A Tale of Golf and Cows

Saturday, September 19:

On Saturday afternoon Sybille (my fourth cousin twice removed) and her husband Wolfgang arrived in Munich after driving most of the day from their home in northern Germany.

It was nice to see them again. The last I had seen them was in April for Wolfgang's 60th birthday. We loaded my stuff in the car and then headed further south into the foothills of the Bavarian Alps. We stopped by a grocery store to pick up a few things and then drove on to the town of Wallgau.

Wallgau is a rather small town where nearly every house has a room or two vacant for use as vacation accommodations.

We found our accommodations: a large farmhouse on the edge of town near the Isar river (which later flows through Munich) surrounded by green grass. Right next door to the farmhouse was the golf course where Sybille & Wolfgang were looking forward to spending a lot of time.

It was a beautiful afternoon...

Three generations live under one roof here, a very nice Bavarian family. With their rich Bavarian accents they showed us our rooms. Sybille & Wolfgang had an apartment in the penthouse with a balcony. I had my own apartment on the ground level.

We quickly brought our stuff into our respective apartments and then enjoyed some pastries and coffee (Almdudler for me) while sitting outside in the sun.

Wolfgang couldn't wait to get his golf stuff out, here he is showing a couple of the farmboys how to swing...

Later that evening we took a stroll into town to have a look around. We found a nice restaurant on the main street and stepped in for some traditional Bavarian food.

Next door, a wedding party was in progress and it was fun to watch out our window as we ate our meal...

The bride...

A little bit too public restroom...

After wandering back to the farm house we enjoyed some sweets and fresh apricots from Sybille & Wolfgang's trees at home and watched TV in their kitchen. This came to be the evening ritual.


The next morning we woke up to a light mist hanging around the feet of the mountains and over the golf course...

I found a fresh glass bottle of milk and a bag of freshly-baked rolls on my doorstep as I left to go up to S&W's apartment for breakfast. We were staying on a small dairy farm and this was part of the service!

We had a relaxed breakfast...

And then we hopped in the car for a bit of a drive. We passed some beautiful scenery, including Walchen Lake...

We came to the town of Jachenau where "Onkel Rudi" (the first cousin of my great-great-grandmother :-) used to stay when he would come to Bavaria with Sybille & Wolfgang and Sybille's brothers' families.

Even the clouds were beckoning us to come in...

We parked and went for a bit of a walk. All the houses were arrayed in typical flowery Bavarian form...

It was Sunday and so some of the townsfolk were coming home from church in their traditional dresses...

We found the guesthouse where Onkel Rudi and family often stayed. An old woman there was happy to see Sybille & Wolfgang again and they had a bit of a chat in her flower-filled front yard.

We left the house and hiked into the hills. We passed a ton of cows. Here is one of the wagons that the farmers use to both transport the milk and as a portable water trough for the cows...

1%, 2%, Whole, and Skim...

It was a great day for a hike, and S&W at 60 had no problem keeping a brisk pace on the trail...

Eventually we came to a very nice waterfall where we ate some snacks, took some pictures, and had a bit of a rest...

We hiked a bit more for a few hours...

We would constantly hear cowbells in the distance, and when we came on a grazing herd it was always a pleasant din. (Though I'm sure the cows complain of constant ringing in the ear)...

As we walked by this cow Sybille said, "She's just waiting for someone to push her..."

We came back around to Jachenau...

...and then had more fine Bavarian cuisine at a restaurant in Jachenau. Afterwords we drove back to Wallgau and had a relaxing evening.


The next morning we woke up to heavy fog that quickly disappeared as the sun came out. It turned out to be a beautiful morning before long and after another good breakfast with fresh milk, rolls, cold cuts, and Nutella, we gathered our golf stuff and drove about 2 minutes to the club house of the golf course.

From there we played nine holes on a very nice course with phenomenal scenery...

I was able to get a few good drives, but most of my golf swings were pretty embarrassing as always. Wolfgang & Sybille were much better...

After nine holes we packed up the car and went for a drive in the Alps. We drove into Austria...

Austria was beootiful..

I still had my golf glove on...

Austrian cows think they are the best...

We came to a cool narrow valley called "Eng" (literally: "narrow") With the afternoon sun coming through the clouds over the mountains, it was quite picturesque...

We went to a restaurant and ordered Kaiserschmarrn. It was delicious, and we had a great view of the mountains as we ate...

Sybille & Wolfgang let me wander around a bit as they stayed back and enjoyed their coffee.

Close encownter...

There was a small traditional village in the valley that one can visit to see how things are done in the Austrian Alps...

Even cheese-making...

We left Eng and drove back towards Germany.

Back in Germany we did a bit of scenic driving around (and over) some lakes...

And then it was back to Wallgau for a relaxing evening at the farm house.

So far so good...

Here you can see on the map some of the places mentioned in Nate's blog today (the yellow markers)...

View Wallgau in a larger map

Stay tuned for more adventures with Sybille & Wolfgang in the Bavarian Alps!

...

YOU GO SLAVIA! - Part 9: Sarajevo and Epilogue

August 22nd, Sarajevo:

We woke up in our Bosnian hotel, loaded up the car, and drove to downtown Sarajevo.

Outside of Jerusalem there are fewer cities with such a strong division of religions within major portions of the population. Catholics, Serbian Orthodox, Muslims, and Jews all have large communities in this city and they have existed mostly peacefully side by side for centuries.

However, when the dam of peace broke, it broke hard. Sarajevo suffered worse than any other city during the Balkan wars of the early 1990's. The Bosnian capital endured the longest siege of any city in the history of modern warfare, from 1992 to 1996.

Sarajevo is also an Olympic city (Winter 1984) and the city where the assassination of an Archduke led to World War I.

Needless to say, I was excited to see this place...

It was a beautiful day as we drove into the city passing all sorts of interesting buildings and sights.

One of the main government buildings for Bosnia & Herzegovina...

Every once in a while we would pass cemeteries full to the brim with new-looking headstones. We would also pass buildings that were still in their ruined state after being bombed out or shot up in the war...

We parked the car near the old town and got out for a bit of a stroll.

We first came to one of the main squares in the middle of a large and nice pedestrian area. The stately Serbian Orthodox church was there to see...

We explored the streets a bit and came to a monument with an everlasting flame for the victims of World War II...

I found Sarajevo to be a pleasant surprise of fancy architecture, pedestrian-friendly zones, attractive squares, plenty of greenery, and clean streets.

The Palace of Fine Arts...

Olympic symbol on one of the main squares from the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo...

The Catholic cathedral...

One of the many mosques...

There was an extensive tourist bazaar, though it was still too early in the morning for the shops and kiosks to be open...

Walking by one of the mosques, one really felt like one had stepped into the Middle East...

We found a nice little restaurant where we got some Ćevapčići for breakfast...

We wandered around the bazaar a bit more as the shops started to open...

We then came around to the banks of the Miljacka river where we saw the site of the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophia. This was, as you no doubt remember, the event that triggered World War I...

The scene of the crime...

And Nate just keeps on runnin (notice the bullet holes in the bench on the left)...

We came back around full circle to the Serbian Orthodox Church on the square where we began...

We passed by the National Theatre...

Still pock-marked with bullet holes from two decades before.

We only spent a few short hours in the city and I only saw a bit of the downtown area, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how much it had cleaned up. Other than the bullet holes and a few shelled-out buildings, you'd hardly know that this was such a dangerous place just 13 years ago.

We got back in the Green Machine...

...and headed north.

We passed by the highest skyscraper in the Balkans, the Avaz building...

Old communist apartments from the Yugoslav era...

We drove for several hours through beautiful hilly countryside. Occasionally we encountered some interesting sites...

An old nuclear plant...

Passing through many villages, we would often see the scars of war...

But more often than not the scenes were idyllic and peaceful...

After a few hours we arrived in Arizona.

Not the state, silly, but a huge discount shopping outlet. Basically a huge collection of small shops selling crap from China.

Peter and Janez spent some time shopping for sundry items. Myself, I bought a new pair of slippers.

We left Arizona and an hour later we were at the border with Croatia...

We passed into Croatia and were finally on a good highway again. There wasn't too much to see in Croatia's Slavonia region. But occasionally we would pass quaint villages and rolling fields. It reminded me quite a bit of Hungary (which is not far away)...

Before long we came at last to the Slovenian border. We were back in the EU...

You can see our route leaving Sarajevo in yellow (is that yellow?), then linking up with the highway that we had taken a week before in Croatia, and then leading back to Ljubljana...

View Yugobalkantrip in a larger map

We drove into Ljubljana just as a huge rainstorm came in. Our timing couldn't have been better. We went to a pizza place that the boys knew well and had our last meal together...

Of course I had to get my last Cockta Cola while in Slovenia. It was fun to joke around about all our experiences on our trip...

Janez drove us back to Peter's and Rok's grandparents' place where we said our goodbyes to Janez and the Green Machine.

The great Yugo-Balkan trip had come to an end...

I was able to check some emails and stuff before Peter drove me to the train station. Exhausted from a long day, I boarded the night train back to Munich around midnight. I found a compartment with a couple of Swedish guys coming back from Greece. They were cool and we were able to spread out relatively comfortably in the cabin in order to sleep.

I slept rather well as far as sleeping on trains go. I woke up a couple of times to see people asleep on the floor of the aisle outside my compartment; it was a full train.

Eventually I must have gotten into a fairly deep sleep because the next thing I knew I was waking up in a nearly empty train parked at the Munich main station. I don't know how long we had been there before I woke up. I woke up the Swedes and wished them well and then I took the S-bahn back to my apartment.

I was finally home again. I had returned with a new collection of priceless experiences, a few new rocks, and about 2250 photos to sort through and edit. It was good to be back.

View Yugobalkantrip in a larger map

Yes, it had been an incredible two weeks in the former Yugoslavia and Albania. The trip could hardly have gone better. From swimming the lakes and hiking the mountains of Slovenia, to driving through the Serbian countryside, to experiencing the craziness of Prishtina, Kosovo; to discovering the ancient rocky shores of lake Ohrid in Macedonia; to exploring forgotten castles and ancient ruins in Albania; to enjoying the pebbly beaches and warm Adriatic waters of Montenegro; to wandering the narrow streets of Dubrovnik, Croatia and symbolic bridges of Mostar, Bosnia; to witnessing the sites of terror and beauty in Sarajevo; I have been changed and improved by these experiences and am grateful for the opportunity I have had to do such wonderful traveling with some great new friends, who now feel like great old friends.

Thanks for following along. Since August I have had many more great experiences here in Bavaria so stay tuned as I continue to get my blog current with my life.

Hvala lepa!

...