No report of visiting Bavaria is complete without mentioning the food. It’s just that delicious! When I speak of Bavarian food, what I really mean is Southern German and Austrian food, because reciped have been traded in these regions for centuries, local cuisines have enriched each other and the result is a variety of cooking that is similar in all these areas.
I want to begin with the beer, because no proper Bavarian would dream of sitting down for a full meal without a beer. There are several sorts, most important Pils, Helles (similar to but not the same as lager), and Weißbier. For those who try to avoid alcohol, there is alcohol-reduced beer and alcohol-free beer these days. I prefer the latter; when we went to Oktoberfest last weekend and I ordered some there, my husband was quite shocked it was actually available! (more…)
The best part of my recent trip was a visit to Rose Island or Roseninsel, as it’s called in German, in the Starnberger See. There is only the one small islet in the whole of the rather big lake, and it’s a truly magical place.
My husband and I spent this year’s summer vacation in the south of Bavaria, on the shores of the Starnberger See. It came as a bit of a surprise, as we had other holiday plans at first, but wasn’t it a marvellous place! I fell in love with the area immediately, and am now plotting how to acquire a retirement home there in the future … Just kidding. The housing prices there are about the highest in the whole of Germany. 
My husband and I don’t own a car, and never have. We come from big cities, where public transport is very good, and now live in a small town, where you can reach everywhere you want (well, almost), by bike. So there never was the need. Occasionally we would rent a car, and if you don’t have all those extra costs for the car’s maintenance and gas, you become generous with calling a taxi. 
I love taking pictures, but I am terribly lazy about what I do with them afterwards. After all the efforts I go to to capture just the right mood/perspective/light, the results languish on my PC and (mostly) never get another look. Which is a real shame. 
This past summer, my husband and I went, for the first time, to Copenhagen. The Danes were, to a person, lovely, full of smiles, and blessed with a witty sense of style and humor. (Is there something in the water in Denmark?) On our last afternoon, we went to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. This is an amazing museum built around the personal collection of Carl Jacobsen (1842–1914), the son of the founder of the Carlsberg Breweries. 
For my trip to England later this month, I find myself in need of a coat. I got a lovely weatherproof, knee-length quilted coat which I wear on my bike all winter, but alas this will probably, hopefully be far too warm for late April in Cornwall. So now I am looking for a knee-length weatherproof coat that is thinner without being downright flimsy, perfect for spring and autumn, and those really rainy, cold summer days. 
