Evening sky

Here's looking at you, kid

It took me a bit to figure out what was so fascinating that they didn't even turn around when I called their names. The neighbour's cat was sitting in the lower window on the right. It was staring back.

Subprime crisis explained

Already a classic...

Oktoberfest

It has been my first proper visit to the Oktoberfest in Munich. And it was a lovely sunny day. Actually, way too nice to spend it sitting in a tent drinking beer. So we took a walk around the funfair first. If you want to go on some the rides, do it before you visit a tent, not after.

No way am I going on this ride...


A flea circus...


The oldest ride and the only one with live music...



Eventually, they decided to go on this ride...



I felt dizzy just watching them go round and up and down and round.

Our tables had been reserved from 5:30 pm until the end. You have to be on time otherwise the tables are given to somebody else, so eventually we left the fun fair part behind and headed for our Giant Tent.

This one is for the rich and beautiful I have been told.


Our tent was right next to it, the Armbrustschuetzen tent:


On the inside, people in dirndl or leather trousers outnumbered us "foreigners" dressed in jeans.



This is what it is all about. A "Maß" (one liter) of beer, priced at 8,30€.

I took lots of pictures, but I can't post them here. Instead enjoy a little video that I took. I tried to upload it directly with blogger. After hours (no exageration) it still said "video is being processed". So I canceled and went to youtube instead.

The next day, we had some time to spare and visit the city.

It was an interesting trip. You have to see it all to believe it. But I don't think, I need to go every year.

Mountaineers

It's cold, the heating is on and Paulchen has a new favourite place:

Mr Cat loved to lie there, too. I am sure, he doesn't mind that Paulchen using it now. It is a faboulos place to sleep after all.

Filou has occupied the newly acquire Ikea IDBYN "stool", which I bought for guests to sit on:

When the boys are not just lying around, they share a hobby and that is climbing. The higher, the better.

The name of the rose

I have just come back from a business trip to the Rheingau, a beautiful wine region near Frankfurt. We spent two days in a nice conference hotel:


From my room I could see the river (and hear the highway, which kind of destroys the romantic atmosphere):

Because collegues from other countries were participating, afternoon sightseeing had been organised for day 1. The weather was bad, so we couldn't walk through the vineyards. Instead we visited Kloster Eberbach:

The Cistercian monks were excellent wine makers and of course the monestary has a vineyard:

If you recognise this room, but don't know quite where you have seen it before: it served as the monks' dormitory, but it was used as the "Skriptorium", that is the writing room, in the movie "The Name of the Rose":

It looks much bigger than it actually is due to an optical illusion. The pillars are lower at the end than at the front of the hall to repair a mistake the builders made in the lower floor.

Would you like to be called Mr or Mrs Cat's Elbow???

Wine making accessories are everywhere in this monastry:



After centuries of freezing to death (life expectancy of the monks: 30 something years) they finally installed heated and added decoration to one room in the building:

This is a "speaking" emblem: at the top is the cloister (German: Kloster), then a boar (German: Eber) and at the bottom a brook (German: Bach), so all together it is Kloster Eberbach. This meant that illiterate laymen could note down the name of the cloister.

At the end of the tour we tasted some white wines from the region. It was pitch dark, so I cannot actually tell you anything about the colour, but they tasted nice.



This part of the country is full of castles and we had dinner (seven courses, I won't have to eat for at least another week!) in one of them: Auf Schönburg