Tuesday 22 June 2010

Train your geese



This is a picture of the Bavarian State Opera and a goose.

I know.

A goose.

Some yahoo brought his goose to town. For begging purposes. Bavarians are hilarious.

Nothing better for this farmer to do than take his trained goose to the big city, put out his hat and watch the tourists walk by and dump hard-earned money into it.

Made my day.

Sunday 6 June 2010

Bad Tölz

This is a pretty little Bavarian town upriver from Munich on the Isar.





Anytime a German town's name starts with 'Bad' it has nothing to do with the lack of goodness of the inhabitants. Instead, it indicates that there are healing waters in the area and such a town has normally been a destination for people who need a break from the rigours of life. Here's a photo of the Franciscan monastery on the hill near the baths.



Me looking out over the town.



This is a rococo church and the many roses everywhere are a symbol of the town living through the plague.



This statue is for prisoners from the concentration camp in Dachau, who were traipsed through this town in the last days of the war. Not exactly sure why we needed to know that they were here, but that's what this is telling us.



And the tower of the train station, which I thought was a bit odd. This looks like it belongs somewhere in Holland or northern Germany to me. Not the heart of upper Bavaria.

Munich's Cadillac Cinema



This is the Hypo Haus from one of the least attractive periods of architecture. Bask in all of its glory. Below is the Cadillac cinema nearby. Note the American Bar underneath. This was built back when Germans were still proud to 'buy American'.