Goodbye Bavaria

This is probably the photo I liked most of all from Michael's visit, so I decided to revisit it in the final blogpost. After this one, I'll be going back to my dry, unread travel blog talking about the minutiae of living in Bavaria. You can hardly wait, can't you? Ella and Louis took to Michael like he was one of the pack. He's always had a way with dogs, and this was no exception.










Here's Michael in front of the Mariensäule. He saw copies of the mythical beasts that you find at the base of the column in the München Stadtmuseum and was thrilled to see the originals here.













His last full day here, we finally went down to the Marienplatz and watched/listened to the Glockenspiel go off. Here's a Youtube video, so you can feel like you're there: with us at the Glockenspiel













The photo without the flash made the train station brighter, but this was a nicer photo of Michael. Here he is about to board the Lufthansa Bus, which'll take him back to the airport. #brotherstrip was an undisputed success, but he at this point he misses his family monumentally. Let's not make it another 37 years till you come back again, yeah?

monkeys and transport

Not only did we walk through the English Garden yesterday (Here's Michael in front of the Chinese Tower), but we walked along the Isar River all the way to the Munich Zoo (Tierpark Hellabrunn).











As much as we enjoyed the baboons, the dogs were completely entranced. Here's Ella having a moment. When Louis started to bark, we had to move along. Until then, this part was quite fun.






I'm sure if you ask nicely, Michael will show you many more photos that he took from the Verkehrsmuseum (transportation museum), but I decided to include a photo of him standing in front of a Munich streetcar. There were some streetcars from the early 70s there, but this shot looked better.






There was a time, when we were much smaller/younger, when pulling Michael away from playing in this truck would've been much, much more difficult. He certainly enjoyed the few moments he allowed himself to daydream.









So, he's been talking about Strudel since long before he even boarded the plane to come here. He showed fortitude in waiting as long as he did, so we made sure that this part was ticked off our list. He said it was quite good. The whipped cream had a hint of vanilla, but he admitted that it could've been a bit sweeter. The Strudel itself was worth the wait.







Outside the Jagd- und Fischermuseum (Hunting and Fishing museum)
is this very attractive wild boar statue. Can you tell which one is me?









And the last thing before we went home for the evening was a bit of Eastern European street music. Accordion, xylophone and a double bass...was really quite good. Michael couldn't help himself from donating to the cause.

Did he say, 'Fockenstein'? I think he did

This is Fockenstein, which is a little mountain between the town of Lenggries and Bad Wiessee on the Tegern See (Lake Tegern).



Often the best part of hiking is seeing Louis and Ella's joy as they scamper up and down the mountain as I trudge along slowly.








Not sure if you can see it in their expression, but these dogs are thrilled to be up in the mountains. On the train down to Lenggries, they were alert and even a bit nervous to get out and run. Alternatively, on the train on the way home, they slept peacefully and happily.

Kufstein across the Austrian border

This isn't technically Bavaria, but it's one of the nicest photos I have of me and the dogs in the mountains.

Louis, Ella and me in Passau

Passau is a small city in Niederbayern (Lower Bavaria) where three rivers come together. Just like in Pittsburgh, right? Yeah, Passau is nothing like Pittsburgh. Nothing.

It's near both the borders to Austria and the Czech Republic, and before the borders came down, you could expect to be checked by the jack-booted thug police on any train in or out of Passau. The relaxing of the borders in Europe has really made travel more of a pleasure.

Ulm

Mittenwald mit den Hunden