First Frost

Photo taken on the way home from Ingrid's school at 7-30 in the morning - minus four degrees.

A Night at the Opera

For Malcolm's birthday, I bought us tickets to see Verdi's La Traviata performed by the Bavarian State Opera company at the National Theatre in Munich.  We caught the train into town and had a bite to eat beforehand at a nearby bar.  We realised that we really do live in suburbia.  Munich was alive and exciting - very different to Lohhof/Unterschleissheim on a Thursday evening!  The opera was fantastic.  People were dressed beautifully and the inside the theatre was amazing.  Photos were not allowed inside but we snuck in a couple before the performance.  During the 2 intermissions we had a glass of sparkling wine and promenaded around the opulent interior of the opera house along with everyone else all going in the same direction!

Istanbul



 The annual IRC Owners' Congress was held in Istanbul this year and was preceded by a two day measurers' seminar. The venue was a hotel next to the Ortakoy mosque and the suspension bridge linking Europe with Asia. These are some photos taken from the glass walled conference room looking out over the Bosphorus.

Although we had no time for sightseeing as such, we had an hour long bus ride each morning of the seminar, skirting the old city on our way out to a yacht club on the Sea of Marmara. On the final evening we were ferried down the Bosphourus and in to the Golden Horn where we had a delightful dinner in an amazing industrial museum surrounded by restored boats, classic cars, submarines, aircraft and assorted esoteric machinery.

Ceiling of the venue for our dinner in the museum.



The future of the IRC Rule is in good hands.



Alps

Flying over the Alps on the way to Istanbul.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Over a year ago a friend at my German classes back in Australia told us about this town we must see.  I remember seeing the name and brought the small piece of paper she wrote it on with us with the idea that we will go see this town she raved about.  So finally after over a year we had a free weekend which was going to be sunny both days so off we went.  It only ended up being a 3 hour drive from here and was well worth it.  Rothenburg ob Der Tauber is a very popular place with both American and Japanese tourists and the place was full but that did not deter from its beauty.  It was the town where Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was filmed and is known for being one of the best preserved medieval towns.

After an early start we got there mid morning on Saturday and had Schneeballen (snowballs) for morning tea.  These are the town's speciality and they were piled high in all the bakery windows as well as Schneeballen speciality shops.

We then took ourselves on a bit of a walking tour of the town.  Rothenburg is in Franconia (also part of Bavaria but Franconians like to still call themselves Franconians not Bavarians) so we were keen to try the local food and wine.  Great food, light wine.

Malcolm was keen to climb the Tower at the town hall and as I twisted my ankle recently I let him climb whilst I looked in the Christmas shops (Malcolm was quite pleased to miss these).  These Christmas shops are open all year and have amazing displays that you usually only see in good department store windows.

In the afternoon we went to the Medieval Criminal Museum which was very interesting with displays of instruments used for finding out if someone was a witch, shame masks for tattletales, chastity belts and many more interesting items.

In the evening we did The Night Watchman's tour which had over two hundred people hanging on every word that he spoke.  We thought it would be too hard with so many people but it didn't matter.

The next morning we went for a walk around on the fortress walls that surround the town and into the bastion.

On the way home we drove through Noerdlingen, an almost perfectly circular town (it had a tower so Malcolm could climb it and see this).  Another lovely medieval town on the Romantic Road.  We were interested in seeing it as it lies inside a huge crater (25km in diameter) that was created more than 15 million years ago.

More photos.

Sunday Drive

Finally a sunny day so we decided to make the most of it and go for a Sunday drive.  A couple of months ago we had passed a town which had a Kloster and thought that it looked an interesting place to have lunch.  I had a twisted ankle and Malcolm a cold so a quiet meandering drive was called for.

We looked at our map to plan our route and saw that on the way in a town called Hohenkammer there was a Wasser Schloss (moated castle) and decided to stop and check it out.  It was a lovely "small" castle surrounded by water filled with very large fish.  The place has been beautifully renovated and is used as a convention centre, hotel and wellness centre.  We wandered around and had a look before almost accidentally stealing a BMW Z8 Alpina which had rather nice red leather upholstery.

We then drove to Scheyern to visit the Cloisters.  We presumed as Oktoberfest was still on that this place would not be busy - we were wrong. The town had an art and antique fair on and parking was at a premium. We had lunch there but didn't get much of a chance to get to walk around so we will go back.  We found out later that the relic here is supposed to be a piece of the Holy Cross.

After this we meandered through the countryside and small towns and stopped to try and view another small Wasser Schloss but it was privately owned and hidden from view.  We almost accidently stole a rather nice black and white puppy who insisted that he wanted to come home with us. We then drove through a few more towns before coming across a gelateria.

Oktoberfest - Time to see what the fuss is all about!

Last year we did not get to the Oktoberfest so this year we were determined to check it out.  It got to the last weekend so Saturday morning we headed down to have a look.  This year seemed more enticing to us as smoking has now been banned inside and it was the 200th anniversary of the festival.  

A bit of history:  In 1810 Crown Prince Ludwig I was married and after the wedding there was a horse race and a six day celebration which was such a success that it became an annual event which was extended over the years.  

 

It was pretty incredible.  It was like a very large side show alley but with massive beer tents.  It was free entry so we walked through but it was crowded so we didn't go into the tents there.  Each tent can seat about 5000+ people and as you walked past you could here the "roar" of people in each one like a football crowd (there are 14 tents).  As this year is the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest there was a special section which you pay 4 euro to go in and it is set up like the Oktoberfest traditionally was.  We walked around this area for about an hour.  There were historical displays in a museum tent, horse shows and animal displays (like the Royal Show).   We then ended up in a beer tent in this area .  We were happy as we got a seat, beer, sausages and half chicken as well as listening to the Oompah Band.  We got talking to some locals there (this tent mainly had locals) and they said that this tent was more what all the others were like 20 years ago before they became so popular.  When we left they had closed entrance to this tent as it was also now full.