Germany and Austria - May 2013

A couple of months ago I was invited to speak about conflict management at a conference in Budapest. Having never been to Europe, I jumped at the chance. Before going to Hungary, I spent a few days in southern Germany (in the state of Bavaria to be specific) with some friends I have there.

I've flown in and out of Atlanta several times but I had never before noticed this little interfaith chapel. I'm glad that they have it there. Not everyone at the airport is flying for a happy reason. In an attempt to adjust to the time difference, I had tried to go to bed earlier and to get up earlier but ended up just sleeping less. I decided to look on the bright side and figured that being tired was a good thing: that way I could just sleep between Atlanta and Munich. I laid my head down at about 5:00pm Atlanta time to try and just sleep the whole way. To my disappointment I woke up two hours later, quite awake.
 

Overall this trip was fabulous, unforgettably good. One of the few regrets I have is not bringing a proper camera. Here I am in the picture above with my friend Elisabeth. She's been my language exchange partner for four years and this was the first time we had met in person.

Bavaria is beautiful. Those are the famous Alps in the distance. Those beautiful yellow flowers cover miles and miles of fields along the highway.
 

It had rained for a week right up until the day before I arrived. Overall, there was very good weather wherever I went. I'm actually on a ferry in this picture, heading out to crazy King Ludwig II's second castle.

After you get off the ferry you have to walk a ways into the castle grounds. It reminded me a bit of scenes from the last movie adaptation of, "The Count of Monte Cristo." I found out later that that wasn't just my imagination.
 

The reason for this is King Ludwig had the best parts from other castles in Europe (mainly from France, Spain and Italy) copied and put together to make this one. It reminded me of a French castle from the 1700s because its builders had copied big French castles from that time period.

This shot is for Becca who loves to take close-up pictures of flowers.

 The water was eventually turned on and high streams jetted out of those little frogs' mouths.

I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the tour inside. It was more grandiose than the grounds. King Ludwig had a huge bed, specially made to look like the king's bed in Versailles. The thing is, it was just for show. He almost never slept in it.

The place was absolutely opulent. I tried to imagine such immense wealth and luxury back when people in Germany died of huger on the streets. The level of skill and ability shown by these amazing craftsmen and architects is awe inspiring, even two hundred years later.

Here is the River Inn. It separates Germany and Austria. If you follow it, it will connect you to another river which takes you into the city of Salzburg in Austria.

Along this river is Europe's longest castle, originally built in the middle ages.

 Here is a view of the town below the castle, on the river.

A section of the castle is normally closed off to the public but most of it is not. I walked the length of all parts that were open. There are docents there, dressed up in traditional German clothing, who were eager to tell you anything you wanted to know about the castle.

It's easy to see that this castle was not for impressing visiting aristocrats, like the castle that I had seen on the lake earlier in the day. This castle wasn't made for comfort; this castle was made for war.

 

I tried to figure out why the medieval Bavarians would have built such a long castle here. What did they want to protect? I finally broke down and asked a docent. She told me that the holy Roman emperor (who lived farther north in Germany) of the time had the castle build to control the shipments of salt coming up from Salzburg (which literally means Salt Castle). He built the castle for the same reason the US controls the Panama Canal and gives billions of dollars every year to Egypt: control of commerce.

That evening Elisabeth, Martin (Elisabeth's boyfriend) and I walked over from their apartment in Bavaria to a restaurant they like in Austria. You see this statue as you cross the bridge over the River Inn into Austria from Bavaria. I love that we could just walk over as if it were nothing. Why can't the USA do something like this with Canada? It would be great!

Bavaria and Austria are both Catholic and there are a lot of pretty churches.

You can't tell from this picture but this building has been abandoned for quite some time. Elisabeth and Martin motioned to it and told me that that was the exact place where Hitler grew up.

This plaque stands in front of the building and says, "Für Frieden, Freiheit und Demokratie. Nie Wieder Faschismus. Millionen Tote Mahnen." (For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Remind Us). This is a great representation of the attitudes of the German speakers that I've met over the years towards Hitler and WWII.

This was my first dinner in Europe: wiener-schnitzel with potatoes and a side of jelly. I quickly discovered that a wiener-schnitzel is a thin, breaded, fried steak. People eat this in Argentina all the time and call it milanesa! The seasoning is different but the concept is the same. All the food I had in both Germany and Austria (homemade and in restaurants) was good.

The next day we drove ninety minutes south into Austria to visit Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart. I visited the house of his childhood later that day. Again, no pictures allowed. After going through that house/small museum, I really felt like I understood not only Mozart better, but also the world he lived in. I was pleased to see that historians believed that he and his parents enjoyed happy marriages.

Here I am with Herr Mozart. One thing I learned about Mozart's legacy was that his wife was largely responsible for perpetuating it. She was not yet 30 when he left her a widow. He was very famous and had made good money but he was also a big spend-thrift. What was she supposed to do? She had his Requiem finished by one of his students, made a compilation of his collected works and had his biography written. Smart lady.

This was on the back of a minivan in Austria. It reads, "Witches used to ride brooms. Today they ride in minivans." I'm glad I'm not married to a woman like that but, then again, we don't own a minivan. Mental note: don't buy a minivan.

I actually visited a lot of cathedrals in Europe. On my way into this one a man asked me to take off my hat in German and then in Spanish when I didn't react quickly enough. At first I was just embarrassed that I forgot to take off my hat in a church but then I thought it strange that he would try Spanish with me after German. English is the default language in the world if you don't know the other person's native language. I went to go talk to him after viewing the cathedral and chatting with a nice Taiwanese tourist. The gentleman knew to use Spanish because I was wearing a Chilean soccer team's hat. How did he recognize the team's logo? He was born in Chile but raised in Austria. Small world.

Salzburg is a touristy town. I came across people from all over the world. This street is famous because it's been a sort of market place for hundreds of years. 

The shops proudly display their old signs.

We hiked to the top of a hill above the city.

 This castle overlooks Salzburg.

That "c" symbol represents a euro like the "s" in $ represents the dollar. I had no idea they had a 99 cents store or dollar store in Germany.

We spent my only full day in Germany in the Bavarian capital: Munich. It's a big, prosperous, modern city that is firmly rooted in it's past.

Like I said, I saw a lot of cathedrals and churches. Martin told a friend that I was Mormon and his friend asked if I tried to convert him and Elisabeth. He told his friend that during my visit to Munich that they took me to three Catholic cathedrals. "Who is trying to convert whom?!" he joked.

This footprint is at the entrance of one of three of Munich's cathedrals that I visited. The story goes that the devil entered the cathedral while it was still being built. As he looked from this spot down the nave of the cathedral he could see no windows (from this spot you can't see the cathedral's windows because there are columns in the way). He said, "A cathedral without windows isn't much good!" stomped his foot and left the builders of the cathedral in peace to finish their work. 

This is a very tall "May Tree." In May, there are community competitions to see who can climb their community's May Tree the fastest.

This was one of three pictures a nice Japanese man took of me, Elisabeth and Martin. I think this was the best one too.

I love this little angel. He's pointing to the pulpit. We need one of these little guys lining the ceilings of a few LDS chapels.

This is actually a WWI memorial. It says, "To Their Memory, To Their Memorial."

The English Gardens in the middle of Munich have a river that runs through them. At this spot, you can actually surf and lots of locals do.

The girl in this video was actually one of the better surfers.

Germany has a multiparty system. The Pirate Party (no joke) was out in force that day. Their main thing is transparency in government. What government transparency (which I support) has to do with pirates I have no idea. Maybe I should have stopped and spoken with one of them.

Here's BMW's home office.

Martin wanted to do a little day dreaming. He said he may get one of these in another fifteen or twenty years.

It was really cool to go see the Olympic Park that was made back when Munich hosted the Olympics in the 70s.

This is Munich from Olympic Hill.

My last meal in Germany was something strange that I had heard about and had been curious to try. It's called "currywurst." It's sausage served in a spicy curry sauce. Somehow, it's turned into a German staple food, as common as bratwurst.