Bavaria

Hallo from Berlin!

Here’s what I’ve been up to since Rome

Monday 4/25 to Tuesday: Venice. Walk around, island hop

Wed to Fri: Vienna: Imperial palance, watch 2 operas (Magic Flute by Mozart and Nabucco by Verdi)

Sat to Sun: Fussen: Neuschwanstein Castle, Munich: BMW museum

Jeff was with me up until Fussen, so I've asked him to guest write for Venice and Vienna

Fussen: fairytale land of Castles

The southern part of Bavaria is famous for its "fairy tale" scenery and castles.

The farmland here reminds of Michigan, which isn't surprising given the large number of Bavarian immigrants who came to Michigan in the 1800s.

But Michigan does not have big mountains, or this:

There are a ton of tourists

Here, there were more Japanese/Chinese tourists than I ever seen. I don’t ever see this many East Asian tourists in the U.S. That maybe a combination of: me not being in touristy areas in the U.S., East Asia is close to Europe, the rise of the upper class in China.

But like Venice, a little walk off the beaten path is all it takes to find magic

Munchen

A last minute email led me to a detour in Munchen. Luckily with my railpass, it didn’t cost a penny!

I visited Emmmanuel Leroy, a friend from Polytechnique, who's working at BMW for the summer.

Whereas Neuschwanstein castle is almost artificially fairy-tale looking, Munich's olympic park looks too futuristic to be real!

I also met the most dedicated street musician I've ever seen *and I did street musicians for UOCD)

I found him in the shopping district, on rainy day, under an overhang, afterhours.

At first I thought he was being hired byt he store!  [m,But nope, this is his very own Yamaha grand pinao, which he hauled in that very day and was hauling back out at 10pm

Wow. Emmanuel's theory: there are too many great pianists in Germany, and not enough concert halls!