Freising is a town near the Munich Airport where the airport hotels are located.  But it is an old city.  It had a cathedral before Munich, a brewery too.  It is a place I lay over on trips to and from Tbilisi for jet lagging.  I have posted from this delightful town before, including a post about the oldest continuously operating brewery in the world.  These pictures are from an afternoon stroll around town.  Suzi had never been here and I wanted her to see it. Continue reading Freising, Bavaria, redux

Domberg is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.  The current structure is a Romanesque building from the 13th century.  When you go in, however, it is a shock, because the interior had been redone in Baroque style in the 17th century.  It almost seems like a disconnect.  I once had an architecture professor who called the Baroque “Eclectic clutter.”  My reaction was “majestically bizarre.”  Elaborate frescoes, pink stucco, gilt and an alter piece originally painted by Rubens (The one there now is a reproduction, the original was carted off somewhere.)  The organ is really a baroque organ, the decoration is so … Continue reading Domberg, The Cathedral Church in Freising

The taxi driver from Clontarf to the airport offered to take me a different route, around Dublin Bay, along the coast pass the fishing village of Howth and then into the airport.  “It’s more miles but with school getting out it now may be less time.  At Howth he said “You’ll be flying right over that when you take off.”  (We did.)  I think he wanted the longer ride so he could ask me what I “really” felt about Sarah Palin.  He rather likes the idea of a governor named Sean Parnell. Aer Lingus charges bags by weight.  15 kg … Continue reading Sometimes flying becomes the theatre of the absurd.