McLays in Europe

Two days of resting around the house at Schöfweg was needed following the busy schedules since departing Alice Springs. Then we decided that we needed to hire a car to enable us to see the sights and then jouney on to our next destination at Fishbachau closer to Munich. We planned to go via bus to Passau but the bus did not arrive so we instead hailed a cab to Deggendorf and experienced our first real problem of conversing with a cab driver who thought we were from another planet. However, with the use of our German-English Dictionary we managed to find Europecar and a great little sporty Nissan. Ian had his first expereince with a left hand drive vehicle and managed to get it back to Schöfweg without incident. The next day was our first day of rain and we needed to buy some coats and strong shoes to keep us warm and dry. We travelled to Tittling to see an outdoor Museum collection of very old buildings which had provisions for animals to live under the main roof and huge stoves as the central core of the building for heating, cooking. This museum set the scene of the past Bavaria and the hardships that people encountered in their daily lives.

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.

We travelled by train to Prague accompanied by an American who had been delayed by the train strike. There was a marked difference in the train stations between the two countries with the one in Dresden being brand new and Prague looking like it needed a major upgrade. The country side along the way was beautiful with colourful autumn leaves. In the Czech Republic many people appear to live in government high rise accomodation. We also noted a lot of small plots along the way with small buildings which we found out later to be a source of leisure activity where people grow vegetables and fill in some spare time. We jumped the taxi cue when the driver refused to take the man ahead of us - not sure why but maybe he thought he could make more out of us! On arrival our room which we had booked on the internet day prior excelled our expectations and was situated at the base of Prague Castle in a beautiful old street. Our apartment, although close to Castle was quite a distance from CBD where all tours seemed to start from. As a result we did a lot of walking and got lost every time as the streets of Prague have no regular pattern. We went on a 5 hour walking tour of significant buildings followed by an evening pub tour. Next day we went on a bus tour to Terezin which was a transfer station for Jews to concentration camps. Although no one was gassed there, over 30,000 people died there due to hunger and disease. We also visited the crematorium built to cope with the bodies and a museum which was used to house Jewish children which was very moving. Had a good chat to an English couple on the tour and introduced ourselves to a man when we saw Geelong Harley Davidson on the back of his jumper. He turned out to be from Bacchus Marsh.

Ian's view: Prague was a stand out highlight of the trip so far, this regal city showed so much tourism potential given its incredible historical background. The pub tour was excellent, with a balanced mixture of American, Canadian, English, Czech, Greece, German and of course Australian. We visited 4 pubs, none of which a tourist would find by themselves. The leader of the tour Ivan, interrogated each of our nationalities and over the night revealed drinking secrets from each respective country. Australia was noted for the export of Fosters, which of course no one in Australia drinks and the drinking proweress of our former Prime Minister Bob Hawke. The visit to Terezin is one everyone should do to face the horrific realities of our past. Imagine 600 people in one small room with only 2 toilets!
I fully intend to return to Prague.

After a 15 hour flight we arrived in Frankfurt airport for a short stop before a connecting flight to Dresden. The airport is amazing - it was a 10-15 minute ride in a bus to meet the connecting flight along rows and rows of airplanes. We met 2 boys from Bendigo at the information desk at Dresden airport! Luckily we were able to obtain train tickets right through to our first exchange house in Freital as we would have never been able to organise connecting trains due to the fact we could not read the train timetable! Finding a bus from the train station to the house was as equally difficult but we engaged the assistance of a local lady who guided us in the right direction. We were thrilled when we finally arrived at Katja and Chris's apartment. It was small, split level but very modern and quaint. Ian opened a window and it frightened him by falling over at the top. Closer inspection found that all windows and doors incline due to weather conditions encountered. We then tried to stay up for as long as we could to beat jet lag but only made it until 3.30 pm and on going to bed found a double bed with single doonas (which appears to be normal for Europe) and slept for around 16 hours.
Whilst in Dresden we were kept busy negotiating our way on public transport each day but had some good offers of assistance from locals and even managed to travel into the city in the midst of a train strike which we were completely unaware of! On 3 October which is German Unification Day holiday, we went on a 'red bus tour' of local highlights which allowed you to get on and off as you required and had English translation via ear phones. We were lucky at one stop to be the only two English speaking tourists and had our own guide - otherwise German speakers were about 30 to a guide. We were impressed that so many German people are seeing Dresden for the first time following the reunification. There is still a lot of rebuilding happening as Dresden was flattened at the end of WWII and they are rebuilding as they can afford. One cathedral, Frauenkirche which survived the bombing but collapsed days later due to the heat of the resulting fires, has recently been finished and is absolutely spectacular. Other highlights included the Zwinger built by Emperor Augustus the Strong in early 1700's. He is famous for his 30 mistresses and 365 children and at one stage was Emperor of Rome. There was also a piece of tiled wall called Frurstenzug portraying all of the emperors of Saxony which survived the bombings and is very beautiful.
Other highlights included a visit to the National Hygiene Museum (all about health - including nutrition!), a saxony meal of suckling pig, sauerkraut and potato dumplings and of course beer tasting.
We were blessed with sunny, dry conditions and Alison commented on the smell of fermented apples which perhaps accompanies the autumn leaves and apples falling from the trees.

Ian's view: Dresden is an architectural dream place, enhanced by the rebuilding program after the devastation of WWII. Climbing to the top of the Cathedral was truely a highlight however taking off in the wrong direction to return home was not but was validated by the discovery of 'Ayers Rock Pub' in Downtown Dresden. We presented ourselves as Territorians to an all German bar crew and did not manage to impress them at all!
The Cat's scarf managed to find an Aussie from Brisbane in the Dresden crowd who came up and said I must be very proud.

Busy morning getting ready to leave. Ian was not feeling too good after celebrating Cats winning the Grandfinal. We left Alice Springs at around lunch time and flew to Singapore via Darwin. It was around 8 pm when we got to Royal Plaza on Scotts right in the city centre. Lovely grand hotel with candles burning in the foyer. Ian was in holiday mode and tipped the bell boy $10 (found out later that it is not usual to tip in Singapore!) Went for a walk along Orchard Road and had tea at a pizza bar. Beers were $15. Not sure if it was the price or the hangover that limited the number of beers taken to one. Very interesting mix of cultures. We saw moslem families sitting on the same seats as prostitutes.
Next morning we took cab to large Indian shopping centre/market called Musafa to get a couple of things we needed for our trip. Got roped in by a fortune teller in a turban who correctly told us we had 3 children - 2 boys and a girl. We then had to pay him some money for their good health and fortune.
After lunch we met up with Shiling, a student dietitian who had done a placement earlier in the year in Alice Springs. She was our tour guide for the rest of the day. She took us via cable car to Sentosa Island where we visited an information display 'Images of Singapore' which details how Singapore was established with 4 cultural heritages - Chinese, Malay, Indian and European. We then went up a lookout tower for a panoramic view of Singapore. Interestingly on request to see Raffles, Shiling assumed we wanted to see the new one as it is the highest building in Singapore but we of course wanted to see the old one! We then met up with Shiling´s boyfriend Derek who works for their Institute of Sport and they introduced us to some cuisine from their country. We then took taxi to airport and left around 11 pm for the long flight to Frankfurt with Luftansa.

Ian´s view: Singapore an impressive multicultural city. It reminded me of my beloved Darwin but so much bigger and busier with similar climate.