Wildy Random Foto - Ladybug

Taken with Nikon V1 10-30mm lens

回味

When I reminsced about my Deutschland trip, meine Kollegin remarked that it had already been six months (at that time), and I was still savoring the memory (回味). "You must have really enjoyed it very much."

I did. It was everything I expected and more. Like I wrote Onkel und Tante H, >>ich wünsche dass ich mit euch noch einmal an der Pension Gerlinde bleiben kann<< (I wish I can stay at Pension Gerlinde with you again). It was really fun because for once, Bobo and I devoted ourselves to simpler pastimes like playing monopoly cards with Onkel and Tante H at Pension Gerlinde's restaurant till late at night, instead of squabbling with each other like spoilt brats. 

If we ever visit Germany (Bobo can be persuaded with the promise of bier) again, we will probably go in Springtime when the air tickets are cheaper. The air tickets were an eye watering S$1700+ per person the other time (at the height of summer). I hadn't planned on going then, but rather in Spring this year (when tickets are cheaper). I am awfully glad I did, because we were able to catch Onkel and Tante H at their holiday time, and it turns out that I am even more busy during this period. If we hadn't gone then, we would never have been able to go now either.

Apfel Strudel in a wine sauce (I can't remember what wine, shit sorry!)

Wordless Bear Day - Mr B @ a random tram stop in Germany

I find this tram stop really pretty :)

Sometimes you really can't judge a book by its cover. There was a taciturn looking uncle at the tram stop, who was the only one who bothered to help blur tourists like me and B1 buy tickets. I love uncles and aunties, they are always the nice ones who are first to extend a helping hand to others. :)

5 Uhr Konzerte - Feinste Kammermusik im Herrlich Barocken Ambiente der Erzabtei St. Peter

To me, a trip to Salzburg doesn't count unless you watch a concert, and being the usual tight pussy that I am, I hunted for a free concert in Salzburg. Maybe my German was too crap, but I was sure that the Michael Haydn concerts would be free so we registered for that one. There were alternative choices, of course, because it was Mozart concert season during that period, but the tickets were very expensive (despite including dinner in the ticket).

Near the Michael Hadyn museum @ Erzabtei St Peter

B1 and I had to rush back to Salzburg after visiting the Kehlstein (ie. famous for Eagle's nest, Hitler Bavarian hideout. Will blog about that later, even though it turned out that Eva Braun visited that place more than Hitler did. The woman apparently loved to sunbathe topless, which is pretty amazing because we almost froze our bits off on a summer day)  instead of visiting the salt mines.

Waiting for the concert to start

When we reached there, it turned out that the tickets were 12 Euros a piece (which is about S$40 in total for 2). Argh. I kept thinking of whether to spend the money (+ the fact I hate flutes all woodwinds), while wandering to the St Peter's Abbey to buy Schnappi and Onkel H some holy wine. In the end we did.

Lena Riedlinger and Mayu Takahashi were playing a trio of songs by Mozart and Johann Georg Tromlitz using a flute and a sort of early piano called the Hammerflügel.

Fantasia in C-Dur für Hammerflügel solo

Sonata in F für Flöte und Klavier

Partita II in G-Dur für Flöte solo

Lena und Maya playing Sonata in F

I don't know why but Lena reminds me of a French girl. I was musing about that while watching the performance. The room had pretty good acoustics, and I thought the Hammerflügel had a unique quality (somewhat different from the modern piano). I can't say I can appreciate music very well but I liked the Sonata in F the most of all. I was glad we watched the concert because it was the first time I have seen and heard a Hammerflügel. What we remember most of the concert was this woman in the audience who loved to turn around and cast everyone the evil eye if anyone dared to make a noise. Lord have mercy on anyone who needed to cough (the place was STUFFY but the acoustics were fine).

Stolperstein or stumbling stones

I came across them during our trip, at Salzburg's Erzabtei St. Peter and even steps away from Onkel H's shop. These little nondescript brass plates that state very chilling facts.  Name, Birthdate, Date Deported, and Date murdered. As a major KPO (busybody) I couldn't resist reading all of them. Needless to say, they were all very sad. Some of them were a cluster of stones, meaning the whole family who was wiped out.

Stolpersteinen @ St Peters Archabbey grounds

These are stumbling stones, aka Stolperstein, which were created by the artist Gunter Demnig to remember those who perished due to the Nazi "cleansing", oppression and persecution. Many European cities have agreed to implement these stumbling stones.

If I didn't translate wrongly (pardon my German), the left Stoleperstein says "Here lived Gottfried NeunHäuserer aka Father Romauld. Born 1882. He was deported in 1941 to "Schloss Hartheim" and murdered on 8th May 1941."

The right Stoleperstein says "Here lived Jakob Förtsch aka Brother Coelestin. Born 1896. He was in the Nazi Resistance? He was deported in 1943 to Ravensbrück and murdered 10th Feb 1944."

Read more about the project here.

Chillax @ Schwangau (Part 1) - Die Kirchen

Note: I apologize ahead for this Great wall of Yak yak.

Duckie boo sits at the window sill to Cafe Gerlinde

I thought I'd better complete writing up the German trip blog entries before my memory loss gains *haha sorry for the pun* on me. Lack of sleep coupled with stress have made me quite dumb dumb. Learning German has become an exponential curve- like climb. As it is, memory loss has claimed the Vietnam, some of the Taiwan, all of the Japanese, and most of the South Korean trips before I can commit them to word. So I will be carrying out a one-time exercise to write up everything and schedule the posts.

Pension Gerlinde specializing in afternoon cakes!

As I am typing this I am starting to forget what was the name of the fantastic place we stayed at with Onkel und Tante H (just sounds friendlier than saying Herr and Frau, isn't it? Even though I haven't asked them whether I can greet them in such close affection *hehe*. H, if you are reading this, is it ok? Our Germany trip was definitely made 10X more awesome while we were travelling with you, that B1 and I didn't even bicker once).... Ah yes, Gerlinde.

We stayed at Pension Gerlinde with Onkel und Tante H, who love the place so much that they stayed there 21 times in the 14 years that they have visited Schwangau. After staying there, I must say I love it just as much. Ok I love the entire Schwangau area (not including nearby Füssen which is overrun with tourists).  I also think that of the 14 days we spent in Germany, the 5 days we spent in Schwangau was the best. I wish I can go there again. It was incredibly restful and idyllic (not including the crazy day we decided to cycle around Forggensee, it was nearly as bad as cycling to Desaru, except that we had decent bikes in Germany).

Swans swimming at Lake Forggensee

The awesome views, the FOOD (it needs another post by itself), the duckies and swans (schwangau means swan country in German but I saw more ducks while I was there), Forggensee, Tegelsberg and the nearby attractions like Wieskirche. I didn't even mind that there was a cemetery so close by. Normally I would be creeped out but German cemeteries are pretty and restful, unlike the others I have seen (e.g. Japanese, Singapore), which are rather scary. I didn't understand Anne of Green Gables' fascination with cemeteries until I saw a German one. The one in Salzburg was scary though...ok sorry for being so morbid.  Anyway the one near Gerlinde, Pfarramt Waltenhofen, has a war memorial attached to the cemetery which we saw when cycling past. I checked it out before leaving Schwangau, but am not uploading the photo out of respect for the dead. 

Pfarramt Waltenhofen

Schwangau has another pretty church in the middle of nowhere, the Baroque Church of Saint Coloman. It looked quite stark and lonely in the middle of the fields against a mountainous backdrop. Damnit, I want to live in Schwangau. It was there and then I decided that if I could retire there, I would die very happily. Well, until Onkel H told me that houses there are very expensive. Just imagine the SGD- EURO exchange rate...

Baroque Kirche of Saint Coloman

My handy wallpaper

B1 got me a new handy last week. The first thing I did was upload a photo I took at Tegelsberg. Got it after sitting on the ground and tilting  so that I can capture the bee sitting on the wildflower against a mountainous backdrop (of course my love for bees went south when I was stung later in Salzburg). Gorgeous view isn't it? It was worth nearly freezing our bits off wearing summer clothing up the  mountain :D Now whenever I am having a bad day, looking at the photo makes me feel instantly better, because I remember how much I enjoyed Germany.

I did bring home a German-born Blond Male

My achilles heel is tall blond guys with blue or green eyes.

Call Me "Steiffmeister". B1 wanted to call him Monsieur B, but that's Mr B's name (on this blog)

While we were visiting the Steiff museum (more on that later), I asked B1, may I have a teddy bear as my birthday present? Talk about letting him off easy (I had originally intended to get German book as my present). But after staring at all those teddies in the museum and shop, I really wanted one. HM said that that the lady who was demonstrating how teddies were made, told him that only those teddies that wear the "Made in Germany" stub on their left ear, are really made in Germany. The rest are made in other parts of Europe and QCed in Germany.

So searching all over the shop for a teddy which wasn't mindblowingly expensive, I found this guy. Huggable and adorable. :D

On the way back from Germany, B1 turned to me and remarked drolly "hey, you did bring home a gin mo (blond-headed) male back from Germany."

I had threatened to "scheidung" him a few times when he made me mad there, and come back to Singapore with a blond man. I came across the word on a gossip magazine headlining Heidi Klum's ongoing separation, and we had been using it on each other ever since. It is our favorite German word.

I replied, "he doesn't have blue or green eyes. Fail. Looks like I am stuck with you."

Mr B smirks while riding the Deutscher Bahn

Most of my trip planning was plagued by the DBbahn.de. Yes it is comprehensive (too comprehensive, which website can tell you what time to take the bus from a remote bus stop where you don't know where it is, and then take the train then find another bus from another unknown bus stop) with lots of languages. I wished it showed the layouts of the routes, or train stations for choosing by people who have never been to Germany, really shitty grasp of direction or language, instead of assuming that we knew what bus stop or train station we were going to be staying nearby. You can book train tickets for others, and state that their credit card will be the means of verifying their identity. B1 as usual, left it to me to do the planning. This year the excuse was, to quote him, "Germany is you want to go one, not me. I'd be perfectly satisfied with Taiwan or Japan (his two favorite sources for ogling pretty Asian girls)." So I tagged his credit card, since I have always resolutely never gotten a credit card, even after working.

Then there were the options, first class, second class, with discount (then which discount), cabin or open salon, special discounts (SchönesWochenende anyone?), seat reservation, bringing pets or bicycles? Oh ja, we ended up using the group travel ticket (~29euros) very often. It was really worth it,  you can bring a family of four and the dog (party of 2-5) along.

One thing I did regret was not confirming the ICE tickets early. Massive price jump the nearer you are to the date. The other stupid thing was after listening to my colleague's recent travel experience in Europe (about how he was robbed 4 times, once on the train), I chose mostly open salon seating, instead of carriage. Massive mistake man, because the seats were awfully cramped. However we were totally left alone on the train and people were actually friendly to us when we talk to them or they want to help. 

Carriage is cool. you can stretch out and do funny stuff inside, like pose your forever smirking bear near the window. =D

Checking for the Nutcracker Soldier's toothache

Woe is the life of Mr B, to have a evil mommy like me...

Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Beautiful old walled city on the Romantic Strasse. However now forever associated by me for Teddy Bear shops.

Wieskirche

Wieskirche is famous for its Jesus Christ statue that bled tears in the 1738. According to HM, The statue used to sit in a woman's attic until its discovery, then it had its tiny wooden shrine (which I mistakenly took to be a guard house and so deliberately excluded from the photo).

Look at the pretty horsies romping outside the church

But too many pilgrims wanted to see the miracle, and so the Brothers Zimmermann built the magnificient church in rocco style, describing the life and death of Jesus Christ. The church has been recognised as a UNESCO heritage site, and I have to say of all the churches I have seen, it has one of the most awesome architecture, frescoes and ceiling I have seen.

We were lucky to catch part of the Friday mass.

If you look through all my photos, you will also notice that I have an obsession with the pipe organs in all the churches I saw even though I can't play a tune. The church does not use candles anymore, which is why you can see the plaster paintings in all their glory.

Till today, there are many people who make their way here to either admire the architecture, or pray for a miracle. To the left of the photo (or right of the shrine) is a gallery of sorts where you can examine all the photos of the people who were seeking a miracle, mostly babies and children. There was a photo of a US marine who died in Afghanistan, which was very sad with the words "gone but not forgotten"). The other side of the shrine are for those people who want to pray for their miracle in privacy.

Check out the pews. Such effort that went into even carving them!

Since it is a Catholic church, there were plenty of confession booths for all the naughty Germans and pilgrims seeking forgiveness.

Above each of them was a pictorial depiction of a biblical story. The one above is my personal favorite, the prodigal son returns. 

The church is surrounded by pretty farms, inns and footpaths leading to undulating mountains in the background. Awesome views all around. You could spend the whole day here with the family, hiking, visiting the church and eating at the nearby restaurant which has a specialty known as wieskücherl. Onkel H said that they knew the dog (which lived in the B&B below) well, because when he was a puppy he used to tag along with their dog. Now this dog is an old dog which likes to visit the wieskürcherl restaurant for a bit of mittagessen.

Imagine the beautiful church with the even more gorgeous mountain landscape as a backdrop

The old dog in this picture likes to visit the restaurant at the same time everyday for a tasty morsel

Check out the flies settling on the cow and the fence!

Pferd grazing on the field next to the church

Address: Wies 12, Steingaden, Germany

Phone: 08862 932930

Wieskücherl und Buttermilch

I have an axe to grind with Laura Ingalls Wilder.

When I was a kiddie (well relatively young kiddie, because I only started reading when I was 9 years old), her Little House in the Big Woods caused me to develop some weird ass obsession with cabins and the late 19th century way of life (12 can tell you the level of obsession I have over NN's magical cabin in Norway, which I tell his brother that I call "My Disneyland" to his bemusement). Especially buttermilk.

"When Ma finished molding the butter, she gave Laura and Mary each a drink of good, fresh buttermilk."

Ever since then, I have always wondered how does buttermilk taste like? In my fantasy land of course, buttermilk tastes sweet and creamy, like melted butter. So when HM said after our visit to Wieskirche, that we should walk one loop around the small village, stop by the little restaurant on the road to the church and try their Wieskücherl and Buttermilk.

I wasn't so curious about the Wieskücherl. But my ears fairly popped when I heard the word "Buttermilk". I nodded my head eagerly which my fingers clicked clicked clicked at my camera.

First Sip.



Buttermilk



Erst Wort. Nasty.

I immediately give the What the Fuck face I usually give my suppliers when they tell me something I don't like to hear, which made HM and his wife laugh at my face. I pushed the glass to B1, in an unusual show of generosity.

"Drink it, I am not thirsty."

You know what it tastes like? It tasted like yoghurt drink. Sour. 

The Wieskücherl fared better. It was a flat fried doughnut coated with cinnamon and icing sugar. It was very lecker by comparison, and went well with the milky horror. I have a sneaky suspicion that their doughnut contains buttermilk *silent scream*

Coming home, I googled buttermilk and was interested to discover that it wasn't really Laura's fault. Her buttermilk is not our buttermilk today.

小熊大过大熊

I was showing my aunt the trip photos. She was like, oh my god, how old are you already? Still carrying your teddy bear everywhere? 

What to do *shrug*? I can't upload my photos, so Mr B is my rep *hehe*. Here he is visiting his German relative in Frankfurt. This teddy is ginormous, though you won't be able to tell from this photo.

男人不坏女人不爱 My Haul of books from Germany

I am ashamed to say I did not buy much souvenirs back this year. First thing, no matter how much that bloody euro has dropped, it will still be stronger than the Singapore dollar for the foreseeable future. I will upload a pic on how much crazy ass euros we changed for the trip. I also realized that German books are also very expensive in Germany, and they seem remarkably fond of hard covers for books.

Das Geschenk meinem Geburtstag von Schnappi

Second thing... I didn't dare to risk the luggage limit. When we went to Germany, our combined luggage weight was 29kg, when we came back it was 42kg (limit turned out to be 23kg each, so 46kg total)...thanks to the books I bought myself as well as those Schnappi gave me + lots of sausages.

I didn't even dare to buy another bottle of the St Peter's wine back for myself. I had bought two, one for HM and the other for Schnappi from Salzburg's St Peter's monastery. Hauling them back to Germany in my backpack was no joke, I'd tell you. 

As you can see, Schnappi went for a smorgasbord of German books, of varying difficulties. I think I am going to have a super fun time reading the whole pile. I already had difficulty unwinding the metal wire that he wound around the books. Very eco, but I poked myself a few times. To tell you the truth, the best present was the German flag. I am contemplating sewing it on my backpack (the one I used for my travel).

As for me, I know my limits, so I chose all my usual favorite kindergarten books and comic books. The only book I didn't buy was Heidi, which was what I really wanted anyway. Did you know the first English book I read was Heidi, which was ironically translated from German?

My Souvenirs for myself

I am glad I listened to HM and did not buy the Struwwelpeter, and Max and Moritz books at the souvenir books (they cost 6.99 euros each anyway). He said I could buy them cheaper at ordinary book shops, and on my last day in Frankfurt, I walked past a bookshop which had some bookshelves outside. They were selling books on WWII weaponry (B1 was mourning he could not understand German so he reasoned that he could not buy them) and specifically... Struwwelpeter and Max and Moritz.

The book seller was highly amused. He said, "you like naughty boys?"

Yup. =D

Doesn't he know? 男人不坏女人不爱?

啤酒大过小熊

Once upon a time there was an ice-cream bigger than my teddy bear, and now a bier than is bigger than him!!!

Mr B trinkt alkohol-frei bier weil er guten Bär ist.

Adoring Gothic Architecture at Michelstadt

Through the rabbit hole and into the beautiful town of Michelstadt

First thing HM did upon leaving Frankfurt was to drive us to Michelstadt, which I simply adored, because it has all the old Gothic timber-framed houses *love love love*! I lingered long after the others, taking photos of all the old houses I could find. Some of them were so old that the floors sunk because the timber stretched over the centuries. I could have a ladyboner just looking at some of these houses.  Some people dig Disneyland, me, I just really love looking at life-sized half-timbered houses. I drew one of them when we told to draw our ideal house back in convent school, though I made some bad judgement and used cream walls against the dark wood.

My dream house had a balcony like this one too!!! Mr B approves!

I wish I could sell up and move to this idyllic little town. Seriously.

Michelstadt's town hall or Rathaus

It even came with a cute ass super old Rathaus (town hall) which was built in 1484 and once captured on a Deutsche Post stamp.

Mr B sits inside the Rathaus, with the super picturesque background

I like the grapevines climbing up the sides of this house with the iron kitty. Greyish blue is a cute look too!

'Drei Hasen' literally 3 Hares. Check out the 3 hares on the signs!

Could see that the inhabitants tried to keep the original flavor of their many droll buildings. For example, there was a Backerei (bakery) sign over one little door, but was actually fronting a flower shop now. The Drei Hasen Hotel and Restaurant was another pretty building with three hares everywhere. If you look on the top left of the picture above, you will see a golden hare haunched on a sign.

Toy shop in Michelstadt with old storybook characters painted between the frames

The toy shop "Spielwaren Dietz" has a lot of old storybook characters painted between the timber frames. Check out (clockwise from top left): Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, the Billy Goat Mother (you know the one where the wolf pretends to be her when she is away and ate her children and she cuts its tummy up to release her babies) with the scissors, Red Riding Hood, the 4 musicians from Bremen, Cinderella, and one of Snow White's Dwarves. NW knows her fairytales ok! *victory sign* I also bought one in German from my trip but that is another story.

There were a lot of private walled gardens near this park. There used to be a little river running through the old moat on the other side the town, but it has long dried up.

Cute little wheelbarrow with lots of flowers!

HM brought us to Cafe Siefert (within Michelstadt) for frühstück which is another wonderful experience that can only be captured in another entry by itself.

Till Pee do We apart

When we were coming down on the Tegelbahn (cable car up and down the Tegelberg), we encountered this young European couple kissing each other passionately in the building, tongues and everything. Even after they finally came up for air, the guy slowly moved away from his other half and their fingers lingered so until they were holding onto each other's fingertips before they regretfully parted, fingers tingling like "magic fingers". The girl even made a clutching gesture at her heart as the guy walked away.

[Roy Lichtenstein's Kiss. Img source: bobkessel.com]

We thought that it was because only the guy was going up the Tegelbahn, but turned out, he was only going to the loo.

Take so long, later your bladder burst into flames. *sourly*

B1 said "this is a case of till pee do them apart".

You have to give it to the Caucasian people, they really love and hate with true passion.

Mr B is one with the Occupy movement

Didn't find the bear and bull but found the huge Euro sign and the Occupy Frankfurt camp around it...

Updated!!!

Just read that the German police went in and cleared the camp. So sad. 10 months of Occupy Frankfurt has ended.

Awesome view that greeted us at Schwangau

This was the most awesome sight we saw when we reached Schwangau, at the lake Forggensee.  The sun coming through in shafts of light against a darkening sky. It was truly a magnificent sight and I consider this the highlight of the trip.

The water and howling winds were awfully cold though. However we were so lost in the sight that we forgot that we had not unpacked the car, and Mrs HM was waiting patiently for our lazy asses.

When I was explaining this to the QoE, she said that I was describing one of those relevation posters for Christianity. Perhaps she is right.

Deutschland 2012: Planning the trip

Frankfurt Card
http://www.frankfurt-tourismus.de/cms/tourismussuite/en/culture_leisure_recreation/frankfurt_card/

Traveling in Frankfurt 
http://www.rmv.de/auskunft/bin/jp/stboard.exe/en?L=vs_rmv

Ebbelwei-Express
http://www.ebbelwei-express.com/html/data/ebbex_abfahrtszeiten.pdf

Locker service in Austria train stations: (24h!)
http://www.oebb.at/en/Planning_your_trip/Luggage/Luggage_lockers/index.jsp
Costs 3,50 euros for a big one. Dump things in, close the lid, and put in the money at the central slot. Ticket comes out. Put in ticket again to open the door.

Visiting Salzburg Guide (written by locals)
http://www.visit-salzburg.net/sightseeing.htm
http://www.visit-salzburg.net/graphics/seeandpeesalzburg.pdf (pee and see map, very impt)

Salzburg cards
http://www.salzburg.info/en/sights/salzburg_card/salzburg_card_online_booking

Inner City train Route in München (Munich)
http://www.citytourcard-muenchen.com/cms/upload/muenchen-zusatzinfos/NETZPLAN12.pdf

Train/ Subway Fares within München (Munich)
http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/en/tickets-fares/fares/index.html#c7007 (fucking complicated!)

As much as possible, always get the partners' day ticket (if traveling with another person or more). Strip tickets are not worth the trouble and only last one day anyway. Watch out for the zones, though, since we went to Geltendorf (for the Ritterturnier) we ended up buying the entire zone, which was 20 euros. Which is ok, considering one direction direct ticket was 7,50 euros for one person in itself.

Checking bus routes within Munich (German only)
http://www.rvo-bus.de/site/rvo__bus/de/fahrplan__information/fahrplaene/suche/rvo__fpl__filter.html
If you can't understand German, dun worry, you are not totally fucked, just use the two drop down menus on the side of these two words.

Region (obviously the region you are travelling in, e.g. Füssen, Berchtesgaden)

Liniensuche (Bus number) <-optional. Using Region, you can get all the bus routes available in that region. Click on the route and you see this option "PDF herunterladen"? That is the timing for the bus. Click and print.


Checking bus routes within Salzburg (German only)
http://www.salzburg-ag.at/verkehr/obus/fahrplan/ (Just click on the number you want, and print the pdf)

The jaw-dropping rules when taking the train in Germany
http://www.bahn.de/p/view/mdb/pv/pdf/online_ticket_beileger/MDB101100-olthinweise_en.pdf

Sharing fuel costs with others going the same way
mitfargelegenheit.de

Finally always book your ICE tickets like months ahead. I eyeballed the tickets back in June, where they were a blissful 59 euros (for 2 adults) against the usual 190 euros. Now i book them bloody tickets, they cost me 109 euros. FML.