December 20, 2007
The whole world is white. No snow but everything is covered in a thick frost. It seems to not even melt in the sunshine though it's noon. The trees remind me of the trees in Paris when I was there in 89 that had been drowned in fake snow and looked rather tacky. Here in nature they are beautiful. I’m on the train on my way to Freiburg. I spent the last few days with my cousin Arnulf who lives in Traunreut near Salzburg. There was snow there in the Bavarian alps. Colder too. And sunshine for a change. Perfect winter weather. And it was nice that Arnulf had the week off. “Urlaub!” was our motto.
On Saturday night after I arrived we went to a village festival where the Perchten were having their parade scaring away the evil spirits, though they looked incredibly evil themselves. This tradition still comes from pagan times when people believed evil spirits reigned in the darkness and cold of the winter months. The goddess Perchta would move through the streets and villages protecting good people from these evil spirits who would follow her around town. Villagers through the ages have depicted this belief dressed in horrid, horned masks and costumes. Sometimes they battle each other or try to grap unsuspecting spectators. St. Nikolas at some point played a role in it. The tradition probably changed somewhat through Christianization. Bringing St Nikolaus in and his krampus (the one who hands out the punishments for the not so good little boys and girls) probably legitimized the whole thing somewhat. It seems to be now yet another reason to have a village festival with good things to eat and Glühwein to drink.
Chiemsee landscapes:
One day we spent at the Chiemsee. We took the ferry over to Herreninsel and hiked through the woods around the King’s palace there. Had lunch at the café there and spent an hour in the beautiful darkness on the Fraueninsel. It felt Christmasy.
Salzburg:
This store was open but not a lot of customers.
Mistletoe in trees.
Let me in! It's cold out here.
One day we spent in Salzburg. Surrounded by snowy mountains and filled with beautiful churches, their spires reaching up above the buildings. More markets and gluehwein and candied almonds and having lunch at Mozart’s house of birth. The Spinat Knödel (spinach dumplings) were the most delicious things. And we bought the original Mozartkugeln (balls with marzipan in the centre, surrounded with nougat and enrobed in dark chocolate) along with other irresistible sweets and treats. Traunstein the next day…just hanging around the town. I tried Feuerzangenbohle there for the first time. I think I might like it better than Glühwein. It too is a hot wein but also with fruit juices and spices but the secret ingredient that adds the little extra is the hot, sugared rum that gets dripped into the liquid. The later in the day it gets, the stronger the drink.
Mountain hiking.
Mistletoe.
Yesterday was a great hiking day. The sun shone so brilliantly and the snow glistened so festively that we did a 4 hour hike through Bavarian fields and woods and smaller than little villages, all the while surrounded by mountains. We could have conceivably hiked right into Austria but with there not being enough daylight hours that wouldn’t have worked so well. It was a perfect day. And the to top it off we made this very yummy pasta dish that we invented. It was kind of a lasagna type version thing. It of course can never be repeated as we would have no clue what and specifically how much of what we put in it. The Bergkäse (cheese) most definitely gave it a special zing.
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