Britta's Thrill of Speed

Dear You, 

On Saturday I "hopped" to Berlin by train. 

Because I can. 😄 

I am now owner of a BahnCard 100 - which I think is incredibly expensive, but that depends on how often you use it. 

For one year from now on I can take every train in Germany - ICE, IC, Regio - and every public transport - bus, tram, underground, ferry etc I want without - and as often as I want to (haha: I might even consider living in a train!)- from now on, after bleeding a very big sum (in my eyes) - "without paying" anything. 

Son convinced me: such a card gives me spontaneity and freedom.(Hopefully no nervous breakdown - no: I see it as a chance to travel before I am no longer able to). 

I used it first to visit the Oktoberfest in München: my train was too late when it arrived in Nuremberg - but "One man's meat is another man's poison" - this time I got the meat: an ICE train coming from Hamburg arrived 47 minutes too late - and I could just hop in and arrived in Munich at exactly the planned time. 

(Our once oh so proud icon of punctuality has become a ruined business - so very often late, so often chaotic - since it got admission to the stock exchange). 

Thus I now could go to Berlin - and stayed in my huge flat for only 3 days (hahaha: part of that Me-time is cleaning...) - well: arrival day = half a day, leaving day: half a day... 

Why not longer? 

Well, Son had on the Tag der Deutschen Einheit (Day of German Unity) a decadal birthday, and being invited of course I wanted to join. So I returned - and enjoyed a beautiful Birthday Party. (Brain still works: I recognised a man who asked: "Do you know who I am?" "Of course", I said, "you are Niklas." I have a very good memory for faces - last time I had met him was the day they got their A levels of their grammar school... "Well, I doubted because I have less hair these days" he muttered - yes, yes, maybe - but I don't suffer from less imagination :-) 

I am highly interested if I will use my card the way I want to. In Berlin I was very happy: I could visit the exhibition on Edvard Munch - and will tell you in the next post. 

Yours Truly

Britta

The Oktoberfest - die Wies'n - in Munich 2023

 

Dear You,  

can you imagine that Yours Truly was for the first time in her life (and she is no greenhorn anymore :-) on the Oktoberfest in Munich? 

I went in the early afternoon - many people already there, but not so many drunks. 

Beautiful traditional costumes - Dirndl for the women, Lederhosen for the men (and Wow, they show off) - and of course floods of beer. 

The sun shone on a bright Bavarian blue sky - and for a moment I hesitated if I should repeat one of the joys of my childhood and youth: going around in a carrousel. The are even bigger than in the olden days - and signs generously offered "Half the price for people over 60!" What a chance! 

                                               

Fasten your seatbelt - you'll need it! 

And up you go - you'll have a beautiful view over Munich! 

Up, up !!! 

Even that might be enjoyable - what kept me back was that they fall with enormous speed back to the ground (you have to trust the labourers who build up the plant). 

And you have to trust your heart...

Well, after some consideration I preferred these hearts: 

Though there were many exciting alternatives: 

"O'zapft is!"  - that is the traditional shout for the Oktoberfest (= die Wies'n) and means: "The beer cask is tapped!" 

PS: And after two "Maß" = 2 Liter beer (and I only have to smell at the crown cap to become VERY bold) - I might change my mind and go up ... 2024 maybe... if Tom or Tasker join in, that is... 

Living Like Miss Read

 

  

  Dear You, 

imagine that you possess a crystal ball, put a record on your antique record player, hum along with the Rolling Stones "I went to see a gipsy, to have my fortune read" - and then tell me that I eventually would be part of Bavarian village life - AND enjoy it.

 

If ever there was a City plant it would be me.

 

And now I watch for the second time in my life how two with colourful ribbons decorated trees - felled the day before - are heaved up against the very blue Bavarian sky. The sun smiles benevolent, the fire brigade plays a brass song, the village people cheer - and then the  "Kär'wa" starts. 

It is a parish fair - and in such a small village as this - yes, Tom: no shop, no café, that's why Yours Truly had to buy a car, 511 inhabitants - you soon know almost everyone, and that is nice. 

Two days from afternoon till midnight you can sit on wooden benches and talk, eat cakes or Bratwurst, drink coffee or beer and feel good. The children enjoy it immensely - they sing ("I am a village child and proud of it") and rehearsed a dance, (and no: the two blonds in the photo above are not part of the triplets) and afterwards they run around while their parents are deeply engaged discussing the state of the world and drinking beer - and last year at night young men from another village came and nobbed the Kär'wa tree - revenge for the same crime the young men of this village committed the year before.  :-) 

All those joys I didn't know in a huge city. (And I very seldom drink beer). 

Yours Truly,     Britta  

                                                

If you wondered about the title:      

 

 

Royal Cauldon "Victoria", England. Est.1774

 

Dear You, 

yesterday I went to the "Graffelmarkt" in Fürth - a flea market which takes place twice a year. "Graffel" is dialect and means: "stuff" - well, actually I try to down-size my "stuff", hahaha... 

But the weather was fine, the little red train is on the rail again (after a month off absence - they try to repair the rail network of the Deutsche Bahn). 

In Fürth, hundreds of roaring football fans clogged the way out of the station - "singing" and spurred by beer, beer, beer. I thanked God that I am tall and not shy, thus I managed to part the beer stinking crowd. 

The photo below gives a wrong impression, many visitors came to the market. 

I enjoyed to visit normally private little yards behind the houses. 

When I was tired, I followed intuition, a staircase up to a little place. And there I found something! Not valuable, but soothing the heart :-) 

In Berlin I have - beside my Spode - an (incomplete) vintage coffee service by Royal Cauldon, Victoria - I found it about 20 years ago when I still lived in Hamburg. In Fürth stood a few remains, e.g. a funny butter dish, but in my long life I learned to "think before you buy" (at least most times) and so I "only" bought three egg cups and two porridge bowls. 

They will join their "family" in Berlin soon! 

Disrupted Days.

 

Dear You, 

this is no complaint. It's just real life - and revision of some expectations that did not consider all possibilities. 

The triplets had their fourth birthday - and two days later kindergarten started. 

The beautiful kindergarten is in the next little town, and my son brings them there, and my DiL brings them back after they have eaten their lunch. 

That was the plan. 

But every child, even when they are triplets, is different. 

The "twins" have more difficulties in adjusting and letting Mama go - the third, single, is the star and jumped into her group (each triplet joins another group, which I think is a very wise decision of their parents). 

But soon all adjusted well. 

But then the first got a cold, with fever - so she had to stay at home. 

The second had to be collected after one&half hour in kindergarten = familiarisation time for her, decided the Kindergärtnerin. 

So I looked after the lively but sick one, DiL went by car to fetch Number 2, then, 2 hours later, she had to fetch no.3. (I have a car but do not drive the children - I think the responsibility is too great). 

Two days later, no.1 was healthy again - and of course you guess what happened? Now no.2 was sick. 

So: DiL and I are looking forward for a "normal" day. 

Yours Truly , (a bit flustered)  

Light and Clouds

 

Dear You, 

with blogging it is as with other things: if you don't find time for it waiting makes it difficult to start anew. So much has happened in the meantime, where to start? 

When I was a child and had learned to swim I still hesitated to jump from a small jetty into the Klopeiner See in Austria. I stood and stared into the water. 

First my father tried bribery: "You'll get an ice cream when you jump!" 

But what is an ice cream (which at those times we didn't get very often) against dear little life? 

Eventually he lost patience. While I still stared he came behind me - and suddenly he gave me a push into the back - I remember that very well - though "well" is not the right word... 

Yes, I had a hard childhood 😁- but also the audacity to ask for my ice cream when I arose. 

So: now I'll plunge into blogging - without a push. 

The picture above is from the wonderful exhibition: 

               "Clouds and Light. Impressionism in the Netherlands" 

in the beautiful museum Barberini in Potsdam, which the Flying Dutchman and I visited during our stay in Berlin. 

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQwUuTzfKuY 

It was such a treat! 

Next time I'll tell you about our holiday on the isle of Sylt. 

Yours Truly, Britta 

The German Cancellor spends 40.000 Euro per year for a make-up artist - and pays that with our taxpayers money!

 Hi, I'm back again. 

We had nice weather on Sylt, then I enjoyed fine weather in Berlin, and now I am back again in Bavaria. No complaint, but 33° C every day is a bit trying - I most often stay indoors, and walk or go to the fitness studio only early in the morning or evening. 

My bloodpressure and blood sugar are low - that's why I want to get upset and that is easy: 

I read that the German chancellor Olaf Scholz uses our taxpayers' money to try to make him look better - (I think he doesn't need a hairdresser :-) 

40.000 Euro per year! Only for make-up artists!  (1 Euro = 0,85 British pounds or 0,59 Australian dollars, or 1,09 American dollars)

Just to give you the opportunity to compare: 

a woman who works 40 hours a week as a saleswoman in Germany will have at the end of a year's work "30.172 Euro" (averaged, and gross). So she will have to work a little bit longer to earn the money he spends for -- for WHAT??? How does he look without that service? 

But compared to our foreign ministress (female politicians nowadays insist on being called that) Olaf Scholz spends "peanuts". (Though one has to add 510.000 Euros for photographs of him, also paid with our money). 

She, Annalena Baerbock (yes, the one whose plane twice shed all the kerosine, each time 80 tons! into the sea!) needs 136.500 Euros per year for make-up artists and cosmetics. From us. 

One person is better looking and doesn't need so much of our money: Christian Lindner, minister of finance, he only needs 650 Euros - and that only for photos. (No, I haven't lost a few zeros). 

PS: Above you see a photograph I took in Ansbach, a beautiful little town. It is the mirrored outside of a café - a distorting or fun house mirror. 

I prefer the word distorting for what I wrote above - I cannot see the fun, sorry. 

You know that normally I do not discuss politics, and I am not envious. But this, I think, in times of high inflation, is immoral, in bad taste, and scandalous. 

More fun next time - promised!