It's time for Fasching

Just a very brief update, after another full day of sightseeing: It's mardi gras in the land of Catholics, and here in Munich they call it Fasching. Bavarians do not celebrate with as much zest and craziness as the folks in Rio, Cologne, or New Orleans, but they still dress up and go out for a good time. This photo shows the dressed-up teller at the bank today:

Sabine chats with a bank angel

After I had arrived here in Freising on Friday, Martha and Alan followed suit yesterday, on Sunday. Instead of allowing them to properly decompress and get over their jet-lag, Sabine and I dragged them up to Weihenstephan for their first encounter with Bavarian beer culture last night. Today, we followed this up with a trip to the Hofbrauhaus and their first close look at Lederhosen culture. We spent the entire day in the city of Munich, strolling around and even getting a rare treat in the form of the Scheffler-Tanz, which is performed every 7 years by a group of coopers (or at least they all used to be coopers; now only a few of them are still working in this profession). 

The Scheffler-Tanz, an old Bavarian tradition

We window-shopped, climbed the bell tower of Old Peter (all 260 steps of it), and enjoyed a truffle and espresso in a small chocolate shop. It was a nice and relaxed day, and now it's too late for me to write much more—dang, already midnight again.

Frauenkirche and  Munich City Hall

Tomorrow, the four of us will head to Austria to the small town of Koessen where we hope to find perfect snow to cross-country ski. Internet connections permitting, I will try to upload a few more pics and update this post in the next few days.


Jürgen