germany: eggenfelden
after popping out of a foggy sky, zipping over a seemingly endless forest, we were mildly surprised to touch down at munich international, which is a major airport that has no business being in the middle of a forest.
our introduction to germany starts in a tiny town named eggenfelden. it's in the middle of beautiful farmland in the south-eastern part of germany, part of the prosperous state known as bavaria. but first we had to get there.
our introduction to germany starts in a tiny town named eggenfelden. it's in the middle of beautiful farmland in the south-eastern part of germany, part of the prosperous state known as bavaria. but first we had to get there.
our good friend, josephine, came down to pick us up. we couldn't all fit in one car, so we rode with her husband armin's mother, a kindly-looking, grandmotherly looking little old lady who spoke not a word of english. and thus it came about that at her hands we had our first terrifying introduction to driving in germany.
she proceeded to tear down narrow roads at speeds way in excess of what sandi and i thought safe. all the while she would shout in german at oncoming lorries and signs that reduced the speed limit to what she clearly felt was an unreasonable 110kph. upon arriving and spewing us onto the pavement to tremblingly kiss the ground, she transformed back into a kindly and lovely old lady who periodically would feed us massive mugs of beer and freshly baked sourdough bread.
the germans love their cars and care for them with such detail and precision that only a german can attain. and so it was that i spent a happy couple of weeks admiring different cars zipping by, from modern bmws, audis and benzes to vintage automobiles.
we also got an introduction to efficient and excellent german train system that will whisk you anywhere you want to go with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of being on time.
armin's dad loves antiques - he had this old jukebox that actually worked (even if suzie doesn't appear to fully trust it) and in his free time would restore old vespas. one day he called me into this tiny office he has built under the stairs to show me his rather awesome collection of old watches.
one feature of every town in germany, from little eggenfelden to munich is the rathaus. this is like the town hall, where births, weddings, deaths are all registered. eggenfelden has this intriguing statue in front of it, which is said to represent two parties struggling against each other while the ruling class take advantage of the struggle to rule.
eggenfelden is a town that was previously known as 'etinvelt' or fields of the 'eto' perhaps a wealthy land owner, hence 'fields of eto'. this was back in the 1100s. the city has seen plague, war and lots else over the centuries. in 1809, napoleon bonaparte passed through, and in 1901 it saw the first electric light.
