Auf der Dult

While an American would think the logical divide in Germany is East and West (a notion the Cold War encouraged), for most Germans the divide is between Bavaria and the rest of Germany. For centuries a kingdom of its own with crazy rulers( Ludwig II comes to mind), and relatively untouched by World War II, Bavarian has held itself up as the poster child of Germany for ages. The picturesque Danube, the Bavarian forest, and ubiquitous Biergarten are understandably the pride of the locals. Blue and white, the colors of Bavaria, were to be seen everywhere at the local fair in Regensburg, including in the middle of the ferris wheel.
Last night I watched a Bavaria film which had German subtitles for the rest of us. Without them a non-Bavarian would be lost. Yet one can feel the difference between Bavaria and the rest of Germany when one is "auf der Dult" (at the fair). Here teenagers, indeed the angsty and otherwise cool youth, wear traditional lederhosen and the girls doll up in dindls. No embarassment whatsoever, in fact, they look so snazzy I wouldn't mind a pair myself.
My current home-base is Burglengenfeld, a city not too far from Regensburg (our most common destination from here) and over the last few days I have enjoyed a beer along the Danube, wondered at the stained-glass windows in the Regensburg cathedral (where the Pope's brother was choir director), and visited Walhalla, the "a la grecque" testament to German's greatest thinkers and artists. Tomorrow I am off to Munich, the heart of Bavaria and am excited to see more of the city than just the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), in which I have been about a dozen times. The Bernet family, my hosts, have been unbelievably generous and I truly don't know how people travel without staying with a host family. They have been a truly incredible, never-ending resource of knowledge and humor and Grandma's cooking has yet to be matched in my travels.

PS I forgot to mention in my last post that I endeavored on a 32-hour speed tour of northern Germany. From 8am Tuesday to 4pm, I traveled from Wuppertal to Berlin. I made long stops in Paderborn and Lübeck, while graced the train stations of Cologne, Hannover, and Hamburg with my presence. Sometimes I stop and wonder how in the world I did it!