Blogs from Bayerisch Eisenstein, Bavaria, Germany, Europe

After saying that it was not a white Christmas, it was. Overnight it started to snow and by morning we had quite a white blanket of it. We had hoped to have gone to the National Park Headquarters at Neuschoenau near Grafenau, but we were too late to make the only suitable connections by trains and bus. Instead we chose to go Bodenmais which is a train connection at Zweisel, the up into a higher basin to the largest resort town in the area. It is mainly known for it's glass shops and schnapps distillery. We left the apartment with the snow falling steadily and trod our way carefully to the station. By the time we made our train connection to Bodenmais the snow was falling thickly with the entire landscape covered in snow. It might ... read more

We discovered that where we walked the other day had an animal park in the national park and we hadn't realised it. It was only a short train ride to Ludwigsthal to the well sign posted trail. The problem with having all the signs in German is that they are the only ones who can read them. We set off up the trail and came upon a neolithic cave inhabited by homo sapiens in the ancient past. They reconstructed it with animal art and had a short video showing inside the cave. This did have the option of English. Further up the hill were large paddocks for hairy beasts like highland cattle and hairy donkeys. This was no doubt because of the cold that they had thick coats. Best of all though was the enclosure for ... read more

The day started with snow falling lightly, then more heavily until there was a good cover on the ground. For the rest of the day it was overcast with occasional light snow and a biting wind. If this keeps up Linds will get his white Christmas. Today was was an orientation day of reading up on all the activities available and seeing what suited us best. There was a huge amount of information available depending on what you want to do - walking, skiing, tobogganing, cross country skiing, beauty, fitness, visiting museums, mines or glass factories, the National Park Information office and animal enclosure, to Czech Rep and other places etc. Add to that, Christmas in the middle of the week and closed shops. We have to figure what is going to be operating. Our first ... read more

Over the summer, an ESL teacher and DJ's life in Prague often becomes a complete void. The upper classes whose companies we teach in go off on holiday, while clubs stick to their resident DJs to cater for the musically apathetic tourists and serious music shifts to the festival stage. My summer hit such a catastrophic low in mid-August, and last week, I had a day where I was apparently not supposed to do anything at all. So I went and did nothing at all, but at least got way way out of Prague to do it. I was drawn to the Bohemian-Bavarian border by a trivia question someone posted on Facebook a while back which asked "can anyone name a railway station which is in a different country to the place named on its signs?" ... read more