surviving the plague with a Schäfflertanz

Der Schäfflertanz (Cooper's Dance) commemorated on Munich's Neues Rathaus

If you've ever been to Munich, the capital of Bavaria, there's almost no way you missed going to the Marienplatz. Here's how Wikipedia describes it in Architecture of Munich: 

‘At the center of the city is the Marienplatz - a large open square named after the Mariensäule, a Marian column in its centre - with the Old and the New Town Hall. Its tower contains the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, an ornate clock with almost life-sized moving figures that show scenes from a medieval jousting tournament as well as a performance of the famous "Schäfflertanz" (roughly translated "Barrel-makers' dance". The "Schäffler" supposedly were the first to dance in the streets after the plague ended, thus encouraging the people to do so themselves).’

Which introduces our topic quite nicely. If you've been to the Marienplatz and looked up at the tower and seen the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, you might not have realised that this dance is sometimes reenacted with traditionally-clad dancers. Even if you live in Munich, you might miss it. That's because the live version only happens every seven years.

Earlier in the week, I went to see the Schäfflertanz where I thought it was supposed to take place, but I got the days mixed up. Figured I'd missed my chance, and would have to wait another seven years. Too bad, right? Not so fast.

Out of the blue, a friend invited me to come watch them dance at a village (Feldkirchen) near the city. I jumped at the chance, and here are my photos:

First the band arrives. You can hear the drumming from far away as they make their way through the snowy streets. You can see glimpses of red behind the band. Those are the dancers who're about to perform the Schäfflertanz.

There they are. Can you see how happy they look? It really is an honour to be able to do this traditional dance. This group of dancers comes from neighbouring village called Kirchheim.

And here they are processing...I assure you I wasn't trying to get the guy in front when his eyes were closed.

And here they begin the Schäfflertanz in earnest. There's a lot of complicated steps and spinning and twisting. They've most certainly practised carefully. The precision is admirable.

While they're dancing and the band is playing, there are two clowns going round painting some of the spectators' noses red.

Before I went to see this, one of my Bavarian friends assured me that getting one's nose painted red would bring good luck. Doesn't sound bad, does it? Your blogger with the reddest of noses.

This dancer praised our host, and said a few ceremonial things. Every official German gathering has this sort of speech. He did well, but I was curious what came next.

Then this guy told a moderately filthy joke, but the punch line was in indecipherable Bairisch (Bavarian), so I could only guess what it was. The rest of the joke was funny I guess...but I do wonder what made all the others laugh.

Then the dancers line up and march back from whence they came. And the band plays on...

Best of all? I remember my other camera (that takes decent video) in the last moment, and am able to shoot this little video: 

Now that you hear the music with the video, you can scroll back through the photos above while listening. The band plays the same tune the entire time.

So there you have it. Am pleased I needn't wait another seven years to see the Schäfflertanz. Oh, remember the photo back at the very beginning? I panned out a bit more to get this shot:

The green dragon crawling up from below is meant to symbolise the plague. Remember? The one we've recently survived. That was a relief, wasn't it?

nude sunbathing in the cemetery

The naked sunbathers season is upon us again, and I always smile at how taken aback some of the tourists are. A friend of mine who used to live in Munich always reminds me of the nude sunbathers he saw in one of the cemeteries here.

I've never seen that, but I can certainly imagine it happening. Here's an article I found on the English page of Der Spiegel:

Munich Park Crowd Lead to Cemetery Play

I could pontificate on all of this, but I'll let the article speak for itself.

top of Germany to the depths of Augustiner

This was the Zugspitzbahn, which we rode almost to the top of the Zugpitze. Thanks to the transportation museum, I learned all about the technology that makes this possible. Not going to bore you with the details, but it is rather interesting that this train's been running like this since the early 20th Century.





This is Michael looking out at the summit of the Zugspitze. Although he was very impressed and kept talking about how much he enjoyed it for the next several days, it was a bit too cold and windy for him up there. We had to get back inside and quickly.







The border with Austria runs right across the top of the mountain, so here's Michael standing with my friend Jeff before they stroll into Austria. There's a restaurant from each country up there, but we'd had so much German food over the last few days. We decided to dine with the Austrians. It was a great choice. Not only was it delicious, but here was our view:


















Don't ever let it be said that Michael isn't willing to try new things. Especially when the new things include new varieties of Strudel. This is Mohnstrudel (poppy seed) and Topfenstrudel (a bit like a mix of batter and less-sweet cheesecake). He certainly prefers Applestrudel, but these were a nice change of pace.











He would've gone straight to the dessert, but ate a huge plate of a meat selection beforehand. Michael desperately wanted to order Apple Strudel again, but I convinced him to try something new. If you read the ingredients and how it's prepared (Dampfnudel), you'll understand immediately that Michael loved it.












This was the Augustiner Keller where we had a fantastic meal. Michael was thrilled to eat down there, and he informed me that this was definitely something he wouldn't have wanted to miss.

Tomorrow we catch the train to Cologne for Carnival. Although the title of this blog says I'm in Bavaria, this'll be an exception where I talk about another part of Germany.



Earlier in the day, we were at the concentration camp memorial in Dachau. There's an entire blogpost on that one, but I just don't know how to start talking about it. Another time. But after a very difficult several hours looking at and imagining the horrors that took place, we had a beautiful sunset. This was the nicest photo I could get of it.

Michael's return to Germany

People greeting arrivals are to wait behind the yellow line...

Here Michael is after passport control and an emotional moment when he realised he was fulfilling a wish he'd had since childhood: to return to his birth city. And now here he is.








Supposedly, Bavarians have a very traditional breakfast when they return to their homeland. It's made up of Weißwurst (lamb's meat sausages cooked with mild spices and fresh parsley in them), sweet mustard, soft pretzels, and Weißbier (a specialty Bavarian beer). We had all but the last part (Michael was drinking hot cocoa), and I was pleased that he enjoyed it. It really was a nice breakfast.








We brought the bags home and Ella and Louis greeted Michael very warmly. And then kept greeting him repeatedly. They were very curious about this very loud person who smelled like Nutter Butters and hot cocoa. Soon enough, it was obvious the dogs needed to go outside and we used that opportunity to show Michael the surroundings.









We walked to the castle (Nymphenburger Schloß), where Michael imagined jousting and ladies and gentlemen acting inappropriately at the ball. I assured him that this wasn't that sort of castle, and he asked me to leave him and his castle fantasies in peace.











The plan was to get Strudel (he'd been planning something strudelly since he booked the flight), but we happened upon a bakery that had delicious looking Krapfen. These are everywhere at carnival time, and we decided that Strudel could wait just a bit longer. This is a vanilla doughnut. There was discussion that maybe this was the highpoint of the day.






After taking the dogs home and a few minutes of recouping, we went into the old town of Munich, and did a quick overview of the most important landmarks. While we were at the Viktualienmarkt, I took this photo of Michael in front of the Maypole. The sun was disappearing quickly, so we packed up the camera and enjoyed some Currywurst before hurrying home for a skype call between the Big Bad Wolf and his girls. What a first day.





The secondary goal of the day was to make sure Michael didn't fall asleep before evening. Somehow we managed it, but when we tallied the 32 hours he'd been awake, he immediately headed under the duvet and hasn't been heard from since.

back to the roots

There hasn't been much to report here in Bavaria lately, but that's about to change. My brother Michael is coming to see me, and this isn't just any normal visit. He was born here in Munich in the early 70s, and he's never been back. Not once.

Since we were children, he's said that one day he wants to see where he was born. It's finally happening. So I've decided to chronicle our adventures here. There are so many tourist things that I've never got round to doing, so I'm using this trip as an excuse to see exactly those sorts of attractions.

His two daughters will certainly miss him, so this'll be a place they can look each day and see what their fat, old man is up to.

And for the rest of you, I hope this is moderately entertaining. The photo above is Michael sometime in 1973 or '74.