United Airlines got extensive and extremely bad press today, for the brutal way they treated a passenger on a Chicago to Louisville flight on Sunday. The passenger was a doctor that had already boarded, and refused to give up his seat voluntarily (for a United Airlines employee); the doctor said he had patients to see the next morning.
The Chicago Airport Police came on board, and soon violently dragged him off the airplane. The passenger suffered injuries to his face in the process. The other passengers were just shocked. Some had recorded it and posted the incident on Facebook and Twitter. Adding insult to injury, the United Airlines CEO issued a cold-blooded ‘apology’ on Monday : “I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers”. Right. As a Twitter user noted : United made a business decision that that doctor’s humanity was worth less than $800. Make them pay for that. Said another tweet : ‘After what your goons did to a passenger on #flight3411, I will never fly with United again. There is NO excuse’.
(Tue 4/11/2017): from Thatcher A. Stone writing on CNN.com: Flying for vacation travel or work on a modern US carrier’s plane can be enjoyable and pleasant. Just do what you are told by the crew. And, to fulfill their part of the bargain, airlines need to follow the rules and treat passengers who get bumped fairly.
If United had taken a senior gate agent and brought him onto the airplane and said to the doctor, “here is our written policy about denied boarding. I know you are in a seat, but you are mistaken that we can’t remove you. But guess what? You will get refunded whatever you paid if we can get you to your destination within an hour and if it takes longer you could get up to 400 percent.”
He would likely have gotten up and gotten off the plane in a second.
I love to unpack my bags and dig out all the souvenirs, wedged in between my clothes. On this trip, I just bought a few small things, resisted buying a Swiss watch or another Swiss army knife (I al-ready have one, anyway). I eyed a beautiful mechanical music box called ‘1865’ made by Reuge, but at some US$3,000 it was out of the question.
The St Bernard with the keg is hand-carved from sustainable Swiss limewood. It was made in the village of Brienz that has a long wood-carving tradition.
The coffee mug is from Swiss porcelain manufacturer Langenthal, named after the town of Langenthal where its factory was established in 1906.
I also scanned in one of my train tickets, just to see what the turquoise and white patterned background would look like, enlarged : looks interesting, right? I think the pattern would look great for bathroom tiles!
I’m home! From Frankfurt we made a short stop at Keflavik airport after 3 hrs, then it was another 7½ hrs to get to Seattle.
This is the town of Selfoss on the banks of the Ölfusá river in the south of Iceland, as seen from my window seat during our approach in from Frankfurt. The Icelandic Ring Road No 1 runs through the town as well.The view as we are boarding the Boeing 767-300 for the flight from Keflavik airport to Seattle.
I made it to Frankfurt airport by train and will soon board my Icelandair flight to Seattle, with a stop in Reykjavik. I took the train from Zürich to Frankfurt airport. My travel plan for Zürich Hbf > Frankfurt Airport called for a change of trains at Mannheim. The second train departure, to take me from Mannheim to Frankfurt airport, was canceled due to maintenance issues, though. ‘I know what your question is already’, said the conductor as I called him over to ask what my options were. It turned out there was another train just 4 minutes behind us, which is the one that I got onto, to get me to Frankfurt airport.
Here’s our sleek Deutsche Bahn ICE (Intercity Express) train at Zürich main station. The train driver is having a word with the conductor (I think that’s the conductor). He will blow a sharp whistle to say ‘All Aboard!’ two minutes before the departure time. It is 6 am in the morning, so there are not many people around, but the train filled up at the stops along the way to Mannheim. (I took a second train from Mannheim to Frankfurt airport).This is the arrival hall for trains that stop at the Frankfurt Flughafen (airport) station.
Well, I made it to Bern after all, on my last day. My visit really was too short to check into any of the museums – including Einstein’s old house. (Reviewers on-line rate it so-so, though). Also, my stop at the Swiss Mint was disappointing : there is no store on site; they only have an on-line store. But hey – now I know what the city looks like up close, and what to come back for at another time!
Here’s the route to Bern. The city does not have a lake on its doorstep, but the Aare river flows in a wide loop around the old city of Bern.We arrived on Platform 5 at 12.30 pm. The train is headed for Geneva. It’s darker here (than on other stations) because of the low ceilings.The main station facade is steel and glass : very nice. The connecting street car and bus lines are at designated ‘Platforms’ A through at least X, and these are on the street corners outside the station building. It took me a little time to realize that !
Just a cute sparrow on one of the old city’s fountains. (There are house sparrows and Old World sparrows and others. This fellow must be an Old World sparrow! since Bern is part of the Old World).Here’s a view of the Aare river from the biggest bridge across it, the one for Kirchenfeldstrasse. The city wall on the left is very old, and part of Bern that had been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was founded in 1191, and still has a lot of medieval architecture.This is the view on top of the bridge on Kirchenfeldstrasse. The building straight ahead with the red roof is a casino. The street cars (trams) all look like the one in the picture .. but some routes are covered by buses, not street cars.
Here is the Swiss Parliament Building, called the Bundeshaus. Its construction was completed in 1902.This is the beautiful main entrance of the Bernisches Historisches Museum. I did not go inside. Next time.This is a high school, the Gymnasium Kirchenfeld, built in 1926 in neo-classic style. (Man. My high school did not look like this. I hope the kids are on a break, and that they will pay attention when they go back inside!).
I wanted to just post these two pictures of the beautiful Church of St. Leodegar in Lucerne. It was just after 6 o’clock when I took the pictures.
[From Wikipedia]. The church is the most important church, and a landmark in the city of Lucerne. It was built in parts from 1633 to 1639 on the foundation of the Roman basilica which had burnt in 1633. This church was one of the few built north of the Alps during the Thirty Years War and one of the largest and art history rich churches of the German late renaissance period.
My time in Switzerland is running out, and this morning I thought : you cannot leave here and not see a little of the Swiss Alps!
What to do? Luckily, I ran into a great tip on-line, as for how to go about it when in Zurich, to get to the mountains (and that’s what I did) –
1. Take the train from Zürich to Arth-Goldau.
2. Take the Mt Rigi cogwheel train* up the mountain to the top.
3. Take in the scenery (and of course: take pictures).
4. Take the cogwheel train down to Vitznau.
5. Take a boat to Lucerne.
6. Walk around in Altstadt Lucerne.
7. Take the train back to Zürich.
*From the website : ‘No other mountain railway in the Alps has a longer history than this one. The Vitznau – Rigi Kulm cogwheel railway opened in 1871, making it Europe’s first mountain railway. The journey was, and still is, an experience in itself’.
Here’s a great map that explains the route. This morning, the train from Züurich went to Zug (top left), and then on to Goldau (top right). Then I walked to the Rigi cogwheel rail network, and went Kräbel-Rigi Klösterli-Rigi Staffel- Rigi Kulm. On the way down, we went to Vitznau, to take the boat to Lucerne. (It made several shoreline stops along the way there). The Swiss Railway sells all of this in one combined ticket, completed with the little boat to indicate which part is on water! (Price : S.Fr. 131, about US$130).Here’s the scene in Goldau, the little town at the foot of the mountain where one takes the Rigi cogwheel train.This the Rigi Kulm at the top of the mountain. It’s quite an engineering feat, to carve out a track that steep, and build an electrified mountainside railway system to drive a set of train cars up some 1,000 m to the top (3,000 ft). It’s a little difficult to see in this picture, but there is a single geared track line in between the two regular, smooth tracks, that cogwheel gears on the train cars fit into.The last part is a 5 minute walk to the very top where the antenna tower is. This cute sign indicates that there is a steep way for the young ones (young’uns), and an easier way for the older folks! (The people in the picture are taking the steep route. It’s easy! It’s paved, and almost all the snow has melted. The ski season ended March 12).Here’s Swisscom’s radio and TV antenna at the top of the mountain. It’s 96 m (314 ft) high, and the bottom part of the antenna pole is 3.6 m (11.8 ft) in diameter. The tower was built in two years and started operating in 1998.Here’s Zugsee (Lake Zug). The town on the left of the picture is Zug.A more dramatic view, looking out east from Zug. I will update this text to point out what those peaks at the top right are! Each one has a name. (I have to match my picture with a profile on one of the display boards!).Our passenger ferry boat’s name was Gotthard (the name of the town at the start of the Gotthard Base Tunnel). We have just stepped off the boat after its arrival at the quayside in Lucerne.
I did make it out to Basel today, but stayed only for four hours or so, using the street cars to get around to where I wanted to go. Basel is a stone’s throw away from Germany, and from France. I heard a lot of French on the street cars.
Here’s the route to Basel, from Oerlikon station in the north of Zurich. That’s the train on the inset picture, and the platform sign says we depart at 10.01 am for the Swiss Federal Railway Station at Basel; the 1’s and 2’s indicate the cars with 1st class & 2nd class seating, and which sections on the platform they will stop at. The train only stops for a minute or two! Do NOT be a whole 5 minutes away from where you need to be, when that train comes in and stops!Here’s the main entrance of Basel SBB railway station. It has operated since 1854 but was rebuilt in 1860 and again in 1907, with another major upgrade in 2003.This is Marktplatz with its eye-catching red Town Hall (Rathaus).The little plaza inside the the town hall. The inscription in the middle at the bottom reads ‘Freiheit is über silver und gold’ – (The value of) Freedom is more than that of silver and gold.The Les Trios Rois (The Three Kings) hotel with the symbol of basel on the left : a black crosier (a hooked staff carried by a bishop as a symbol of pastoral office).Here’s the mighty Rhine River that flows through Basel. I am standing on the Mittlere Brücke (Middle Bridge). The south is to my left and north is to my right. Germany is just a few miles away to the north. Also, as I’m looking west, and can probably see some of France in the distance.This is Spalenvorstadt (Spalen suburb) with Spalentor (the Gate of Spalen) at the end of the street. The gate was part of the ancient city walls of Basel, dating back to the 1400s.Here’s Spalentor from the other side.Here’s another ancient city gate; this one is called The Gate of Saint Alban. The gate was originally constricted in 1230, but mostly destroyed by an earthquake in 1356. Reconstruction was completed in 1374. The gate even survived a planned demolition 1869.
These buildings line Barfüsserplatz. I took the picture from the steps of the Barfüsserkirche (Barfüsser church).The Elisabethenkirche (church) was built from 1857–1864, and is the best known neo- Gothic building in Switzerland (Source: Wikipedia).
I changed hotels today (to the cheaper Zürich North Marriott Courtyard). I thought I might fly to one more city, maybe two, but flying costs money, effort and time. So I decided I will stay put in Zürich until I go home to Seattle on Wednesday. I do plan to make day trips by train to Basel or Bern, or both.
Here’s the weather map for today (from the Tages-Anzeiger, Swiss daily national newspaper published in Zürich). Temperatures are in °C (high 40s/ low 50s °F). These maps are a good way to brush up on one’s geography of where the cities are! It tells me Basel and Bern are within reach by an hour or two on the train. Gotthard (with its new base-tunnel for trains) and Logano in the south, alas, are a little too far – more than two hours one way. So are Geneva and St Moritz. St Moritz, famous for its ski slopes, made me look up the words to ‘Where do you go to (My lovely)?’ by British singer-songwriter Peter Sarstedt. I see Sarstedt passed away in January, age 75.There was light rain all day, and into the evening. This is Bahnhof Oerlikon, close to my new hotel in Zurich North. The station was remodeled in 2016. The neon yellow panels lit up by the roof lights are stand out nicely in the dark of night, especially for travelers like me, that are new to the area and the station.
Words for Where do you go to (My lovely)? -as recorded by Peter Sarstedt, 1969
You talk like Marlene Dietrich
And you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire
Your clothes are all made by Balmain
And there’s diamonds and pearls in your hair, yes there are
You live in a fancy apartment
Off the Boulevard St. Michel
Where you keep your Rolling Stones records
And a friend of Sacha Distel, yes you do
You go to the embassy parties
Where you talk in Russian and Greek
And the young men who move in your circles
They hang on every word you speak, yes they do
But where do you go to my lovely
When you’re alone in your bed?
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes I do
I’ve seen all your qualifications
You got from the Sorbonne
And the painting you stole from Picasso
Your loveliness goes on and on, yes it does
When you go on your summer vacation
You go to Juan-les-Pins
With your carefully designed topless swimsuit
You get an even suntan on your back, and on your legs
And when the snow falls you’re found in St. Moritz
With the others of the jet set
And you sip your Napoleon brandy
But you never get your lips wet, no you don’t
But where do you go to my lovely
When you’re alone in your bed?
Won’t you tell me the thoughts that surround you?
I want to look inside your head, yes I do
You’re in between twenty and thirty
That’s a very desirable age
Your body is firm and inviting
But you live on a glittering stage, yes you do, yes you do
Your name is heard in high places
You know the Aga Khan
He sent you a race horse for Christmas
And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh, ha-ha-ha
They say that when you get married
It’ll be to a millionaire
But they don’t realize where you came from
And I wonder if they really care, or give a damn
But where do you go to my lovely
When you’re alone in your bed?
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes I do
I remember the back streets of Naples:
Two children begging in rags
Both touched with a burning ambition
To shake off their lowly-born tags, they tried
So look into my face, Marie-Claire
And remember just who you are
Then go and forget me forever
But I know you still bear the scar, deep inside
I know where you go to my lovely
When you’re alone in your bed
I know the thoughts that surround you
Cause I can look inside your head
I did my short round cruise on Zürichsee* today. It was nice enough .. no fairy-tale castles to behold from the lake, just the Lindt & Sprüngli Chocolate Factory. The other highlight of my day (believe it or not, and don’t laugh) was my visit to the Zürich main post office. I had to stop myself from buying one each of all the beautiful stamps they had for sale.
*German for Lake Zürich – and meer is actually sea! Here is a little table.
German
English
Zürichsee
Lake Zurich
Rotes Meer
Red Sea
Atlantischer Ozean
Atlantic Ocean
Golf von Mexiko
Gulf of Mexico
Here’s our 300-person passenger ferry Uetliberg, named for a mountain near Zürich. The vessel is 42m (138 ft) long and 7 m (23 ft) wide and has been in service since 1999.The inset shows our 1h 40 min circular trip at the top of the Lake. Some really nice houses are visible from the water. It was a beautiful day, but it’s still very early in the season so only a few paddleboarders, kayakers and sailboats were around.I hopped off at the last stop in the boat cruise, at Willishofen, where I found this giant Lindt Milk Chocolate Gold Bunny at a gas station with a superette. Stores have tiny, regular and giant 1 kg Lindt chocolate bunnies for sale (the 1 kg ones go for SFr. 50 / US$50).Here’s the Zurich Main Post Office building on Kasernenstrasse 97 .... with fine old mosaic tiles on the bottom entrances still intact. But take a look at the blue and red letters visible in the lobby inside. Google has set up shop in the building as well.Here’s my little set of Swiss stamps I bought – just for fun. The bicycle stamps celebrate the 200 year anniversary of the invention of the bicycle (in 1817 by the German Baron Karl von Drais). The flower and butterfly stamps feature a fine laser-cut perforation so that the exact shapes can stay intact. In the middle is a set of three stamps that gives a nod to the Gotthard Base Tunnel for which construction was completed in 2016.This is just a cute jewelry store window display, for jewelry for kids (note that mom or dad would have to be prepared to splurge several hundred SFr.). The display has it all though : castle, princess in distress, knight in shiny armor and the dragon (the dragon looks a little sad – aw).
The Zürchers1 (and I) have had sunny, spring-y weather since Tuesday (but I see our luck is going to run out on Saturday, with a cold front that will bring rain as well). I plan to go on a quicky boat cruise on Lake Zürich tomorrow. Today I took a break from walking all over the city, and – among other things – took care of some laundry at a laundromat on the northern outskirts of the city. The streets are quiet there and it was nice to get away from the all the people in Old Town. (It’s actually not too crowded just yet. I’m sure once summer is here, there will be five times more people).
1A person from Zürich/ that lives in Zürich
Here’s my post-card picture of the Zurich skyline from Wednesday night. This is looking north while on the bridge at Burkliplatz.Newsboard inside Zurich Main Station. It’s 6.40 pm and the temperature outside is still a decent 12°C/ 54°F, down from a high of 18°C/ 64°F (Zurich is in the north on the map).Also at Zurich Main Station, this worker made some heads turn while he was wheeling around this display case marionette.
I finally studied my Zurich street car (tram) map properly – so that I did not have to log 7 miles of walking again on Wednesday! The day’s ‘mission’ also was to get a full set of Swiss Franc coins (I love shiny coins), and just to track down a few other places I could not get to on Tuesday.
This is a little square called Paradeplatz. The building on the left is filled with Credit Suisse offices, and the building on the right has a Hermes store at the ground floor, and a beautiful golden balcony rail at the top.Here’s the entrance to the Swiss National Bank building. They did not sell Swiss coin sets (and the Swiss Mint is in Bern), but the teller was nice enough to change my 20 Franc note into relatively new coins of each denomination.Here’s a few Swiss Franc banknotes and the Swiss Franc coins. The Swiss Franc (SFr.) is just about on par with the US dollar, in value. There is also a SFr. 200 and SFr. 1,000 note. (Would love to get my grubby paws on a stash of SFr. 1,000s to admire! – but my last name is not Rockefeller). The SFr. 50 bill is new, the first of the 9th series of Swiss notes, and said to be the world’s most secure note, with 18 security features. There is no Swiss ‘penny’. (Should the US Federal Reserve take notes? Do away with the US penny, and maybe with the US dollar note as well?).There seems to be a chocolate store on every block in the city of Zurich. This one sells a dozen different kinds of ‘schokolade spröde’ (chocolate sheets). The light brown one in the middle has almonds in.Can life get possibly any sweeter than this little tray of chocolate, custard and jam cookies? This is from the fancy Jelmoli department store on Bahnhofstrasse.The museum for the day that I wanted to go to was the Museum für Gestaltung (Museum of Design), but it unfortunately it was closed for renovation until May. These posters are from the little park across from the Museum.All the street cars (trams) I have seen here in Zurich look like these ones .. two to four cars are connected, and they come by every 10 minutes. Motor cars seem to stay mostly out of the tram lanes, but on occasion they do use it.
Drink your Züri water! This little notice is from my hotel bathroom to say the tap water is absolutely fine to drink.The Landsmuseum (National Museum) is right across the main train station. It is not very big, but the exhibits it has, are nicely presented. The main exhibit right now is of the 1917 Russian Revolution, and the connection between Zürich and Russia. (From Wikipedia : There was significant emigration of Swiss people to the Russian Empire from the late 17th to the late 19th century. Also, Zürich played host to both Lenin and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn).
Zürich has been around for a long, long time : when the Romans founded it in 15 BC, they called it Turicum. I can tell the German they speak here is different from Germany’s (not that I understand a whole lot of it!). The city has a reputation for its quality of life, but man! you’d better have a good job or have money to spend. My $4 Seattle Starbucks latte (admittedly expensive already) goes for $6.50 here, and I paid $25 for a pretty modest (but very nice) lunch today at seafood franchise Noordsee. The same lunch cost $16 in Germany.
Here’s the quick orientation of Zurich I gave myself, when I started out today. The Marriott hotel (at the top) is at the confluence of the Limmat and Sihl rivers. The blue at the bottom is Lake Zurich. The old town sits all around the Limmat river (the one on the right).The main entrance to the Zürich Hauptbahnhof (main station). It’s early evening and lots of commuters are leaving the station to go home. The blue-and-white flags beside the Swiss flag on the right, are the flags of the City of Zürich.Zürich Altstadt (Old Town) has lots of crooked and cobbled streets, and two and three storey buildings, many of which date back to the 1500s or 1600s. (Renovated many times, I’m sure, though).‘Hier wohnte Johannes Caspar Lavater 1778-1784’ says the words in the panel. I saw several other buildings with names and dates on them.‘Haus Zur Glocke (House of the Bell) dates back to 1357, then owned by bell maker Konad Glogger. The neo-Renaissance facade was added in 1881 architect Adolf Brunner. Finally, in 1925 the art deco ceramic cladding on the ground floor for the cafe-restaurant was added.There are many, many luxury shops and expensive watch stores on Bahnhofstrasse, and they get ever more upmarket the closer one gets to Lake Zurich. Many of the street names here go by ‘gasse’ (alley) and not ‘strasse’ (street). I guess that is correct, given how narrow they are!The Grossmünster (‘great minister’) as seen from the Münsterbrücke (Münster bridge) over the Limmat river. It is a Romanesque-style Protestant church. Construction of the present structure commenced around 1100 and it was inaugurated around 1220.Here’s a panoramic view of Münsterhof square with some of the guild houses (or halls). These are buildings historically used by guilds for meetings and other purposes. Today many of them have been turned into restaurants on the ground floor and office space upstairs.Here’s Lake Zürich by Bellevue platz as the sun set tonight. The swans are squabbling over a little tidbit in the water.
My time in Munich was up on Monday morning. I checked out of my comfy Marriott hotel and made my way to the München Hauptbahnhof once more, same as Sunday, but this time to catch a EuroCity train to Zurich. The train went west and around Lake Constance, making stops at some small train stations with charmingly short names, such as Elgg and Wil. At one station I saw a guy roll himself a cigarette from loose tobacco (have not seen that in a very long time), and at another, a businessman stepped on board using a strange, square-shaped phone : turned out to be a Blackberry Passport.
I love the Süddeutsche Zeitung (even though I understand only every third word ! LOL). This morning’s edition featured Roger Federer on the front page. ‘Triumph and Angst’ : Roger Federer about his secrets for success – how he reconciles the pinnacle of sport and a family rich in children’.Here’s the 4h 34m train ride’s route to Zurich. Will we go north? or will we go south? around Lake Constance, I wondered. (South). There are several stops along the way, and at some stations cars are added or disconnected. No stop at the Swiss border, though – just an announcement ‘Willkommen in der Schweiz/ Welcome to Switzerland’.Here’s a glimpse of Lake Constance, this at the town of Lindau on the eastern edge of the lake.And just a cool barnhouse of sorts (?) shortly after we crossed the Swiss border. I love the giant roof and its overhang, and the siding tiles on the front.This is at Zurich Hauptbahnhof, and we had just disembarked from our train. (Yes, not a very sleek-looking engine car, but hey, it did its job very well for 4 1/2 hours). The upper train station has an older industrial look, but sits on top of a sprawling and modern underground shopping mall.
Here’s the route: Munich main station to Salzburg main station. It’s pretty flat most of the way, and Rosenheim is the biggest town on the way there. The railroad also passes close by a few lakes.
I took the train to Salzburg (just over the border in Austria, birthplace of Mozart*) today. It’s just under two hours one way. I was somewhat surprised not to find U-bahns, nor trams, in Salzburg at my arrival. From the main station, the way to get around is by bus. (The old town is nearby, and a 15 minute walk).
*I did stop at Mozart’s house. It’s now a museum, of course. Classical music barbarian that I am, and pressed for time, I did not go inside, though.
Munich’s Hauptbahnhof (main station) has a low-key main entrance. Smoking is not allowed inside the train station, so this is where all the smokers are!Here’s the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof (main station) platforms. The train station departure hall roof structure were refurbished in 2014.The old entrance to the Salzburg hauptbahnhof. (Hmm. I’m really not sure what the purpose of the gray column is that obstructs the view of the front entrance, and if it really needed to be put right there!).Here’s the Parish Church St. Andrä with its stately and square bell towers at Mirabell Platz in Salzburg old town. This is not the original church, though. The original church was rebuilt and consecrated in 1898. Most of that church was destroyed in WW2 and reconstructed again by 1949. Even after that, in the late 60s/ 1970 the towers were shortened and covered with flat pyramid-shaped roofs to make it fit better into the Salzburg cityscape !This is the Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Church of the Holy Trinity, a Roman Catholic Church), on Makartplatz. It opened in 1702. The big picture is mine, but it was impossible to get a good far-away picture, so I pasted one in on the bottom right that I found on-line.This elaborate metal art sign belongs to the Gablerbräu Restaurant & Beer Inn old city Salzburg.Just a block of apartments off Schallmooser Hauptstrasse (I wandered off in an uncharted non-tourist direction). The building’s straight lines were a welcome relief from the old Gothic and Renaissance buildings in old town.Oh wow! I stumbled on an an art museum, I thought – this is on Schallmooser hauptstrasse. But no, it is an ärtztzentum, meaning a medical (doctors’) center.
Marienplatz has been Munich’s main square since 1158 (whoah). This is the bell tower with the Glockenspiel which is part of the Neues Rathaus (New* Town Hall) *New is relative, in this case meaning since 1874. Is is exactly 12 noon, and soon thereafter the two carousels came to life, with kings and knights and joker characters going around for a few minutes.The view of the Frauenkirche from a street coming out of Marienplatz.This is the Montgelas Memorial (artist Katrin Sander, 2005) at Promenadeplatz square in the old city. Maximilian Josef Garnerin, aka Count von Montgelas (1759–1838) was a Bavarian statesman.
It was a beautiful spring-like day on Saturday, and I spent most it on and around Marienplatz, just doing a random walk around it, with a nice lunch at German seafood franchise Nordsee, and a coffee at Starbucks.
Some men dress up in lederhose, others walk their dogs on Marienplatz .. this pooch must have gotten something caught in its long hair. There was also a ‘women against inequality’ group singing songs and making their case from a podium, with a few policemen at hand to keep an eye on the crowd.This is the view looking eastward from Marienplatz.Inside the department store Galeria Kaufhof, off Marienplatz, this T-Rex is displaying its, um – charming character.Check out these old collectable pictures, part of a large series, of the buildings of Munich in the 50s and 60s (or earlier? I’m not sure). I bought these at the Munich City Museum’s store for a few euros.
I spent much of Friday traversing the city on the U-bahn, stopping at the stations with really nice interiors to take some pictures. It still gets pretty darn cold outside as soon as the sun sets (down to freezing), so it’s good that I packed my scarf and gloves.
These giant domes bathed in purple from the walls and ceiling are at Westfriedhof station all the way north on the U1 line.Sign inside one of the train cars; one of those uniquely German words : ‘Schwarzfahren’ .. traveling without a ticket. (Yes, but will an offender even bother to read the sign?)This badge is painted on the outside of a train car on the U6 line, a symbol to the city’s historic past, but that’s all I know.Many older stations such as Sendlinger Tor (Sendlinger Gate) have older interiors.This beautiful building is right next to my hotel at Berlinerstrasse 95. It belongs to Munich RE Group, a reinsurance company based in Munich.Fridge magnets from a souvenir store. Isn’t the bearded guy in his Bavarian lederhose with his beer and his doggie just utterly charming?This is the underground inside of the large train station at Marienplatz. Five years ago when I was last here it was a big mess with all the renovation going on, and now it’s looking great.And this is a little further down at Marienplatz, by the U-bahn platforms. It’s 10 at night, so no humans around to spoil the clean lines of the tunnel !The station called Münchner Freiheit (Munich’s Freedom) on the U6 line has beautiful blue columns with LED lighting to accent the blue. The walls are yellow, and the ceiling panels a polished metal.This is the street level at Münchner Freiheit station. It is somewhat of a hub since there are connecting bus lines and tram lines here as well. (But certainly the new BMW would be the sweetest mode of transport, right?).
It rained all day long in Munich today (9°C/ 48°F), and I had to buy a cheap €10 umbrella to get around without getting too wet. (One only gets less wet with an umbrella, and completely wet, without one). The other unexpected event of the day was an unspecified problem on the U6 train line at 6 pm as I made my way back to the hotel, that stopped all northbound trains. ‘The U6 line will be closed for a long time’ announced the driver, after it had stopped at Giselastrasse station. We all got out, and ‘What do I do now?, I thought. There is no other U-bahn line that goes to the Norfriedhof station by my hotel. No tram line goes there, either. Maybe a bus did, but I had no bus map. So: taxi. No luck flagging one down by Giselastrasse station, so I took the southbound U6 train two stops down, where I knew there was a taxi stand. Yay! I was so happy to find a taxi waiting, to get off my tired feet and just sit. Ten minutes later, I paid the driver the €15 fare and hopped out at my hotel.
Here’s a wet Odeonsplatz – a large square in central Munich. That’s the Theatine Church in yellow, getting renovated, and a ‘Trump, What Now’? poster in the foreground.The entrance to the Neue Pinakothek, a museum with European works of art from the 18th and 19th century, some four blocks from Odeonsplatz. A student tour group is approaching on the left, umbrellas and all.One of the prize items in the Neue Pinakothek collection is the Van Gogh Sunflowers (Arles F456). Van Gogh painted several similar sunflower stills in two series. This one is the only one with a blue-green background. There are also a few Monets and Gustav Klimts in the museum, and a sculpture by Picasso.Here are the trains on the U3 & U6 lines by Odeonsplatz station. The train on the right is an older model, and the one on the left a brand new train.The rain finally cleared late on Thursday, just as I was getting ready to call it quits and go back to the hotel for dinner. These are the twin dome towers of Munich’s iconic Frauenkirche. The church building was completed in 1488, and the Gothic Renaissance domes in 1524.No, giant aliens have not landed in Munich! This 17 m (54 ft) tall ‘Walking Man’ artwork has actually been here on Leopoldtstrasse since 1995. It was designed by American artist Jonathan Borofsky.
My long overnight flight to London, and the short one to Munich both went smoothly. London was gray and rainy. There was a little turbulence on the flight to Munich, spilling the tea out of my cup and onto the tray (a storm in my teacup?).
This is at the gate at Cape Town airport, and we are just stepping into the Boeing 747 from British Airways. ‘One World’ says the giant letters on the fuselage (the airline alliance BA belongs to).This is at the Heathrow Airport security checkpoint as I went from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 to catch my flight to Munich. (A little unusual for the Brits to deploy cute little characters such as ‘Mr. Adventure’ on their signage, is it not?)Arrived at Munich Terminal 2, and here making my way to the baggage claim and exit. I like the blue and yellow neon that adds a little color to the grays of the airport terminal.
I made one final excursion today, to Stellenbosch. This is Victoria Street, on the University of Stellenbosch campus. The trees are already shedding their leaves even though autumn has not arrived. Stellenbosch is as dry as the Cape Town area. The blue decorations are for the annual Wordfees (‘Word Festival’), a celebration of Afrikaans with poetry readings, plays, debates and discussions.
Today my time in the Cape Town area, is up (alas). I made one final trip to Stellenbosch.
Tonight I will take British Airways to London Heathrow, and then on to Munich, to spend a few days there.
United Airlines got extensive and extremely bad press today, for the brutal way they treated a passenger on a Chicago to Louisville flight on Sunday. The passenger was a doctor that had already boarded, and refused to give up his seat voluntarily (for a United Airlines employee); the doctor said he had patients to see the next morning.
