Bavaria - Arrival Munich
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With an area of 70,553 km² and 11.6 million inhabitants, Bavaria (German
Bayern or Freistaat Bayern) forms the southernmost of the 16 Bundesländer
of Germany. Its capital is Munich.
Bavaria shares international borders with Austria and the Czech Republic.
Two major rivers flow through the state, the Danube (Donau) and the Main.
The major cities in Bavaria are Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Würzburg,
Ingolstadt, Regensburg, Fürth and Erlangen.
History of Bavaria
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My wife Margaret and I left on our trip to Bavaria and Paris on Thursday
August 7 at about 7 p.m. We flew Iceland Air from Minneapolis International airport
to Frankfort Germany with a stopover at Rakejvik Iceland. We basically flew all night and
arrived in Frankfort around noon. Here is a pretty poor quality picture in the plane on
the way to Rakejvik. Can you say "exit" in Icelandic? Sure you can ...
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We got off the plane in Frankfurt and pulled our luggage along to the train station
which is conveniently located next to the airport. This big glass atrium is
part of the station. Margaret and I had about and hour long wait for the train. I have relatives in
Bavaria that we are going to visit. Frieda and her family live in Munich, and her
parents and brother and nieces and nephews live near Straubing. When we were dating
I told Margaret that someday I would take her to Paris. That will be the
second leg of our *brief* nine day trip.
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| We found our platform and awaited our train. Several came by. I remember asking an elderly couple sitting next to us what language they were speaking. "Ease-land" - i.e. Islandic. Pretty language. We didn't know and no one at the ticket window told us that we should have purchased reserved seats on the train. As it was, every so often we had to get up and give up our seats as someone had reserved them between city X and city Y. Finally a some fellow wearing a German army uniform informed us about reserved seats. The train was air conditioned, but air conditioning is Europe is nothing like what you get in the States. It was a sweaty journey to Pasing station, just short of Munich. The trip from Minneapolis to Frankfurt Germany with an hour long stopover at Rakejvik then on to Munich by train was very long - we left at 7 p.m. August 7th and reached our destination around 5 p.m. local time August 8. I had only three short cat naps over the last day of work, seven hour plane ride and three hour train ride. As always, jet lag is worse going to Europe than coming back. |
Here is the view at the Pasing train station. We called Frieda from
a pay phone and she drove the dozen blocks or so from her house to
pick us up. Already we can see that the bicycle plays a much more important
part in getting around in a German city than is the case in America.
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These tiny Smart cars were originally developed in Oct 1994 as a joint venture
between Swiss watch company Swatch & German Mercedes-Benz. This micro-
sized car was inspired by the designers of the trendy Swatch plastic watch.
In Nov 1998 the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of
Mercedes-Benz (now Daimlerchrysler) named MCC (micro car compact) Smart.
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My cousin Frieda and her husband Bernhard. Frieda and I share the same
great grandparents - so we are second cousins. Frieda and Bernhard were gracious hosts.
Frieda served us a very dark grainy bread from Munich called pfister oko-kerndllaib.
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Munich is in Upper Bavaria. Upper Bavaria is the largest and most well-known of the five Bavarian
Regions. Its capital is Munich in the South
and it is home to the main part of the German Alps and to Bavaria`s largest lake, the Chiemsee.
The art of wearing
Lederhosen is also most celebrated here in Upper Bavaria, although "Trachten", or the traditional
Bavarian dress, is
widespread throughout most regions.
Frieda grew up on her family's farm near Straubing in Lower Bavaria. This is the same farm where my grandfather grew up. He emigrated to the United States in the early 1900's. Lower Bavaria`s name can be deceiving, for the region whose' captial is Landshut, is actually north of Upper Bavaria. The names have to do with the difference in topography and not their north-south relation. Lower Bavaria, which was traditionally Bavaria`s poorest region, has a much more rustic feel to it than the rest of its Bavarian counterparts. Dominated by the lush Bavarian Forest National Park and rolling hills dotted with small villages, Lower Bavaria also has a distinguishing Eastern flavor to it. Bordering on the Czech Rebulic, here such crafts as Bohemian glass blowing are still practiced in age-old fashion. The motorcycle and automobile maker BMW has a Bavarian industrial base (the name stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke, or "Bavarian Motor Works"). A famous annual festival is called Oktoberfest or October Festival. It is the largest public beer festival in the world, celebrated since 1811 during the last two weeks of September. It is known to the locals as "Wiesn" and has attendance of about six million!. |
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