Was sagst du? 樣樣都德

When I’m not being occupied with my work or travels, there’ll instead be visitors knocking on my door! 最近除了忙工作和忙出門外，也忙於接待來訪的朋友。 The recent influx of visitors started with an Australian friend whom I haven’t met for several years. He arrived into Munich on the evening of 7th June with his girlfriend. The next day, I took them on around town, starting from Marienplatz and ending up in the Englischer Garten where we helped ourselves to a rather hefty meal. Little wonder we felt sluggish afterwards and wanted to do nothing more than lying on the grass to enjoy some sunshine. Just as we thought it was time to move on at 16:00, we saw the sky change its colour abruptly and decided to make haste to our next destination. But apparently everyone else in the garden had precisely the same idea and was all rushing towards the closest exit. The whole scene just resembled a massive evacuation from some sort of an emergency! 先有好幾年沒見的澳洲朋友及其女朋友在6月7日晚來到慕尼黑，翌日帶他們從市中心的瑪利亞廣場（Marienplatz）走到英國花園（Englischer G...

Water is part of the heritage of Salzburg; apart from the Salzach River, the city is also home to Schloss Hellbrunn (Hellbrunn Palace) whose prime feature is the myriad of water tricks in its garden. In the old days when the Palace was owned by the ruling archbishops, the garden was the place where the archbishops held gala banquets and made fun with/of their guests using those water tricks. Now it’s the turn of ordinary visitors to have the same fun too (or ordeal, depending on your view!) The tour guides of the garden will often turn on the fountains out of the blue and catch the visitors off guard while they are having a look at the different water features. Kids certainly find it fun to be sprayed and splashed, but if getting wet is not your type of amusement, you had better stay with those wearing a suit. The tour guides only know too well that it’s not funny to get those expensive suits wet! Whoever came up with the idea of this unconventional water palace must have been a big ki...

On Easter Sunday, my friend and I ventured out of Germany; we didn't go very far but we didn't need to, because there was the pretty Austrian city of Salzburg right at Germany's doorstep! In fact, out of our 2-hour train trip from Munich to Salzburg, only the last 4 minutes were in Austria. But I only realised this when I finally managed to find the border on the inbound trip. If you ever get to travel this train trip, you should play this 'spot the border' game too! Salzburg is close to Germany and Austrians speak German too, but Salzburg is distinct from Germany. Anyone who's been to Italy could probably not help thinking that this place is like an Italian town of sorts. That's because the archibishops who ruled Salzburg in the past liked everyting Italian for their buildings and design. It's no surprise if you find that the view of Salzburg from the nearby hills (see my photos) is somewhat reminiscent of Florence or Pisa (to my mind, anyway). For thos...