McLays in Europe

On arrival at Plattling railway station we were met by Herwig(pronounced Hairvig). Herwig is a cousin of the house exchange owners. As Margarete and Horst are now in Australia staying in our house in Alice Springs he had kindly come over from Munich to give us the keys. He drove us to the house in Schöfweg and gave us lessons on how to live in a Bavarian house which extended to three levels with a cellar, ground level with kitchen dining and lounge and upstairs with bedrooms. This is the owners holiday house and therefore had been shut up for a number of weeks. Herwig had started up the central heating system which piped hot water to each room for heating and also showed us how to manage a further heater based on the ground floor, which was essentially a fire box within a huge brick surround that when lit sent waste up a flue but retained all heat which was dissapated throughout the bricks for heating. This used only an amazing nine logs per night! We were very keen to climb into our lovely bed that night only to awake about 3am absolutely cooking.
The next morning Herwig greeted us with a Bavarian breakfast that consisted of bread rolls, Bavarian sausage, cheese and eggs with loads of coffee. He announced he was staying with us for three days to make sure we were ok. And so we had scored a personal guide, and a very witty and knowledgable one at that. After breakfast we went by car to Passau where we boarded a five hour boat trip up the river which flows between Germany and Austria. On the banks of the river, buildings which dated back as far as 1200 years still remained in a servicable condition and one or two castles were in full view along the way. On return to Schöfweg we dined at the local Bavarian Gusthaus and enjoyed wine and food in the Bavarian culture and traditional surrounds. English was not well spoken in these parts and tales of Alice Springs greeted with blank looks.
Next day after another warm night in the Bavarian house we travelled further to Frauenau to look at the Glass Factory, Museum and retail outlets. Glass manufacture was obviously a large part of this town's background and the displays were marvellous to see. The history went back many years before Australia was even discovered and illustrated the craftmanship with the manufacture and blöwing of glass to the point where the processes were taken from craftsmen and handed on to production lines in big city factories. Another marvellous dinner with Hervig at the local Bavarian gusthaus and we felt accepted as we were now handed a card entitling us to discounts when we had attended 10 times??
Next day a further barvarian breakfast and final instructions on the Bavarian House as we waved Herwig goodbye - our first bavarian friend, and then inside to shut down the heating systems and finally have a day or two sleeping.
One thing was for sure, this is a beautiful country and the Bavarian hills and forrest so lush and interesting especially at this time of the year with the autumn leaves.
Ian´s View: The Bavarian people have a proud culture of their own and strong ties with the Austrian people. Their culture is further underlined by their national dress and proud history. The structure and development of their buildings was of special interest and design of houses to have warm large living areas and rooms above to share the heating. Interesting cellars below to escape the heat and cool a vast variety of beverages.
Reindeers running wild and signs to warn motorists was a novelty along with many winding roads that were public roads but seemed to go through peoples back yards and within inches of the corners of their homes.