Enjoying winter - Bavarian style

Although we had very light snow flurries in Bristol all weekend, it was nothing compared with last week in Munich, where I was teaching at a workshop for a European training grant for graduate students in volcanology. From Bristol the easiest route is via Amsterdam (which always impresses me with its complete lack of topography as well as geometric canals). From there you fly south, toward the Alps. Most of the flight was above the clouds, but as we dipped down the first view was of a gray and white world. By the next evening it was snowing seriously... I must say that I enjoyed wandering through a snowy evening in the city.



Munich, like many European cities, is an interesting mixture of the new and the old. The geology department sits in the midst of several art museums (which also span from the new to old - in art as well as buildings!). It is located within an easy walk of the city center, with its towers (many of them clock-bearing), pastry shops (confiserie), designer shops, beer halls and a wonderful large ‘open’ market (with individual stands enclosed against the winter chill). I didn’t have adequate time to explore the shops, but they clearly sold everything from meat to fruit and vegetables to wonderful arrays of cheese to flowers to... not to mention the wide array of cafes. Unfortunately, I had escaped for only a limited exploration time so I did explore the market area as I might have; it was cold so I walked fast and instead indulged myself by purchasing a small paper cone of warm spiced nuts from a sidewalk vendor.



BUT the highlight of the week by far was our mid-week excursion to the foothills of the Alps, where we experienced “sledging”, Bavarian style. Now as a New Englander I grew up sledding on the hills of the local golf course, where the big excitement was aiming for the small wooden golf cart bridge across the creek. But the Bavarians take sledding to another level - now I see where the luge as a sport came from! Our sledging expedition was not to a backyard hill but to a ski area...

First some background. Bavarian sledges are lovely wooden sleds with curved front runners. The ones we rented had comfortable insulated seats... BUT no brakes, and no obvious mechanism for steering (in contrast to the good ol’ Flexible Fliers that we grew up with). So the first requirement was some on land instruction of sledging techniques  from one of the PhD students. Then we were aimed toward the chair lift (which we shared with the skiers) and sent up the hill.


From the chairlift I could gaze down on the little town we had just driven through, and enjoy misty views of the foothills. We gathered as a group at the top; the locals engaged in a snowball fight but most of us were feeling just a bit apprehensive about the downhill journey. However, one by one our group launched themselves down the toboggan-like track that wound down the hill. [Our German friends found the word ‘toboggan” highly amusing... according to Wikipedia the word originated in Canada]



As with everything, what looked a bit scary from above turned out to be a blast... but because I had brought my camera with me I pulled over part way down to take some photos. Betty (the Munich-based volcanologist who organized both the workshop and the play day) had pulled over to do the same, so the two of us enjoyed the range of sledging styles that our group exhibited - and the multi-lingual squeals and giggles - as our group negotiated their first sledging runs.


Everyone wanted a second try after the first round, so up we went again... most of us felt distinctly more in control the second time around. However there was one part of the run - that was preceded by a warning sign to slow down, although slowing down was not really an option because it was also quite icy just at the point - with large back-jolting bumps that I didn’t manage any better then second time than I had the first time. For that reason, several of us decided that two runs was probably enough... AND that gave us a bit of time to explore the village.


The village was almost too cute - that is, too stereotypically Bavarian, with elaborately decorated chalet-style buildings and Bavarian totem poles (my description, not theirs) and the village church and pastry shop (I had a cup of coffee and an almond pastry, my excuse being the calories I had burned up in the cold). The village was interesting because it was not particularly touristy (it was associated with only a small local ski area) and there appeared to be no attempt at zoning... guest houses intermixed with small businesses and cow sheds (or at least that was what the smell suggested!).

As it grew dark, we piled onto our big red bus and were driven to the next stop - a wonderful little Bavarian restaurant that was reserved just for us. Apparently it is Betty’s favorite place to eat after a day of skiing. The waitresses wore dirndls and served large glasses of weisbier (traditional Bavarian wheat beer). The food was warm and filling... particularly the dessert (luckily Betty ordered only one for our table to share... and we couldn’t finish it. Dessert consisted of a loaf of homebaked white bread smothered in a sort of thin warm custard sauce). Not surprisingly, the bus ride back to Munich was much quieter than the bus ride to the ski area earlier that day...



SO you Oregonians ... shall I import Bavarian sledges????  Maybe we can start a new craze. I must say, I could see it becoming addictive!!!!!!!!!