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Why hello. I’ve got some time to kill on the train to Zurich so I figured I’d try to work at catching up so I can tell you about Switzerland sooner. At the moment I’m writing in Word but I’ll put this on the web when I get the chance.

I register for classes today. I can’t stress enough how amazing a web-based registration is, especially when I hear about the olden days. Plus, I can register for classes from Switzerland. Nifty.

Anyways, the weekend of March 28th and 29th saw the first JYM day-trip outing into the wide world of Bavaria. This time, the destination was Murnau, a little town south of Munich known for its ties to early Nazism and as the summer home of Kandinsky before The Great War. It was here that Kandinsky and his friends were inspired to paint the works of the now famous “Blue Rider” group and kick off a new direction in painting.

Our trip began in the late morning on Saturday with an hour or so train ride into the small town. After leaving the train our guide and JYM professor, Patrica Thill, took us on a bit of a hike/stroll through down to the Staffelsee, through the village, and out to the marshes surrounding the town. It was sunny and warm as we began our trek; the first hint of springtime. Here is a picture of the lake:


And the village:





I really enjoy how quaint and nice these little villages are. They’re not spread out and separated like a subdivision or suburb but rather are grouped together and have more of a community feel.

Here’s the house where Kandinsky and Müller and a few others spent their pre-war summers:



We then worked our way out of town for a bit to see the marshes and mountains.







It doesn’t look like it, but the ground out there was really wet and squishy; trust me, I walked out on it.

For lunch we stopped by this nice and plain little church. I had sausages and kraut. Yum.



They were having a wedding at this church after we left.

As we ate we had the chance to watch a group of kids, probably ten or fifteen of them all around 7 or 8, I would say, send a bunch of messages into the sky tied to balloons. The balloons were all yellow smiley faces. It was neat yet somewhat odd to watch; we had no idea what they were doing or for what particular reason. I tried to take a picture, but it’s not very good:



They took us into town, but by this point it was rainy and overcast and, in typical Bavarian fashion, most things had closed for the afternoon.



The main “attraction” in town was this little museum where we spent about an hour or so before heading back to Munich. We looked mainly at the artwork they had as well as an exhibit dedicated to a local writer who, before his death, was a vocal but indirect critic of rising Nazi sentiments. I would have liked to check out some of the natural history exhibits they had in the lower levels, but there just was not time.


Later that evening we went out to a Belgian French-fry restaurant in the university area. This place is noteworthy for having twenty-something different sauces for the fries, ranging from ketchup to mayonnaise to a spicy “samurai” sauce. Not bad for a quick snack and not too expensive.

The rest of the weekend was fairly low key, which was a nice rest for me having been sick for the past few days. Plus, with 4:00 church, I can sleep in on Sundays.

I think I might try and write another entry with another half an hour or so to Zurich. Bis bald!

"The artist must train not only his eye, but his soul."

I had a forced vacation today. This weekend is Carnival in the Catholic world, a holiday that a lot of people take here in Germany. I was going to be the only one in the office and that's not allowed, so I had to take the day off. I certainly didn't mind.

Before I get into today I wanted to share some pictures with you, from downtown Munich.

This is the "Rathaus" on Marienplatz, which is sort of the city center I guess. It is a central shopping area. "Rathaus" means "city hall" in German; I've always enjoyed the fact that the word "rat" is in there, even though it means something entirely different in German.


Here's another view from Marienplatz with one of the many ornate churches in the area and the statue of probably King Ludwig, which sits at the center of Marienplatz. The churches around Marienplatz are sandwiched between shops and restaurants.


For Carnival this weekend they decorated a bit:



I thought that was pretty cool.

Speaking (or writing) of Carnival, I'm going up for some Carnival-ing tomorrow in Cologne. Should be pretty interesting, I hope, and it will be my first use of the trains here in Europa. Hooray!

Back to today. There have been these signs all around advertising a Kandinsky exhibit at the Lenbachhaus and today, with the vacation time that had been so nicely given to me, I decided to go check it out.



The Lenbachhaus is this neat art museum here in Munich and they, together with the Guggenheim in New York and the Pompidou thingy in Paris, put a bunch of Kandinsky works together to show. This is the building:



Also this:


The whole thing was pretty neat I thought. Kandinsky was pretty much the father of modern painting, more or less, and it was interesting to see how his work progressed
over time, becoming more and more independent of any recognizable form, beyond geometric shapes and lines. Someone told me Kandinsky could hear color.

If you don't know much about him go check out Kandinsky on Wikipedia and/or give him a Google search. I particularly liked this one, called "Moscow I":


Notice the Bavarian couple in the middle. The color was a lot more vivid in real life.

For Carnival tomorrow I tried to find a classic Bavarian hat to wear in Cologne; apparently they find the Bavarians pretty funny. Todd Bauknecht has one. Unfortunately, my is is just a bit bigger than the average Bavarian head and I could not find any hats that fit well. We went to three or four different traditional Bavarian clothing stores and none of them had anything that fit me. Hat's have always been too small for me so I wasn't too surprised, just disappointed. I will find one before I leave in August. I might even by some Lederhosen.

A couple people told me that Bavaria is the Texas of Germany. I think that's probably true.

Later this evening I went and sang Karaoke with some of the Germans on the 5th floor. One of the guys has a program on his computer for Karaoke and we hook it up to the sound system in the communal room. There were only 5 of us there but that hasn't ever hampered the fun. They really seem to love the whole singing thing; I want to try and get them to try it for real sometime, if I can find a Karaoke bar around here.

That about wraps up a particularly image-filled little post for you. When I get back from Cologne I'll have more exciting pictures and such.

Goodnight.