Germany

和其他的西欧大国比，我更喜欢德国。德国人的严谨从任何细节都可以看出 – 火车站的标示，火车上的报站系统，马路的路标，甚至市场里的标价。。。而德国人也并不像我想象的那么“冷”，很多时候还没有等我们开口问路，当地人就会用英语向我们提供帮助。而我更是莫名地喜欢德语的发音。时软时硬，很是顿挫连贯。
慕尼黑和它周边的小镇把德国巴伐利亚人的豪爽和浪漫发挥到了极致。
想喝就喝，巴伐利亚民族有着世界上规模最大的啤酒屋。HB啤酒屋是最著名的。从外面看，似乎不异于任何一个办公楼。啤酒屋有2层，可以同时容纳2000人。可是不管什么时候去，要找到一个空桌子，还真不是一件容易的事情。




巨型的辫子面包（pretzels）和香软可口入嘴即溶的熏猪腿可以让最有教养的女人们忘了淑女的伪装，大快朵颐。





边听音乐边等座位。


楼上还有一个啤酒博物馆


亲自试过之后，才知道啤酒女郎的臂力和手掌里有多惊人！

除了室内的，到处可见室外的啤酒屋。最大的一个可同时容纳4000多人。你看，还不到正午，人们就喝上了！

似曾相识吗？慕尼黑和布拉格于我来说似乎有很多的相似之处。
同样有着让人目不暇接的楼塔群。即便你有再高超的摄影技巧和拍摄角度，你也很难用一张照片扑捉整个建筑群的惊艳。很多时候，我们只是张着嘴巴，留着口水，垫着脚尖，旋转360度，眼珠上下左右高速地移动，企图把完整的印象保留在脑海里。






这个旋转音乐种在布拉格也见过吧。不过这个更高级，有两层的旋转卡通人物。上层的士兵还能在马上杀敌（一方是法国的军队，一方是巴伐利亚的勇士，双方交战的结果自然不难猜到 – 巴伐利亚的勇士把法军打下了马！）

291 （vedio）
百货公司玻璃橱窗里的俏皮的陈列。

当然，到了德国，还是不得不提二战。这段历史给这个民族留下了太深的烙印。过去的这段历史不能原谅，也不能忘记，德国的政府在原2战前最大的犹太人百货公司的门口树立了一块警示道歉牌。民众对此众说纷纭，有人说碑牌太小，不显诚意；有人说这个只是政治表演-但无论如何现在的德国政府都好于无耻的参拜靖国鸟社的小日本！在火车上偶遇的德国人告诉我们，因为那段让德意志人不堪回首的历史，他们除了在国际体育比赛时升国旗外，国内没有任何的升旗仪式。

集市
很有特色的干花束。每束花都有一个主题香味。有的是玫瑰，有的是松柏，还有桂皮的。要是背的动，买一个香香的花环回家圣诞的时候挂在家门口还是很漂亮的。






菜篮子工程 – 就是太贵。一个篮子200多人民币，还是拎塑料藤编的合算。


小鸟和小矮人的和谐社会

要是我有这么漂亮可爱的风筝，我就舍不得用，挂在房间里看着。

紫色的仙草，你见过吗？

各种形状颜色的小南瓜。每年都会在万圣节的时候买几个，摆在办公桌上，窝火的时候，恨不得拿起他们就砸。今年的万圣节，没有工作的烦恼，没有手机的打搅，快乐似神仙。

市场中心竖立着一个小小的雕像。不要看她小，却十分的实用。它是一个饮水喷泉。喷泉里的水都是引自阿尔卑斯山。象这样的饮水喷泉分布在城市的角角落落。幸福的慕尼黑人随时都能喝上免费的Evian矿泉水。

广场最醒目的便是这个五月柱。竖立五月柱是巴伐利亚人的传统。古时候每个村庄都会在五月的时候竖一个五月柱。如果甲村的柱子被乙村偷走，甲村的人就会千方百计地把柱子要回来，而最有效的方法呢，就是请乙方的全村人喝啤酒了。
据说在2005年，慕尼黑在其机场内竖立了一个五月住。可是没有多久，这根五月柱就在机场警察的眼皮底下被偷走了。慕尼黑的警局动用了所有警力全城搜索都没有找到。几天之后，他们收到市内消防员的自首电话。原来市民们防火意识极强，弄得消防员没有活干，只能无聊到去挑战警察了。

井盖和雕像。难道他们穷到要轮穿一件大衣？


还有这哥俩好！

也许我说德国人是浪漫的，很多人都不会认同。但是慕尼黑郊外的天鹅湖，迪士尼城堡却把巴伐利亚的浪漫和细腻展示的淋漓尽致。
天气有些阴霾，却是爬山涉水的好日子。

爱德华城堡







黑天鹅跃跃欲飞。

卖鹅的大叔，难道他是卖鹅给御厨的？

皇上的御厨


要到迪士尼城堡，可以选择大马路或者是山路。没有游人的喧嚣，让这段山路显得格外的幽静。




天鹅湖！如果小时候知道它是如此地美丽，上台表演的时候也不用李老师三番四次地训导说要有激情，头要随旋律摆动了。


水清澈见底。高傲的白天鹅不时地看着自己水中的倒影。





我们和天鹅！

看了天鹅湖，来段芭蕾吧！




一路上看见了好几个山泉。要不是天气太冷，真想跳进水里扑腾几下。

走了一段崎岖的山路之后，迪士尼城堡终于在浓重的雾色中揭开了它神秘的面纱。







从城堡的最佳观景台 – 钢筋桥上看城堡。



城堡的近景












如果你因为历史厌恶德国，请你务必去慕尼黑，因为它的美丽和当地人们的友好会解开你的心结；如果你热爱德国，也请别错过，因为它绝不会使你后悔。

Munich - History and beer halls

Our visit to Munich started after getting off the train from the castles. We were first at the main square and city hall (rathaus in German; Sue often got annoyed that the attractions of german/swiss/austrian cities were the rathaus and the church).

We immediately went to the famed beer hall that is the Hofbrauhaus. The food was fantastic, the beer was excellent, and it was pretty cool to be sitting at a picnic table in a bar with hundreds of year of history (including WWII) and thousands of other people without feeling crowded. We went twice, for dinner and for lunch the following day.

Munich remains a fantastic town because it is one of the few to be completely restored after WWII (some restoration work is still in progress). The city was wealthy so there were private funds for restoration, and it expected to be bombed so people took pictures of everything before the war so that it could be rebuilt exactly the same. Something like 3 of the buildings we saw on the walking tour were original, the rest restorations.

Here are the rathaus by day and the ever-popular Glockenspeil. The latter is a clocktower where the with gnomes that dance and spin every hour, which according to the tour guide is the second most overrated sight in Europe after Prague's Astrological clock (same deal), and which Sue liked a lot.

About 40 minutes train from Munich, the castles of Fussen are spectacular for their size and design, looking exactly as castles should. This area is where the crazy king Ludwig built his castles, the yellow one as his summer home and the white one (Newschwanstein Scholss, the inspiration for the Disney castle) as his main palace.

Here's the summer home

the famed Swan Lake, with swans as promised but with significantly less dancing than expected

from which is an hour or so hike to the castle. Though nothing will compare with the Swiss Aps, the scenery here was beautiful. The path was also close to deserted, as we took a secondary path, which leads to the bridge behind the castle.

Here is the view of the castle from the bridge. A much better view is had here than closer to the castle, where it is simply too big. On the day we visited it was foggy, which adds to the fairy-tale quality of the castle (and helps to hide the scaffolding - they were renovating when we visited).

To get a better view still of the castle, we kept climbing from the other side of the bridge. It was a tough climb, and the view was a bit too foggy...

Luckily on the way down we found a better vantage point

Back on the bridge, some of the ffog had subsided

On the way back, fog was evaporating from the hills

Scholss Neuschwanstein, from closer

All told it was an excellent day. We were glad that we didn't use a tour guide, as we had the opportunity to wander, climb, and get the views from a distance that wouldn't have been possible with a group, even though we'll have to google the story of King Ludwig rather than having heard it on the spot.

A note for anyone going - there is a Bavaria train pass which costs 30 Euros for up to 5 people, which covers Munich, Fussen / Newschwanstein castle, and the rest of Bavaria. So for anyone not travelling alone, I would recommend doing that rather than taking a guided tour (30 Euros incl transport).

Berlin was just not meant for this trip -- everything is so far apart, really a city of neighborhoods much like Toronto (but with much more sights) where a lot of time and transport is needed to experience the city or even to see the sights. We saw many beautiful buildings and of course there's a lot of history even apart from the war, but it's geographically a huge city. It also didn't help that I got the time wrong for the walking tour (so we had to do other stuff for a couple hours to wait for the next one), nor that our walking tour guide was terrible so we quit an hour in (after moving about 100m and hearing many bad jokes and long stories).

The walk guy with his hat and his saluting arm up

Alexanderplatz (a TV tower) with a church

Other buildings

Brandenburger Gate, part of the old Berlin Wall and a rallying point for most parts of the city history

Statue of the Goddess of peace atop Brandenburger Gate, brought from Berlin to Paris when Napolean conquered these parts, then brought back after the Russians beat Napolean.

The Reichstag... Surrounded by trees, so hard to get a shot that includes flags and the building, it's too big.

The Berlin Monument

The wonderful market near our hostel, where we got cheap food (a whole rotisseried chicken for 3 Euro, another meal 2 euro each). When we stopped on our way to the train station one of the shops was closing for the day, so I ask the guy how much he'd charge for the cooked meats he has left, and he says 2 euros - for 2 quarter chickens, 2lb or so of sausage loaf, 2 smoked pork knuckles, and 4 chicken wings.

柏林是一个我欣赏不了的城市。因为它的历史的厚重，因为它的创伤。但它的的却却又是一个很值得让人慢慢品味寻思的城市。希望我下次在与它相会的时候，我可以对它不再那么的无知！
大熊是柏林的标志性动物

可爱和独具个性的红绿灯小人


中心广场。关于它的雕像的历史，我并没有听导游细说。远望很壮观！

广播信号塔。和其他城市的一样，鸡肋似的建筑-不看怕错过，爬上去看了会后悔。

其他的我们也就走马观花地看过。还是让照片说话吧。




井盖

柏林的标志性雕塑，还是和二战有关的。

旅社附近的农贸市场里。你看出他两是失散多年的兄弟吗？