Blogs from Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany, Europe - page 2

Friday 17th September 2010 Today we caught the bus into Augsburg and visited its magnificent town hall the Rathaus with its Goldener Saal or Golden Hall ( see pix ). Augsburg took a pounding in WW2 being the home of some key armament factories and the Rathaus has been rebuilt from a shell that was left from allied bombing. We ( except Max who once again opted to stay on the ground ) also climbed the adjacent Perlachturm for a superb view of the city. The other interesting place here was the Fuggerei the first social housing in the world set up by Jakob Fugger ( I do not jest ) in 1521 as a social settlement for the needy of Augsburg. It is still in use for the same purpose today with 150 people housed ... read more

A recent trip to a "karneval" (translation: carnival) led to some very interesting spottings of things I found hilarious. Not that you will, of course. Meh. The carnival was much more exciting than that introduction. Apparently the origin of the word "carnival" comes from "meat, good-bye", which is an awesome idea - a going-away party for meat. I imagine a few carrots and celeries sitting around a table comforting each other while a hamburger puts on a big backpack at the door and waves to his friends, sad to leave them behind, but looking forward to the trip ahead. The carnival in Augsburg, Bayern is called the Plaerrer, which, believe it or not, translates as "drunken yelling", or something along those lines. Remarkably appropriate. Take a look at some pics! We can see some friends of ... read more

The first picture is a photo from the "Floh Markt" (flea market) I recently attended and took part in in Augsburg. We can see that our fine neighbour is selling his favourite old record, "Wiener Blut", and I am sure he is devastated to part with it. Somewhat translated, it means "Wiener Blood", which almost sounds like a kiddie death metal band. But "Wiener" of course is the translation of "Viennese", that is, from Vienna. And the people on the cover certainly do appear to be distinguished Viennese, the "Viennese Blood", through and through. Which got me thinking: why did I take so offence when I was taunted as a "wiener" so often by my childhood classmates (well, childhood, teenagehood and early-to-midadulthood)? I took it to be the vulgar interpretation of the word, or, at best, ... read more

I find this particular creature fascinating. Half rabbit, half devil, all angry. And he wants you to drink his brew. It contains bee honey and red wine, he exclaims. 40% alcohol by volume. The "Wolpertinger" (translation: Wolper-thinger) is a kind of local legend, like the Yeti or Batman. No one knows if he really exists. I am not aware of any Wolpertinger sighting/hunting expeditions, but that might be a very good tourism idea. Venturing out into the night, with binoculars/hunting rifle, drunk on Wolpertinger, trying to find/kill a Wolpertinger. Actually, I am not sure if they are nocturnal. Maybe I haven't thought this through well enough. I shouldn't have drunk half that bottle. (Blogger's note: I am not aware of any type of honey other than bee honey, but he does specify. Do wasps make honey? ... read more

Guten tag Neuseeland und dem Vereinigten Königreich We have arrived in Ingolstadt, Germany where we are staying with Manfred and Vanessa for the week leading up to beerfest - in Munich on Saturday! We have not made an entry on our travel blog since Croatia and have done quite a bit since then so here is the low down. Firstly I would like to say that the Croatians are very clean people who obviously have heard of and use deodourant regularly...bless! We left Hvar with fingers crossed that we would be able to take a connecting bus to Mostar, Bosnia and what do ya know, no problem at all. Kibby purchased the somewhat exorbitantly priced tickets and we ran to the bus station, only to find that if you wnat to put luggage on the bus ... read more