Ireland and Germany

I went to Limerick in Ireland for a conference. I flew via Melbourne, Abu Dhabi (showered in the fancy first class lounge) and Dublin on Saturday-Sunday on Etihad (airline was okay, not much entertainment but a lot of food), followed by a 2.5 hour bus ride to the University of Limerick on Sunday morning and straight to a meeting. I stayed in student accommodation – a nice simple apartment with an en suite, overlooking trees and fields, near the Shannon River. The conference went from Monday-Wednesday and was very busy but good, and nice to catch up with colleagues who I haven’t seen for a while.

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After the conference, I got a lift to Dublin with a colleague and stayed the night. In general, the food wasn’t great in Ireland but I had a good Beef & Guinness Stew for dinner in Dublin. I had the whole next day (Thursday) to explore and saw lots of old buildings (Trinity College), museums, galleries, gardens and bridges. I walked a lot around the city, before taking a bus in the afternoon to the airport for a flight to Munich for a long weekend before my trip home. The flight was delayed a bit and was on a holding pattern into Munich because of storms, so I got to my hotel next to the main station a bit before midnight.

The next day (Friday) I had booked a tour to see the castles. After studying German in high school, I always wanted to see Neuschwanstein Castle. After getting a pastry, banana and drink for breakfast at the station, I boarded a bus around 8:15am with about 70 other people. The tour was great and the castles lived up to the hype. First stop was Linderhof Palace for a bit over an hour, followed by 30 minutes in the small town of Oberammergau (where the passion play is held every 10 years), and then several hours at Neuschwanstein. 

The scenery was spectacular throughout the day and the rain mostly stayed away. Linderhof was small but ornate with beautiful gardens and surroundings, modelled on the Palace of Versailles. King Ludwig II built this castle and Neuschwanstein (and a couple of others) in the 19th century to imitate 17th century castles – so they are a bit of a folly but still amazing. Oberammergau was a nice town, despite a bit of rain, with painted houses and some interesting shops. We got to Neuschwanstein around lunchtime, so I bought a quick lunch of potato soup and apple strudel before catching the shuttle up to the top. I walked most of the way across a narrow pedestrian bridge (Marianbrücke) with about 100 other people, taking a few photos from a great vantage point. Then I walked up to the castle, had a ice cream while waiting for my tour, and hung around in the castle courtyard. The interiors were ornate (photography is not permitted) and the views were amazing. Then I walked down the hill, stopped by a souvenir shop and the lake, then got back on the coach for the 2.5 hour drive back to Munich, with time to stroll through the city and have some German sausages for dinner. 

On Saturday, I had an early start, catching a 7am train to Leipzig. The train was originally supposed to be leaving at 9:30 and take 3.5 hours, but due to track work and storms the previous week causing a detour, it took around 5 hours. Still, it was a pleasant ride, with a comfortable seat (first class!) and time to relax. I dropped my bags at the hotel in Leipzig before walking around the city, which isn’t too big. I saw several historical churches and did a bit of shopping in the city and at the train station mall. I had a cheese pretzel (delicious) and frozen yogurt for lunch, along with a few snacks from the supermarket. It was a bit hot, 27°C, and despite forgetting to wear my cap I didn’t get sunburnt at all (different to Australia).

I was in Leipzig for the Bachfest, a festival of concerts of music by one of my favourite composers, JS Bach, who was based in Leipzig for most of his life. After walking around the city, I had a rest in my hotel, before going out to get some quick dinner, followed by singing Bach chorales in four parts with a crowd of about 2000 people in the main square – amazing experience. Then I walked to the nearby Thomaskirche where Bach was the director of music for over 25 years. The concert was the three-hour St Matthew Passion performed by orchestra and choir. It was quite an emotional experience and a beautiful, excellent performance. I left at 10pm, walked back through the main square (now with jazz band playing Bach arrangements) to Nikolaikirche for the next concert which started at 10:30. Leonidas Kavakos played Bach solo violin sonatas and partitas for the next 90 minutes – one of the top violinists in the world with incredible precision who made the intricate works come to life. I made it back to the hotel a bit after midnight.

Sunday morning I woke earlier than planned, so I decided to reserve a seat on the 7:30 train (instead of the 9:30 train) back to Munich, to give me more time in the afternoon. After another relaxing 5-hour ride through the German countryside (via Würzburg and Nuremberg), I arrived back in Munich and checked into the same hotel I’d had near the main station (all of my accommodation was excellent and not too expensive). Then I went to Lenbachhaus, a picturesque gallery featuring a lot of Blaue Reiter paintings (Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky, August Macke, along with Paul Klee and others). I wandered towards the city, came across a large family festival, visited the Residenz (royal palace museum), followed by some traditional food from the festival. I walked through some parks – the pretty Hofgarten to the Englischen Garten – and watched people surfing on the Eisbach River which was swollen from the rains. I walked through the city, stopping by the Hofbrauhaus for souvenirs and past a couple of random concerts in light rain, back to my hotel where I packed for the trip home.

The next morning, I took a train to the airport for my flights home – Munich to Abu Dhabi (brief stop at the fancy lounge) to Sydney, then caught a slightly earlier flight back to Canberra. It was a pretty hectic trip (9 days in Europe) but everything went quite smoothly and I enjoyed it a lot.