Bodacious...



UPDATE: Ok... apparently there's been some confusion. This video is basically taken in one shot. I am standing on a bridge over a river that flows over some artificial rapids into the Englischer Garten. The people you see are on the river. The music I added later just for fun. 

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OBOES THROUGH THE YEARS

Exciting... I know. That's what I call a "teaser," it's meant to draw you into the blog right away. I'll get to the oboes in a moment...

I've had a very busy week with teaching and other things. In addition to teaching these week-long intensive courses, I also have a couple of private students, one through the school where I teach and the other a church member. I also do a language exchange with one of the German Teachers from the school where I teach. I go to her house and she teaches me German for an hour and I teach her or her nine-year-old son English for an hour. It's really nice for both of us.

Today (Wednesday) I didn't have to work until the evening and so I went with some of the missionaries to the Deutsches Museum.

The Deutsches Museum is Germany's version of the Smithsonian. With hundreds of exhibits on everything from advanced rocketry to agricultural techniques through the ages, it is a huge, overwhelming, and fascinating museum.

Mystery, wonder, and strange bald men abounded as we perused the various exhibits of the museum:

This is a rocket-propelled sled. Calvin would be jealous.

Here am I playing an early version of a Casio keyboard (ca. 1760)

Cross-section of a U-Boat:

Including the torpedo bay... both of them...

An original Wright Bro's plane from 1909.

And a triple-decker "Red Baron" Fok plane from WWI.

I think this plane was designed by Fisher-Price:

Resistance is futile.

This underwater breathing apparatus served in later years as an excellent shoulder massage apparatus.

A Medieval Chemist's shop complete with bongs.

The elders got a little confused when we arrived at the UNIVAC and started tracting it. I gently explained to them that this was actually an early computer.

It was a fun and full day at the museum. There were also oboes.



Guess what I'm going to go see tomorrow.......

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THE THREE RIVERS

I've had a busy week with nearly 50 hours of English teaching; meanwhile the weather has been perfect. This meant that I had no choice but to go somewhere interesting on Saturday. I decided to check out the town of Passau.

So I hopped on a morning train and soon found myself rolling past the green Bavarian countryside. There was also a lot of yellow as the rapseed fields are coming to life.

A troop of scouts were in my car as well, heading off to some sort of event.

About two hours later the train pulled into Passau and I had a full day of exploration ahead of me.

Passau is indeed located on a slice of land between two major rivers with a smaller river cutting in on the side.

View Larger Map

You can see the three rivers coming together in the map. The largest, lightest colored river is the Inn River which comes from the Alps, passes through Innsbruck, Austria and then works its way north to Passau. The next river is the Danube. It's source is found in the Black Forest. While the Inn carries a larger water volume, the Danube is longer, thus when they come together the Danube gets to keep its name. The smallest and darkest river of the three is the Ilz river which flows south out of the Bavarian Forest near the Czech border.

Here you can see where the Inn and the Danube come together...

This picture was taken from the mouth of the Ilz river as it joins the Danube which joins the Inn. If you look closely you can see all three river colors in layers...

Passau is a charming town with a fascinating history. It was an early Roman settlement and then an important Medieval city. During the Middle-Ages the city became an important trading port especially for the salt trade. This made it a rather wealthy city and many of the city streets still possess the narrow Medieval qualities.

As goods often came over the Alps from Venice, and then carried down the Inn, Passau has an almost Italian flavor to it. After a fire destroyed much of the city in the 17th century, much of it was rebuilt using the Italian Baroque aesthetic.

Passau was also the seat of the regional Catholic Archdiocese and possesses a spectacular cathedral, St. Stephan's.

St. Stephan's holds the largest cathedral organ in the world. I was able to eavesdrop on an afternoon concert.

Passau also boasts a large castle overlooking the rivers. One of the first things I did when I arrived was climb to the top for a view.

Did you know there are lizards in Germany. Neither did I until I saw them scurrying about everywhere around the castle.

I came down from the castle on the Ilz side and found a few great photo ops...

For lunch I found a quiet restaurant overlooking the Danube. I had a wonderful German meal of roast pork leg, Knödel, and Sauerkraut... mmmmmmm.... lecker!

I found a flea market going on along the banks of the Inn.

I then went for a bit of a walk over to Austria.

I climbed a forested hill to get a better view of Passau and the rivers from above. There was only one little cloud in the sky.

Here is Passau from above...

Then it was back to Germany...

I snapped a few more photos and then headed to the train station and back home to Munich. The sun set over the yellow and green fields as I headed home and I was glad I decided to get out that day.

Aufwiedersehen!

ps. be sure to check out more photos from the day by clicking here:

Passau

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LED BY THE ZEPPELIN

We've had a lot of rainy weather recently so when a sunny Saturday came around I had to take advantage of it and get out. I first went to the Olympic Park where the 1972 Olympics took place. As I approached the Olympic Tower (above) I saw a big Zeppelin floating around. Okay.

The Olympic Park was nice, but I'm going to wait for an even clearer day to go to the top of the tower.

This is all part of the Olympic Stadium & Complex.

After seeing the Olympia Park, I went to the U-Bahn station to catch the subway. While waiting, a little mouse was scurrying about the platform. It's quite common to see mice around the underground stations... but this one was quite brave.

Next I did some walking and discovered a cool old cemetary...



And a neat church....

Then I bought a Subway sandwich and took it into the Englischer Garten for lunch. It was full of people enjoying their Saturday (and fully clothed, might I add)...

While eating my sandwich, a ladybug came to visit. But this was no ordinary ladybug, it was an inverted ladybug: black with red spots...

...don't worry, I didn't eat her.

As I was leaving the Garten I saw the Zeppelin again. There it is....

Spring was out in force in the inner city....

And so were the street musicians....

And people enjoying themselves at the sidewalk cafes on the Marienplatz...

I made it to the church for a little piano practicing before meeting the elders to go to a member appointment. On the way to the appointment we saw that darn Blimp again...

Because they're single sisters, the elders needed to have another male member with them in order to meet with them. They are from Venezuela originally. We ate some good Venezuelan food. That's Lucky the Cat by the way.

So it had been a full fun Spring day of Mice, Ladybugs, Subways, Blimps and Cats named Lucky.

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