personal health goals might be. One thing we really appreciate is that it's not about fad diets or cutting out all the foods that you love. It's more about building sustainable habits that fit your lifestyle. For example, we talked through things like balancing meals better and making sure we're getting enough protein, fiber, and other important nutrients throughout the day. And we even went over our blood panels to see how certain numbers could be improved through our diet, which was really helpful. Another great thing about Nourish is that it works with hundreds of insurance plans across all 50 U.S. states, which means about 94% of patients pay $0 out of pocket for their appointments. If you've ever wanted guidance from a dietitian but didn't know where to start, this is your sign to head to usenourish.com slash adventures of Matt and Nat to learn more and book your first appointment in just a few minutes. A huge thanks to Nourish for partnering with us on this video. Now let's get back to exploring Regensburg. Our self-guided walking tour has now brought us to St. Peter's Cathedral, which is a beautiful Gothic-style cathedral right here in the center of the Old Town. This building started construction in the 1200s. They didn't finish it until 1520, but they didn't completely finish it because they ran out of money and couldn't finish building the two spires, the big towers, until the late 1800s. But the stained glass in this church is from the 13th and 14th century, I believe, so let's go check it out. It truly was an awesome cathedral. The stained glass was beautiful. It is so dark in there, though. It takes a second for your eyes to adjust. Yeah, going in, it was like, what are we looking at? But it was really beautiful, definitely recommend. With over 1,000 preserved buildings, Regensburg offers one of the most complete medieval cityscapes in Germany. As you walk through the city, you'll spot landmarks like the colorful Goliath House built in the mid-13th century and sections of the ancient Roman wall still standing after nearly 2,000 years. The Roman wall, pretty cool. Right here, one of the best free public toilets that I've been to in Europe, $0, and it was so clean. Props to James for finding it. When we told people we were coming to Regensburg, the number one recommendation that everyone said we had to do while we were here was come eat at the historic Wurstkuckel, and we have done that. Well, we haven't eaten yet, but we've gotten our food. They're kind of like Nuremberg sausages, they're much smaller Wurst, not really big ones. They come with sauerkraut on them with this nice, I mean, just looks delicious. This is an absolutely delicious Wurst, very similar to if you've watched any of our Christmas market videos when we were in Nuremberg or Munich a few years ago, very much like the Nuremberger little two to three sausage link sandwiches that you get. This is really incredible, and I can see why everybody recommended it. Matt bought me my own, but I'm going to have a bite of his since he already bit into it. Wow. The brotchen is really good, and it has some sort of seed in it, maybe like a fennel seed or something. Got a lot of flavor. The mustard, incredible. I love the ground mustard. I'm not a sauerkraut person, don't come for me, but this is actually really good. I love this whole thing, and they aren't open for dinner, so make sure you're coming here for lunch. We did the takeaway, but they do have tables available if you want to sit down and eat and enjoy this beautiful view. We also got a local beer. Let's give it a go. It's really good. It's got more flavor. I'm assuming it's a light beer. I think it is. It's really, really good. This is a win. So in addition to needing to come here for the delicious sausages, it's also worth coming to because it is considered by many to be the oldest continuously opened and operating restaurant in the entire world. It first opened as a restaurant in 1146, which is kind of mind-boggling. I'd like to let the record show that that was my favorite hot dog. I know you guys are going to say that it's not a hot dog, but a hot dog, that's my favorite hot dog I've ever had. No, but seriously, it was truly amazing. Incredible. And it just got better with every bite. I wasn't even that hungry when we got here, and we were all like, maybe we should go get a second one. No. Also, it was rye that I was tasting in the brochen. Wow. Bye, D. See you soon. We are off. We are taking a two-hour sightseeing cruise, and we are so excited. We're going to be seeing one of the most iconic sights on the Danube near here. We reached the iconic site of Valhalla. And Valhalla is a reproduction of a Greek Athenian temple kind of thing, and it was built in 1842 and was commissioned by King Ludwig I. If you go up to Valhalla, there's a room with a whole bunch of busts from... There's like 2,000 of them. Yeah. From very influential people. I think like Beethoven and Einstein and a bunch of other people. Today, we're not going to go actually into Valhalla, but we did want to come and at least see it because it is in the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. And if you've been following our channel, you know we're on a journey to see as many of those as possible. The sun is out. I know. I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open. Honestly, I needed it after that chilly wind on the boat. Given it was our choice to sit outside in the wind the entire time, but we enjoyed being outside and getting the views there. Honestly, I can't recommend it enough. It was just a really cool way to like see everything and see Valhalla. Yeah, it was a really enjoyable experience. Very peaceful and very chill. We've been wanting to do like a multiple night river cruise for years now, and this was just like a little taste of what that would be like, and I think we're going to have to do like a legit full-on river cruise now. Honestly, like just thinking ahead, I'm going to have a balcony on the river. I'm going to have like a little puffer jacket, some binoculars. But that's for another video and another day. Today, this was a great experience, and we're going to put links to book this experience down in the description because if you come to Regensburg, we definitely think it's worth your time. And if you have a little more time in Regensburg, we hear that the experience of actually walking up and going and visiting Valhalla is definitely worth it as well. Now, let's go see where we can find James. Let's go. All right, we found James. Now, let's go meet him. How was it? It was good. We had a good time. How was your time? Yeah, I walked around. Got some cool little streets to show you if you want to go that way. Oh, yeah. You can go that way. Yeah, wherever you want to go. Show us what you found. Lead the way then. Okay. Built in the 1100s, the stone bridge stretches across the Danube and once served as a major trade route, helping turn Regensburg into one of Europe's most important medieval cities. We're getting a little chilly, so hopefully, we're going to get warmed up from the inside. I don't know if they have chai latte, so we will see. But I could use a little afternoon pick-me-up, so let's go see if we can find that. My lady, chai latte. What did you get? I got a medium cafe latte that has two shots of espresso. This is going to do the trick just fine. Matt got me a chai. This is really good. Again, it's more of a vanilla-y, but it's solid. I'm happy with this. And it's keeping my hands warm. While I sit here and sip on my cafe latte, James is having to depart us a little bit earlier than we're having to leave the city. So before we say goodbye to James, I wanted to ask, what's been your favorite part of our day here in Regensburg? As with most places, my favorite part is the first hour because you're seeing something completely new. So when we walk the little random streets, we're sort of meandering in and out of those little streets. That's my favorite part because I'm like, oh, a building there, a tower, a cathedral. It's just non-stop seeing things. You're so right. What is this? So you kind of daze a little bit. That first impression. Yeah. And Regensburg made a good first impression. I think so, yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think we loved it as we came in from the train station, a bit earthy at the train station, and then we walked in. It's like, oh, wow, this is... It's been a nice day. We appreciate you coming and hanging out with us. But we're not done quite yet. So we'll say... What is it? Auf Wiedersehen? Auf Wiedersehen. Thanks so much. That was so much fun. Thank you for a great day. Love you, my brother. Love you too, man. Always a pleasure. Thank you for the... Let's say this again. Thank you for the good company, always being down to go anywhere, and make last minute changes to make it happen. Felix Mitchell, you're very easy travelers. Same for you. Bye, guys. Now it's just the two of us. We're going to miss James. Yeah. It was so much fun. Yeah, it was a good time. It was so interesting having a third person, A, with us, but B, who's a traveler, and he scoped out a couple of cool spots while we were on the boat. I was like, this is awesome. It feels like we have a location scout. Have we made it? I think so. So thank you, James, for coming. You truly made our day. Yep. And check out his channel. We'll put a link for it down in the description. Again, Roaming with Hamo is his YouTube channel, and then he also has the Winging It Travel Podcast, which is so much great info. He interviews a lot of travelers who've been many more places than we have, so check it out. Now we're going to enjoy our coffee and tea. Prost. That was a nice little pick-me-up. I was cold, and I still am cold, but the view outside was so much better than the one inside, so yeah. Once again, just like on the boat when we sat outside for the views, we did the same for our afternoon pick-me-up. Yeah, but we're going to walk and enjoy these views on the way to our dinner reservation. Let's go. We are now at Regensburger Weissbrau House for dinner. This is a local brewery serving traditional Bavarian food, and we're starting things off with their beer flight. All four beers on this flight are made right here in-house. It comes with a wheat beer, a copper beer, which is known for its red color, which is why it's called copper. It also has a Helles and a Dunkel. I'm going to start with the wheat beer. Really clean, fresh wheat beer. Has almost a fruity, floral kind of aromatic thing to it. The copper, I don't know if I've ever had a German copper beer. Kind of similar in flavors to the wheat beer, just a little more full-bodied. The Helles, I love a good Helles beer. Oh, that one's really clean, really easy to drink, light, but still very flavorful. And then the final, which is going to be Natalie's favorite, because it's nice and dark. That was sarcasm, by the way. That's really nice, too. It's honestly much lighter flavored than other Dunkels that I've had before, but also I didn't rinse my palate before drinking this one, so maybe that has something to do with that. Excellent choice. Definitely get the flight if you come here. I'm going to try this one. I like that one. The Helles. Oh, this one is very fruity and floral. Oh, wheat beer. I don't think I'm a wheat beer person. I don't think I've ever had a copper beer. I'll try the Dunkel, but in a little while. I like this, and my still water. For my dinner, I ordered the Brauhaus Würstelteller, which is their brewery sausage plate. It comes with grilled meatloaf, half of a grilled white sausage, grilled Regensberger sausage, sauerkraut, potato salad, pickled gherkin, and mustard. I love some good German potato salad, so let's see how this one is. One of the better ones I've had. Got a little bit of sharpness from the mustard in there, I believe is what it is. It's creamy. The potatoes are just firm enough. Really great. Let me cut into one of these sausages real quick. Starting off with the grilled white sausage. Really great flavor. I've never had this white sausage grilled. I've always had it just boiled, I guess how they usually make them. So I really appreciate the extra flavor that the char adds, and the additional texture that it adds as well. Next, we've got the Regensberger bratwurst. Oh, that one is packed with flavor. And they scored the sausage before they cooked it, so it adds more crispiness with every one of those scores. Really excellent. And now, this meatloaf looks closer to thick-cut bologna than what I would call meatloaf, but it looks like it's got a nice crisp on it from being fried up. Not a ton of flavor happening there, to be honest. Texture is really kind of softer. A little bit of crisp from the char on it, but out of the three, I would say it's my least favorite, but it's not bad at all. And I ordered the Regensberger schnitzel, and I am so excited. Pommes frites. I don't know what kind of oil that is, but hey, these are some of my favorite fries. These are really good. Good flavor. Love the breading. I love the lemon on there. I'm a happy girl. I'm excited to try this sweet mustard, though. It might be, like, the one that we had on our hot dog earlier today. Sorry about it. I don't know what else to call it besides, like, a brat. It's exactly the kind of mustard that we had. I wonder if they sell this. I want to buy this. This is really good. Definitely not our carry-on allowance, but this is delish. Prost! That dinner was so good and filling. It definitely hit the spot and was a wonderful way to end our day here in Regensburg. Y'all, this city is definitely underrated. It is so cute, quaint. I love the architecture. It definitely exceeded our expectations in so many ways. So, if you're in Bavaria, especially Munich, Regensburg is very well connected. You can get here by train so easily and it makes such a great day trip. And again, like we said in the beginning of this video, we feel like it gets skipped by a lot of tourists. Yeah, so definitely put it on your list. We see why it's in the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. But now, we've got a train to go catch. So, if you like this video, please give it a big thumbs up and hit that subscribe button. And we'll see you guys in the next video. Not overly sugary, not overeat. It's not going to be ladylike for me to eat this. Like, look at... How am I going to do it? I don't know. 18th century. Which is nothing to James because he's used to 11th century things. And it tells the correct time. Wow! For James, this is new construction. So, I got still water so we can stay hydrated still. Pun intended. Still water. Still water. Your nose is cold. It is. Reagan's burnt. Reagan's back out. But now, we've got a train to check. Train to check. But now, we've got a... But now...