Photoblog - Vienna (Nightlife)

It seems like a long time ago, but it was just last Winter when Frau A and I visited Vienna for the weekend.  We saw Schoenbrunn Palace and ice skating around the Town Hall... but kept busy in the evenings too.

One of the main reasons for the trip was to see the show "Ich war noch niemals in New York".  In the spirit of "jukebox musicals" like Mamma Mia! (Abba) and Movin' Out (Billy Joel), this production features the songs of Udo Juergens.  Juergens is one of the most popular, successful, and beloved schlager singers.  (He's up top in our schlager post.)  He has sold over 100 million records and still sells out concert halls in his mid-70s today.  And yes, he won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1966.

The title means "I've never been to New York" -- in the story, an older couple aren't feeling "alive" anymore and therefore make a spontaneous decision to take a cruise ship to the Big Apple for the first time. (Notice the heart-shaped life preserver and rope in the banner.)  Although the story was a bit predictable, it was satisfying and Juergen's catchy tunes got everyone clapping and singing along.  And love & happiness prevail in the end.  Just like it should be.

The hotel was not far from the Bahnhof, so there were plenty of late-night options nearby.  So on another evening we checked out the nearby billiards bar, called "Köö - The Great Entertainer", on the second floor above some clothing stores & coffee shop.

 

The first order of business was to try the local beer, called Gösser.  It's a lot like the Munich helles, and in fact the styles are often combined for beer competitions into a group called VOM - Vienna, Oktoberfest, and Märzen (March) styles.  In the official BJCP Beer Style Guidelines it's called European Amber Lager.  Frau A and I love 'em -- a little less hoppy/bitter and crisp but richer and smoother than a pils.

There is a smoking ban in Munich now, so the haze and smells of the bar here were quite a surprise.  But together with the loud music and crack of caroming balls at the tables, it really felt like a pool hall.

The tables were all full (or reserved for hours) so we moved to the dart boards.  Warning:  do NOT be fooled by her quiet demeanor, long flowing hair, and friendly smile.  Frau A is a hustler and will beat you at darts.  She won all three of the first games again me.  I thought a second beer would change things - no luck.  She took 2 of the next 3.  Ouch.

The great thing about Vienna is that there are so many things to see in daylight, and just as many things to do at night.  We're hoping to return this summer and hang out with a colleague of mine who lives there (but works in the Munich office, staying Monday-Wednesday).  Stay tuned.

Photoblog - Munich figures

If you look at the results of a Google image search on "Munich" you'll see a lot of cityscapes, specifically the Rathaus (town hall), Frauenkirche (the most famous church here), and then a smattering looks of the BWM tower, sports stadium, etc.

I took a photo-walk of the city (in Summer) with the intention of looking at more detail -- the figures carved in / placed on buildings, rather than the whole structure.  I soon realized that an afternoon is much too short -- so many buildings have intricate designs, and some literally have dozens of statues on top or figures along the side.  In this post I'll share a few things I found along the way.

I espeically like the fountain in front of the Rathaus.  Dramatic scenes of battle, probably telling the story of a myth or stylization of a biblical event.  I should look this stuff up -- there's probably books dedicated to such details...

In this shot you can even see the Glockenspiel in the background.  (Note:  There is really deep focus because I was using a compact camera -- can't get much bokeh.)

My fifth grade English teacher would want to know all the symbolism here.  Until then, I'll just appreciate the visuals.

Update (19 April 2011):  I did finally find info about these figures.  As usual, Wikipedia to the rescue.  It says that at each corner of the base of the Mariancolumn (the column is in front of the Rathaus on Marienplatz) is a statue of a putto (cherub).  Each of the four putti are slaying a different beast, representing the city overcoming adversity of war (a lion), pestilence (a cockatrice), hunger/famine (a dragon), and heresy (a serpent).  None of my Munich friends knew this and were happy to learn with me.

 

As you walk more into the shopping district, the figures get less serious and more colorful, fun.  This guy represents a traditional cooper, or barrel maker.  You see the ring in his hand, which presumably would become part of a barrel.  (Probably beer barrel in Munich!)  At the bottom reads:  Schäffler Eck., or "Cooper Corner".  There are others figures about in this style that represent other trades or roles (I think there's a town jester somewhere out there too... got to find him).

 

I don't remember where I shot our friend here, but he stood out because he is so simple and rustic.  Has a very different feel than the usually ornate carvings and figures found in Munich.  He's also found along one of the main shopping streets... and who doesn't want to be blessed while searching for the perfect jacket?

He is the one figure in the post that I never could find the background on.  Will keep looking.

This last one always amuses me.  It is right on the main shopping street Kaufinger Strasse.  This guy is 2 stories up, and on the end of a long beam.  I have no clue as to who he might be or represent, but he's been watching over shoppers for as long as I've been in Munich.  It looks like he has a security camera on him!

Update (19 April 2011):  Again, I finally figured this one out too.  This is the "man with outspread arms" created by the artist Stephan Balkenhol.  The Kaufingertor group of shops opened in 1994, but this guy went up in 2007 as an invitation to 'relaxed shopping'.  It appears to have worked -- on Saturdays the Kaufingerstrasse is completely packed, and is the home of Late Night Shopping festival!

Sometimes one gets immune to the things you see every day.  In Germany/Europe, it is the old churches and buildings, but day in/day out one tends to gloss over the details.  It's nice to take a fresh look at the little things.

Photoblog - Munich through a zoom lens

We blogged earlier about trying to look at your home city from a new, fresh perspective.  In that case, it was actually paying attention to the detailed figures on some of Munich's fountains and buildings rather than take the typical touristy wide-angle skyline photo.

With a nice zoom lens (in this case, the simple 10x on my now deceased Canon SX200IS) we can also look up, to find more detail in places where the eyes don't travel as often.

The first pic is the front-top of the Justizpalast (justice building), home of the Landgericht (judiciary system).  It's located at the popular Karlsplatz where people like to sit by the fountain and enjoy nice weather like the blue sky we see here.  As in the prior post, I rarely know the meaning behind the statues or relief, but we can make out a figure with the scales of justice, and another with a caduceus representing commerce and trade (probably the desire for fair dealings).

Now that I have my Olympus micro-four-thirds camera, I will definitely be back for more of this building. 

The next building is a poor thing -- the Old City Hall (Altes Rathaus) on Marienplatz.  Because the New City Hall (Neues Rathaus) is so famous with its glockenspiel the Altes Rathaus almost never gets any attention!  The sun reflecting off the clock caught my attention, and it turned out to be a nice subject.  Many town halls in Germany have a clock with astronomical symbols (signs of the zodiac) and I think that's what we see here as well.

Staying at Marienplatz, I then tackled the column that is "in the way" of tourists getting an unobstructed photo of the Neues Rathaus -- the Mariensaeule (Marian column), right in the middle of the square.  As Wikipedia explains: the column is topped by a golden statue of the Virgin Mary standing on a crescent moon as the Queen of Heaven.  I'm guessing it's her royal sceptre that she's holding in the hand opposite the baby Jesus?  And that's quite a crown too...

Finally, I went after another gold & gleaming piece, this time atop the Heiliggeistkirche (Church of the Holy Ghost).  Of course there is the mandatory depiction of Mary again (bottom, with a similar crown and sceptre).  But at the top, I believe this is the Eye of Providence, which represents God watching over humankind.  Remind you of something?  A version is also on the Great Seal of the United States and also on the U.S. One Dollar Bill.

It's funny... you see something new, and then realize it's been around you in other forms all the time.

Photoblog - Munich's English Garden

Warm weather has finally come to Munich.  (At least the Springtime version -- inconsistent, and still chilly in the shade, but the air has changed.)  That means everyone will be spending a lot more time in the English Garden.

We're really looking forward to this and pulled out a few photos from last year to tide us over until our first 'Saturday in the park'.  (Yes, the English Garden is physically larger than Central Park in New York City, but they have completely different auras.  More on this in a later post...)

From Odeonsplatz downtown, you can walk through the Hofgarden to the south entrance to the English Garden.

This building below greets you just before entering the English Garden, and I've always loved its yellow against a blue sky.

The same water (it's an artificial stream) seen above runs through the English Garden, and the walking path follows it for a while from the southern entrance.  Sometimes it flows lazily, other times it is swift with runoff from the melting snow in the mountains.  There is even one point where people can surf!  (more here)

 

One of the most popular parts of the Garden is the Schoenfeldwiese (Schoenfeld meadow) -- partially because it's a huge open space with lots of sun, and partially because nude sunbathing is permitted here.  Many a tourist have had a memorable cultural experience/shock!  I organized a game of American football here once, and that drew funny stares from the Germans!

From the meadow you can look back towards the city and see the two spires of the Frauenkirche (middle/right), the yellowish Theatinerkirche (far right), and the Bavarian State Chancellery (Bayrische Staatskanzlei, left). 

 

Here's a zoomed view of the two churches: 

Both of the prior photos were taken at the far end of the Schoenfeldwiese, at the top of a small hill where the Monopteros sits.  The Monopteros is a Greek-style "temple" that replaced an older wooden "Apollo Temple".  It was completed in 1836 using leftover material from the Residenz.

How safe is Munich?  I've taken early walks to this point and seen people "camping" out -- overnight with just a sleeping bag.  They enjoy watching the sunrise from here and therefore just crash.  No worries.  Now that's different than Central Park.  I don't have a photo of sunrise yet, but this is what they see (below).  Now you know why Frau A and I will do more photoblogging from here this Summer.

 

Photoblog - Vienna (City Tour)

Frau A and I went to Vienna in February.  It's just far enough to feel like you've escaped, but the trip is not too taxing.  Around 4 hours by car, a little more by train... you could fly from Munich (less than an hour in the air) but the trips to the airport are almost not worth it.

During our weekend in Vienna, Frau A and I took the city "circle" tour on a bus.  It's cliched, but actually a great way to quickly get oriented in a new city, and to see some of the interesting sites (and then decide which ones to see in detail the following day).

We boarded a train from the stop near the hotel, and headed towards the inner city.  Some trams look more modern than the ones in Munich, and almost have the curves of, dare I say it, a ski gondola.  It is Austria after all.

We arrived near the Opera Haus, from where the buses depart.  This is one of the largest Opera Houses in Europe, completed in 1869 and then rebuilt from the original neo-renaissance plans after the World War II.

It wasn't originally very popular with the Viennese -- the initial reception was so bad that one of the two architects comitted suicide, and the other suffered a fatal heart attack (Wikipedia always has the good news for me).  Nevertheless, they did decide to restore it like the original (with just a little modernization), and it's an accepted part of the city today. 

Unfortunately, because it was winter, the fountain on the side of the Opera Haus was boarded up.  (All the ones in Munich are, too.)  But it still is a common place for people to gather, and for the companies to sell tour and concert tickets to tourists.  We didn't capture them on film, but guys in traditional outfits roam this sidewalk accosting tourists, trying to sell event tickets.

One of the downsides to a bus tour is that it's not a great environment for photography.  The bus windows are pretty clean, but there is always a little grime on them.  Plus there are glare & reflections to deal with.  (Murphy's law:  when there's something interesting to film, the bus is moving and you're getting jolted around....when you're stopped at a red light, it's in front of McDonald's.)

We did get a few photos that are share-worthy...  The one below is the St. Francis of Assisi Church, also known as the Jubilee church (celebrating the reign of Emperor Franz Josef).  Unusually, it is located outside of the old city and close to the modern quarter.

We were then driven by the Austrian Parlaiment building, and decided to come back later on foot.  The streetcar/tram lines obstruct the view a bit, but you can definitely see the greek-style columns -- it was designed this way to reinforce the idea of democracy (completed in 1883).  The two houses sit here, and it's quite practical:  the Austrians include meeting lobbies, a gym, and of course multiple bars for their representatives.

Still on foot now, we're heading towards the Rathaus from the Parliament.  You'll see a lot of horse and buggy tours in Vienna, and it's easy to understand the romantic appeal.  The fence here surrounds the grounds to the Hofburg Palace, which we did not get a nice photo of... the bus didn't work for us and we didn't have a chance to walk by again later.  Ugh!  Check the link to Wikipedia or Google images, it's really quite impressive.

 

Finally we arrive at the Rathaus.  The building is so large that we tried my new wide-angle lens and had to keep it at the widest setting:  18mm!  Completed in 1833 in gothic style, the Rathaus seats the Burgermeister (mayor) and city council.  It has a pretty nice restaurant too, serving traditional Viennese food.  The park in front has events year round, and hosted the Vienna Ice Dream when we were there -- a blog post unto itself!

Overall, we definitely recommend taking the bus tour around the city, then pick your spots to come back to.  You'll need more than a weekend for Vienna, but it's a start.

Photoblog - Vienna (Ice Skating)

Hopefully you saw the post about skiing in downtown Munich!  Siemens built a mini slope for skiing and sledding right in front of their world headquarters and it was a lot of fun.  We were in for another surprise on our weekend getaway to Vienna.

In Vienna we found something similar.  It was built by the city (rather than a corporate sponsor) and sat in front of the Rathaus (City Hall).  It's called the Wiener Eistraum (Vienna Ice Dream).

Instead of sledding and skiing, this is for ice skating.  When you think of ice skating, you might think of an oval rink, but Vienna added a twist -- skating routes.  They feel a bit like a lazy river at a water park.  Check out the map below and you'll see the ice skating paths on the left side.  

Here's a view from the front, taken from the sidewalk.  You see the giant Rathaus looming in the background and notice lights that ensure people can skate until 20:00 in the evening.  It looks like a typical ice skating rink...

...but now in this photo, we zoomed out a bit and you can just barely see the entrance to the skiing route on the front left.  The guy with the backpack is just starting onto the path, and the guy in the green jacket looks like he will follow.

Now we panned left so you can see the path.  It's wide enough for maybe four across, and the skating pace was quite leisurely.  A couple teen guys were moving pretty fast (as usual), but in general it looked like a relaxed way to go.  It's hard to see in the photo, but if you look at the ice skates of the woman with the blue jeans and hat (foreground, right side) on top they look almost like ski boots.  I think the child behind her has the same thing.  That's because the rental skates that were available had ski-boot like buckles on them!  Those quick-lock mechanisms work fast, are familiar, and much more convenient than long laces.  Very cool.  They should have those in the U.S..

Now we're moving further left in the scene, and the photo below (shot from the sidewalk again) shows the people skating by on the ice path.  With the Rathaus in the background it was a really pleasant atmosphere.  The had music playing...

 

... and of course tents with food and drink available.  Frau and I had some glühwein and it really warms you up on a cold day.

Now we're even further left and looking back down the sidewalk to where we started.  You get a better feel for how long the path is -- you can't see the entrance from the rink anymore.  And this is just the first leg of the path going across the front (check the map again)!  We thought about renting skates and giving it a whirl, but had other things to see.  Just another reason to go back to Vienna.

 

Photoblog - Sylt

Sylt is the northernmost island in Germany, lying effectively at the same latitude as the mainland's border with Denmark (and about 10km off the west coast).  It is Germany's largest island in the North Sea at 38km north-to-south -- but generally only a few kilometers wide.  Here's Sylt on Google Maps.  Hamburg is a few hours south, London sits across the North Sea to the southwest, and the Baltic Sea lies across Denmark to the east (Germany call this the East Sea).

Again with Google maps you can see the distinctive shape of Sylt.  Westerland the is largest town (9,000 of the 21,000 total inhabitants), with Kampen being the very upper-class village a little to the north -- although nowhere can Sylt be called frugal in any sense.  In fact, they have prohibited any new construction to preserve nature... if you want to build, you have to tear down an existing structure and build on the same site.  I think that's a good move.  It would probably get overdeveloped otherwise, and it's a beautiful place.  More info on Sylt from Wikipedia here.

Indeed, the shape of the island is so distinctive that it helps define a culture around it.  You'll see a lot of cars with this bumper sticker (below) on it, indicating a fan of Sylt and probably a frequent visitor (or, if lucky, owner of a flat there).  Most cars with this sticker will be BMWs, Mercedes, or Audis... and the higher-end models at that.  You're announcing that you're a bit of a snob with this on your car, but at least a snob with good taste.

And the "culture" around Sylt?  There was a famous pop song from the Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) in the 1980's that immortalizes Westerland, the main town.  The NDW includes artiscs like Nena (Luftballons) and Falco (Rock Me Amadeus), by the way.  Here is the song and video.  It's actually a really catch tune.

You can fly to Sylt (small airport there) but it's better and more fun to "drive".  I drove north from Hamburg a couple of hours to the boarding point for the auto-carriers on the Deutsche Bahn.  You actually drive up onto the auto-carrier on the train, and it takes the route across the water to the island!

Fortunately, my car was on the top level of the carrier, so I was able to get this photo as the train just reached the first part of Sylt.  This is typical for the southern portion -- fields of wheat or cows, totally flat of course.

 

What Sylt is most famous for is the dunes and beaches, that reminded me a lot of the Outer Banks in North Carolina.  It's waaaay up north, and never truly gets hot.  Also, there is a constant strong breeze, so there are rather more sturdy grasses than many trees.

       What you see on the beach is also a trademark of Sylt:  the strandkorb.  Literally, the sand basket.  These things are quite heavy and stay put, but just light enough so that you can rotate them to face the sun and block the constant wind from your back.  It really works to keep you warm.  However, there are numbers on them... because each section of beach has a firm that is allowed to rent a certain number of strandkorbs.  You have to reserve one for each day that you want to use it -- but you better do this ahead of time.   They go fast.     

 

Here you can clearly see the numbers on each strandkorb.  The blue and white stripes on the inside are traditional, and there are two baskets underneath the seat to store bags, books, clothes, etc.  This is about the maximum density of strandkorbs that are allowed, and you see that they are ALL taken.  What I did not post, but is common, is that many people love to hang around and swim in the nude.  That's Germany - claim your square meters on the beach and get naked!

As you might expect, there are some nice walking/hiking trails on Sylt.  Germans are really outdoorsy and like to get fresh air and exercise.  You can walk paths around much of the island, which gets especially nice as you get farther from the crowded beaches.  Some parts are farmland, others a bit wooded, and some parts marshy.  This was one of my favorites.

  When you're done with the beach and trails, the best thing to do is get some seafood at Gosch.  Mr. Gosch started out selling seafood from a cart, got more and more carts, expanded into a restaurant, and now sells seafood across all Germany.  The two cool locations on Sylt (his home base, and is often at the restaurants) are in the towns Wenningstedt and List. (He even has stands in the Munich airport and main train station - both are always crowded and known for quality). 

Gosch restaurant in ListGosch restaurant in Wenningstedt