keepsakebavaria

If a friend were to come and stay with me we'd certainly go to Passau. According to Alexander von Humbold the "Bavarian Venice" is one of the 7 most beautiful cities in the world. Situated at the 3 rivers, Donau, Inn and Ilz, the famous Dom (cathedral) of Passau with the biggest orgue in the world and the Veste Oberhaus (castle) are just 3 of the main attractions Passau has to offer. If you are in Passau you must not miss to have a glance from the Veste Oberhaus - you definitely won't regret it.

We'd go to the Lusen, a mountain (1.373 m) in the National Park next to the Czech border. It is the most unique mountian in the Bavarian Forest. Its heap is formed of rough granite stones which are covered with green-yellow sulphur-lichen. There are many weird sagas around this mountain and about the formation of its heap.When you are on top of the mountain and look around you will be shocked because everything you see are dead trees.But there is nothing to be worried about: It looks sad but it is only natural. The death of the old trees is the chance for the young trees. From the heap you only see the big old and dead trees but when you walk through the forest itself and keep your eyes open you see how much small life there is on the ground!

We also would visit the Museumsdorf Bayerischer Wald in Tittling. It is an artificial village with very old houses (original houses!) and it makes you see and feel how people lived here in former times.

And on a rainy day we'd go to the Kurbad in Eging, an indoor bath which is perfect to relax or we go and relax at the lake in Eging.

In the Bavarian Forest it is not so much the buildings, or monuments which attract tourists, it's rather those "monuments" created by nature: These are the mountains and the lakes which glow like eyes out of the sea of wood. There are more than 50 mountains which are higher than 1.000 m, among them them the Großer Arber (1.456 m) and Großer Rachel (1.453 m) are the highest ones.

You see, the Bavarian Forest is for people who want to escape big city life with its noise, dirty air and hectic. In the Bavarian Forest you can go on endless walks, do skiing in winter and so on. We have some castles here, too, e. g. Engelburg, Saldenburg or Schloss Egg which you can see on the photo.

In fact I don't live in a town but in a very little village called Oberriegl. It only consists of 4 houses and is situated quite exactly half way Deggendorf-Passau. These two towns may be called "doors into the Bavarian Forest". Deggendorf in the north and Passau in the south.
Oberriegl is a nice place to live - or better would be - if the motorway did not pass by so closely. That's the only disadvantage. The next bigger village is Garham with its church on top of the hill. The church catches your sightfrom far away. Standing there next to the church you have a wonderful view into the Bavarian Forest and in the opposite direction you sometimes even are able to see the Alps if the weather allows it. That's mostly when we have "Fön". This famous warm wind from the Alps (which causes headaches to several people) usually is
characteristic for the region around Munich, but we can feel it sometimes as well.

Throughout the summer time we have our "Volksfeste", in English perhaps "public festivals". Some of them are with parades but most are without. They are usually arranged by local clubs or organizationens.
There is always one (or more) beer-tent where people have a sit, chat, eat and drink and listen to music, traditionally with brass band on at least one day. These festivals last around a week-end and the atmosphere is great. Typical drik is beer and food is sausages with cabbage or baked fish. Outside there are roundabouts and other similar attractions. These festivals can be compared to the "Oktoberfest" in Munich , only that one is much bigger!

Of course there are the famous sports like football or tennis, but especially here where I live there is another very popular kind of sport: "Eisstockschießen". It can be played both in summer and winter, in winter on ice and on summer on asphalt. There are groups who play against each other, each group consiting of 4 players ( if you play in a competition, if you play just for fun there can be even more people).Every
player has got an "Eisstock": that is something like one half of a ball with a stick to hold it (described very roughly). With some distance to the players there is a black ring lying on the ice/aspahlt called "pigeon". Now the players try to make their Eisstock slide as closely as possible towards that pigeon. There are some plays until the winner is known.

I don't know how foreign people see us "Waidler" as people who live in the Bavarian Forest are called. But there are "differences" between people who live on that side of the Donau, in the Bavarian Forest, and ont he other side. There are always jokes about us that we were not so established like the others, we have some differences in our language (dialect)but that all is not meant seriously!! These bias may go back to former times. It is true that the Bavarian Forest is not as industrialized as much as other regions may be, it is mostly because of our landscape which causes some difficulties in setting
up enterprises. It definitely doesn't mean that we still live in wood-hut or things like that!!!
What makes me so proud of the Bavarian Forest is, in short- the scenery! I am proud that I can call myself a "Waidler" or someone "from the Wood".
Come and find it out how we live here! If anyone wants to have some more infos about the Bavarian Forest feel free to contact me and I will gladly tell you more!