At the Castle Vezio has a Birds of Prey exhibition, I liked these two in particular.
After my hike I met Beth and we walked over to take out the kayaks today as the lake was much calmer. We enjoyed being on the Lake. Check out my kayaking Villa Monastero
For our last evening in Varenna we had planned to eat at gourmet restaurant. However as we were walking back to our hotel just across the street from this church
we saw workers setting up chairs and a movie screen for an outdoor movie. Anyone who knows Beth, knows this is one of her many favorite things to do....watch movies outdoors. So we changed our restaurants plans and just eat at our Royal Grill then walked next door to see Bridge of Spies, in Italian with English subtitles.
Friday, August 12th - Travel day....first train from Varenna to Milan, then bus from Milan to the Malpensa airport for our Easyjet flight from Milan to Münich. At the airport we picked up our rental car and drove to the das Hotel in Münich.
Kim and Erwan walked over to meet us in our hotel. It was SO WONDERFUL to finally see and HUG some of our family. We have been away from home for 4 months and this was our FIRST family!! We love Kim and Erwan is a wonderful young man. In any case we then we all walked and had dinner in Kim's favorite restaurant Salz Kruste (Salt Crust).
Saturday, August 13 - Kim and Erwan met us at our hotel this morning, it was a glorious day so we decided to walk to their English Garden Park, it is one of Europe's largest urban public parks, it is smaller than Golden Gate Park but not much.
As we were heading towards the park Kim took us into the University of Münich to the hall that Sophie Magdalena Scholl made famous.
"In the summer of 1942, Sophie's friends began to question and resist the principals and policies of the Nazi regime. The group, the White Rose, decided to adopt the strategy of passive resistance that was being used by students fighting against racial discrimination in
the United States. This included publishing leaflets for the restoration of democracy and social justice. These were distributed
throughout central Germany and the Gestapo soon became aware of the group's activities.
The group (White Rose) co-authored six anti-Nazi Third Reich political resistance leaflets. They instructed Germans to passively resist the Nazis. They had been horrified by the behaviour of the Germans on the Eastern Front where they had witnessed a group of Naked Jews being shot in a pit"
So "Sophie and her brother Hans brought a suitcase of the final leaflets, to the University, and left them in corridors foe the students to discover and read." They were reported and taken into Gestapo custody on February 18, 1943. Sophie's "interrogation" was so cruel, she appeared in court with a broken leg. He quote from that court appearance is:
"Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many other. They just don't dare express themselves as we did"
On February 22, 1942, within 4 days of her, her brother Hans, and their friend Christoph Probst arrest, they were found guilty of treason and condemned to death. They were all beheaded by guillotine only a few hours later at 17:00 hours."
JUST AMAZING what this women, her brothers and their friend stood up to in the face of the Nazi's", so powerful. We did not know or expect this when Kim walked us into the the University.
From here it is just a block or so to the English Garden Park. Everyone was out enjoying the incredible day. Hiking, biking, skating, running, walking, playing, just loving the day. We walked through the park and towards the famous river surfing on the Eisbach (ice brook) a small man made river in the park.
Some photo's and a YouTube video of "surfing the river"
From here we walked to a central open air Beer Garden to have some lunch. We went traditional with currywurst, schnitzel, pretzel and beer! Delicious
We checked out the Asam Church, built as a "private" church by two brothers. It's is quite "over the top" but interesting to see.
We were getting tired so we decided to walk to the river and rest, get some sun, dip our feet in the cool water and relax!!
After a next relaxing time at the river we walked back past the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. It is quite a tourist attracting and this blog has some additional information and images.
Since we were close by Kim wanted to see another church called Frauenkirche (Cathedral of our Dear Lady). Very nice but I can get "churched out".
So now it's beer and dinner time what better place to do both than the famous Hofbräuhaus München
In this wikipedia link are a couple of interesting images (click on the photo on the right side), first you can see the SIZE of the beer we had. Another one is of patron's mug stored under lock and key.
To hear the band play watch this
For dinner I had the crunchy knuckle of pork and roast pork served with gravy and potato dumplings....yum, yum good!
Sunday, August 14th - today we drove to Tegernsee Lake. Since this was a 3 day weekend we expected it to be busy.....but bumper to bumper for about a 1/2 hour not exactly the type of driving I enjoy. But once we arrived it was fantastic. We had lunch at a local place where you pick your type of spread and then get bread with it to enjoy. We had cream cheese with salmon, hummus and others.
We then went to lay on the "beach" at the lake, swim and enjoy the warm weather.
When I saw this canoe I had to WhatsApp Jim Krantz as it reminded me of him as he has a beautiful canoe!
Cute part of town
Lake lake a sunset from the other side
We meet some people who recommended a "local" Bavarian restaurant so we enjoyed dinner their. It is called Gasthof zum Hagn. Very traditional German food!
Monday, August 15 - we decided to visit a place the Kim and Erwan had never heard of called Regensburg. We met a man on our flight from Milan to Münich who recommend that we check it out. On the drive there we saw a lot of crops that were growing up lines, like vines, that were about 20 feet high. We could not figure out what it was until Beth looked it up....they are growing Hops
We learned that "the first settlements in Regensburg date from the Stone Age."
"In 1096, on the way to the First Crusade, Peter the Hermit led mob of Crusaders that attempted to force the mass conversion of the Jews of Regensburg and killed all those who resisted."
"Between 1135 and 1146, the Stone Bridge across the Danube was built at Regensburg. This bridge opened major international trade routes between northern Europe and Venice, and this began the golden age as a residence of wealthy trading families. Regensburg became the cultural centre of southern Germany and was celebrated for the gold work and fabrics."
This is statue of Don Juan Austria in Regensburg
The Coat of Arms in the center of this image
The entrance to the Stone Bridge
And a short video of the old stone bridge
We walked across the bridge and had lunch at Brauereigaststätte Spitalgarten overlooking the Danube and the city. I had wieners and sauerkraut. Here is our view
After lunch we had to hustle over to the Palace of St. Emmeram - Thurn und Taxis.
There is an interesting article in Town and Country about Gloria von Thurn und Taxi, formerly known as the Punk Princess. She first visited the Palace of St. Emmeram, as the 19 year old date of its over, Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn und Taxis, a descendant of the first postmaster of the Holy Roman Empire. She met the 53 year old Johannes in 1979 and despite their 34 year age difference they married.
Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn und Taxis. He was known as a bi-sexual and this blog has some interesting details.
The current Prince is Albert von Thurn und Taxis. He first appeared on Forbes's billionaire list as an 8 year old, the 12th prince in the family line, officially inherited his fortune in 2001, on his 18th birthday. They say "the Prince has gasoline in his blood"
This link shows his sister Elizaabeth Thurn und Taxis images of their home in Vogue magazine.
What a place and what an interesting family!!!!!
And guess what we visited two more churches before we left Regensburg.
First was the Alte Kapelle church.
I really do not know what the concept of this "fake coffin" is but I am sure it has some meaning!
Nice candles, eh?
The second one was the Regensburg Cathedral, dedicated to St. Peter. It is the seat of the Catholic diocese of Regensburg. The church is the prime example of Gothic architecture in Bavria.
Regensburg Cathedral has some interesting things like the "Smiling Angel"
An impressive number of medieval stained glass windows have survived. Most date from 1320 to 1370, but there are even some survivors from 1220-1230. Including this one of St Peter
AND there are also weathered sculptures on the buttresses of the south side, UNFORTUNATELY including an example of the Judensau (Jews' sow) that faces the former Jewish Quarter. The scuplture is quite damaged, but shows Jews suckling on a large sow (female pig). It was intended to be degrading and insulting since the pig is unclean in Judaism, this was widespread in German speaking lands.
On our drive back to Münich on the section of autobhan with NO speed limit I hit 161 kilometers per hour, about 100 mph....not bad for a rental car.
Upon our return we ate at a local "burger" place called Hans IM Glück, which has Vegan, Vegetarian, Chicken, beef and many other types of burgers. It was a nice and easy dinner to complete our fantastic weekend with Kim and Erwan.
Tuesday, August 16th We fly Münich to Amsterdam then to Valencia.
My sister Claudia and brother-in-law Morry are flying today from LAX to Paris for a vacation that will end with us in Valencia.
And today is my niece Ryanne Richter's Birthday!
No comments:
Post a Comment