traveldiary.stracke.us

We were here in April, visiting the German capital with Gabi’s group of 28 students. Now it is just the 2 of us and 1 million soccer fans from around the world.

On June 29th, we left our vacation home in Schliersee and took the ICE train #1610, leaving Munich at 8.46 AM. At 15:04, we arrived at the brand new Berlin main train station, after traveling 688 km in 6 hours and 18 minutes. Along the way, while having lunch in the dining car, we met a couple from Leipzig. We obtained some insights and first hand information about life in the former East Germany. Even 16 years after the German reunification, there are still big differences between East and West. The East Germans have less money, but in general are content with their life, more so than their West German cousins. This couple was no exception and seemed to be happy.
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We spent the last few days biking around the area. It was sunny and hot, and sometimes we did not pedal very far, but instead, went swimming in the lake “Schliersee.” At other times, we read the newspapers, resting on the lake’s shores or in the surrounding beer gardens.
On Monday, June 26th, we watched another soccer game in the “Post Stueberl” in Neuhaus. It was Italy versus Australia and Australia was dominating throughout the game. In the 95th minute, an Italian player faked a foul and Italy unfairly won by penalty kick.We felt very bad for the Australian team members, who had played so well. Gabi was yelling about the injustice and, being a fanatic about fairness and justice, the whole TV audience in our bar (all 4 people) had to listen to her. I had to calm her down with a Bavarian “Weissbier.” Italy went on to win the World Cup final, but probably should never have advanced, had the referee made a better decision in this match, and called the Italian bluff.
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Bruno was shot and killed this morning at 4:50 AM at the Rotwand above Spitzingsee, less than 5 miles from our house. He was a fresh, fearless 2 year-old teenager, who was too curious for his own good.
In the last 170 years, Bruno was the first Brown Bear to roam in the wild in Germany. Since he was first spotted, on May 17th in Lechtal, Tyrolia, he had wandered through the Bavarian and Austrian Alps. Bruno was a so-called “problem bear” and was not afraid to walk right through villages, in broad daylight. He learned to break into rabbit and chicken cages, kill sheep, goats and a guinea pig, plus plunder the honey from commercial beekeepers. Even though hikers had taken close-up pictures of him, he never hurt any human. Bruno evaded Finnish bearhunters, who had been hired by the Bavarian government, with their specially trained dogs. This morning, he all off a sudden showed up at a mountain farmhouse and was killed by hunters, who are now afraid to reveal their identities.
Bruno had a big following in Germany and the whole country was up in arms about the government-sponsored killing. A toy company is now producing his stuffed animal look-alike, and the press is calling for the resignation of the Bavarian “problem secretary” for environmental conservation, who had ordered the killing.
Going to bed last night, I wondered if Bruno the Bear had any reason to climb up onto our second story balcony and visit us through the open bedroom door. Now I am saddened by his untimely death. He should have stayed away from people and farmhouses.

Gabi and I are taking a break from the exhausting schedule of committed World Cup soccer fans. It is Sunday, June 25th and we are having a late breakfast at our Munich hotel. Official breakfast time has passed already, but we are still able to grab some food from the buffet table, as it is being cleared away.
Next we walk the short distance to the S-Bahn station “Hackerbruecke” and catch the “BOB” (Bayerische Oberlandbahn) train to Schliersee, in the Bavarian Alps. Gabi had booked us in the B+B “Hoeltschl” and Herr Hoeltschl is greeting us at the Schliersee station. We are in luck again. Our home for the next 5 days is the upper floor of a very nice house: living room, bedroom, kitchen, dining area and large balcony, overlooking the mountains to the south (Brecherspitz and Rothkopf). We are in a small, picturesque Bavarian village with flowerpots hanging off the balconies and windowsills; our pricetag for living in this small paradise amounts to 50 Euros per night.
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On June 24th, we took the S-Bahn to Marienplatz in order to get to the special soccer exhibit in the “Muenchener Stadtmuseum”.
It was a very interesting display of soccer balls from around the world, showing balls out of different leathers, plastics, leaves, ropes, coconut fibers and so on. The exhibit tried to explain how popular the game is around the world and how soccer serves as a means for poor kids to improve their chances in life. It made connections between soccer and politics, soccer and religion, soccer and national pride, soccer and self esteem and so on.Unfortunately, nowadays soccer is big business for FIFA and the soccer clubs.

Interestingly, many African nations have their priests bless the ball, soccer field and say prayers for the home team.The players themselves wear their good luck amulets and many players from Christian countries make the sign of the cross when coming onto the field. The belief in some African religions is that everything in Life, including the result of a soccer match, has already been pre-determined by a higher authority: us humans are merely puppets, acting in a predestined performance.
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I did not know what kind of present Gabi wanted for her birthday this year.As usual, she did not give me any help, stating that she does not want any presents. A last minute decision was to buy tickets on Singapore Airlines to fly to Germany, in order to experience the Soccer World Cup atmosphere first hand, together with the Germans and fans from 31 other nations.
We left JFK airport at 10 PM on June 22nd on Singapore flight 25 and arrived in Frankfurt,Germany at 11 AM the next morning.After sleeping for about 5 hours on the plane, warm weather and bright sunshine kept us awake for the day. We took an ICE train to Wuerzburg and while riding through the scenic Spessart mountains, we had lunch in the dining car . ( Gabi enjoyed her favorite “herring”, while I had the “lentil stew”).
We switched trains in Wuerzburg and Schweinfurt and arrived in Bamberg around 2 PM.
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