Sunday 17 June 2007

Into Bavaria

Two days ago I crossed a major geographical landmark: the Danube. I was already impressed by its size though in this part of Germany it is still relatively narrow, yet to be swollen by the Lech, Isar, Inn and several other rivers. Anyway, crossing the great European river marked my entrance into Bavaria and the land of onion domed towers and churches.
If my feet - and especially my little toe - have been pained by walking twenty miles (thirty kilometres) a day, I have been rewarded in heritage terms. For one day last week I followed the walking path of the German Limes: the Roman frontier that span the hilly hinterland between the Rhine and the Danube. I saw remains of several Roman watchtowers and had my first close encounter with a tick, which I managed to pick off before it started to bite.
The city of Gunzburg's Frauenkirche is a splender-house of Baroque exurberance. I am now in Augsburg, resting my toe and hoping that it recovers so I can make it to Munich.
The people are very kind here. As in the rest of Southern Germany they are a mixture of Protestant and Catholic, and many villages have two churches side by side to accomodate the two faiths. The food is getting more Italian, with various pasts based Swabian dishes on the menu. Finally, the German accent is softer and reminds me of Irish English!
Hopefully photos and another blog from Munich...

2 comments:

Matthias said...

Hallo Paul,

Gut zu hören, dass Du so gut voran kommst! Und vor allem, dass Dir Deutschland so gut gefällt!

Sorry for not being in touch earlier - I only now managed to find out how to leave a comment....

Thesis still not handed it, but nearly there (yep, I spend to much time reading your reports, hehehe....).

Hope everything is fine fine with you (esp. your toe...?).
Viele Spaß noch in Germany,
Alles Gute,

Mxx

Paul Gardner said...

Hi Matthias

Bavarians are very friendly!

I'm staying this night with a family in a farm near Rott. They have made me a drink called a Erdbeer Limes.

Toe is a little better but still a long way to go. It's cool seeing the Alps rise up in front of me as approach Salzburg.

Good luck with finishing your thesis. You're nearly there!

Alles Gute

Paul x