Entry for September 03, 2007 Bavarian Fairyland !!

Today's post is a follow up to my last blog in which I shall describe a wee bit post-war Germany....especially Bayern or Bavaria , a section of the Vaterland that had not undergone the massive bombings experienced by the more industrialized Western and Northern provinces. Bavaria , in general ,was all about farming ! The above pic is Kloster - Gars in the foreground , the huge Redemptorist monastery which housed roughly 500 people all told... priests , seminarians , lay brothers who worked the farms , nuns and their postulants and novices , etc. In the background is the village , Markt - Gars , with its huge marketplace for the local farmers to barter their wares. The Inn River , which has its source in the Austrian Tyrol , comes out of Austria ... by Innsbruck ( bridge on Inn ) just to the South of Gars inside Austria ......behind our mosastery and onward towards Passau where it flows into the " Blue Danube " . The Inn marks the border between the two countries . The first nine pictures in this post are from postcards I have been carrying around with me these last 48 to 50 years !

This pic shows the neighbouring town of Haag. I would often go there "mit dem Fahrrad ".... by bike.... as that was the most common means of transportation back then .... roughly 14-15 years after the War . I had a friend , Peter , who ran a local Bierstube or beer-joint there . The Haag Brauerie or brewery made excellent "helles" or blond beer.

A close up pic of Haag .... Peter's Bierstube was in the house on extreme left just below the tall tower.

Straubing on the Donau or Danube. Not too many cars back then !

Typical Bavarian house adorned with statues , carvings , and religious paintings ..... and flowers , of course , during the Summer.

On the 12th of August , 1961 I set out alone from Gars on a two-week bike tour of Eastern Bavaria armed with some Brot , Käse , Wurst , a bedroll and a few shekels , pedalled much of the time along the Inn ..... through Waldkreiburg , Mühldorf , etc until I reached Simbach where I simply crossed the bridge into Braunau , Austria and visited Hitler's Geburtshaus..... birth house. Many Germans back then would often hasten to inform me that the former Führer was actually an Austrian....... to which many chuckles followed. I arrived in Passau ( above pic ) on the 13th and fell in love with the place and people. This is where the Inn ( on right ) hooks up with the Danube which is seen here flowing out of the background ( Austria ) towards the reader . The Domkirche in centre of town harbours the biggest organ in Europe ...... and the organist was no slouch either !!

Upstream from Gars was the above town of Wasserburg........ yes , you got it right !! Watertown !!.... and for evident reasons named so !! ..... with absolutely herrliches dunkels bier.... out - of - this -world dark beer !! This was my Fairyland image I kept in my mind for years afterwards until I revisited Wasserburg some 25 years later. It was still a most beautiful site ...... but I could not recapture the magic of youthful dreams of the past.... which is only normal.... and I think you' ve all experienced other such phenomena in your own lives.

Another view of Passau , the " dreiflüssige Stadt " ... the three-river city..... the third being the Ilz seen flowing into the Danube from the right ( hidden from view in first pic ). The Ilz has its source in the Czech Republic to the Northeast.

One of those picture - perfect sites , St Bartholomä on the Königsee in the Bavarian Tyrol , not far from Berchtesgaden.... Hitler's hideout.

Two more examples of Bavarian house paintings with yours truly standing in doorway waving goodbye to you all .

P.S. The day I reached Passau , August 13th , 1961 everybody was talking about " Die Mauer " ... The Wall.... as that very morning Walter Ulbricht , the East - German leader , had given orders to begin the construction of the infamous Berlin Wall . It stood in shame until November 9th , 1989 while dear Walter had already gone to his heavnly reward in August of 1971..... some ten years after issuing the orders.