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Landshut, Munich – a happenstance gem

Landshut is a very old city, wonderful place to walk around, study the history and a very livable city as well. Transport to Munich is easy as are buses around town. There are monthly storage facilities if you need, which we did, and the Italian restaurant (Rossini) on the steps leading up to the castle is so fantastic. The food quality and pricing can’t be beat in this city.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landshut

The river was high
Cute Fiat with rear tires in the middle of the rear and fake wheel images on the back. Interesting
One church downtown. Bavaria is very catholic.
An exhibition in one church
Shopping main street
Typical local food
The main church
Organ inside the church
City hall
, cup with no handle
Fruit drink and a huge cappuccino, cup with no handle
The castle
Rossini’s superb quattro formaggi and spaghetti oil and chili pepper
Matketing.
Nice sandwich and a cappuccino
Pretty good wheat beer at a local beer garden
The old city gate.
Lederhosen
A matching vest
An excellent weisenbier made at the local brewery and served here at an italian restaurant in the shopping area.
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Freising – Bavaria. 1,000 year old beer

this little town is very old and very interesting. It is where the former pope Benedict was made a priest and it has the oldest continuous brewery in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freising

This Rubens painting is a replica. the original has been moved to a museum.
The decorations in the cathedral were done by two brothers. One did the stucco work and the other one did the painting.
This cape stucco work was the only part of the cathedral that the two brothers worked on together.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freising_Cathedral

This brewery is over 1000 years old and therefore is the oldest continuously operating brewery in the world , or so they say.
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Thailand interesting stuff

By my bungalow, there are trees and electric wires for this truck to avoid.
a nice hilltop view cafe on Koh Chang
Don Maeung airport with its literal “centerpiece” golf course which belongs to the military. Golfers have to wait to cross for planes headed to runways
Excellent quality
Naval trainees with their land life jackets, over 50 of them walking the main street
My friends were surprised I could recommend an excellent wine. I finally got some respect
A local taxi actually it belongs to Gee so she can transport coffee drinks and her grand daughter
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Lungprabang, Laos Unesco city

the city is a UNESCO heritage site on the river since it has the oldest Buddhist temple left standing in Laos and was the palace of the king for generations. It’s a cute little city with most everything in walking distance and there are some interesting attractions in the vicinity including an extremely beautiful waterfall and some scenery. It’s best to go during the rainy season since the “high season” between December through March has extensive air pollution due to farm burnings throughout Southeast Asia. Many of the hotels and restaurants now are being bought by Vietnamese and Chinese, most of whom do not even speak Lao, so try to find those places that are owned and operated by Lao people if you want to experience Lao culture. Read more about this area at the link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luang_Prabang

There are several very nice classic cars in the city
The Sunset view from the hill
This was someone’s idea of a lion which looks more like a cat.
Who’s driving? Maybe the kids should have helmets also?
Bocce (petanque) is very popular in Laos. There are many excellent professional players as well.
Crossing a temporary bridge to get to a very nice restaurant restaurant on the other side of the river
Phousi Hill photo enthusiasts waiting for the sunset
Here is the sunset view
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Vientiane, Laos. Update

life in Vientiane, Laos is always an interesting place to see some things you would not see in many other countries. It’s a very peaceful place but you have to make sure you lock your motorcycle onto something that will not move. If not, the motorcycle will not be there in the morning. I recently saw a video of some lady who went to talk to a teacher at the school with her daughter, maybe 6 m away from her motorcycle in which she left the key. Someone who look like a student looked around to see who was there and then just jumped on the motorcycle and drove away.

This is what you do if a motorcycle is the only mode of transport
In executive suites you might want to teach people how to use the sitting area
Are you selling durian on the street
The only real Vietnamese made car (vinfast) is actually fairly nice for a low end entry model. Someone decided to highlight these electric cars and use them for inexpensive taxi services like an Uber service. The cars are nice and clean and the app works very well. The drivers get paid a monthly salary of about $150 a month.

you can click on the link to see some information about these Vietnamese cars. They have goals to export to the US and Europe to compete with Chinese manufactured cars.

https://vinfastauto.eu

I think they want you to believe that this is a real Apple affiliated store.
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pakse-paksong food and…

in the 1970s Laos was the most bombed country in history. We visited a coffee shop which was partly destroyed by something and highlighted some of the weaponry was used against the objects of the bombing some of which included innocent civilians.

https://www.shutterstock.com/search/paksong

The cappuccino and sweets were very nice
You can see the bullet holes in the walls
This pizza in this small town of Pakse was amazingly delicious
Selling frogs at the local market for lunch or dinner
Nice spicy salads in the nice sunny weather
Picking out avocados at $.70 a kilo
Red ants have created a nest of leaves filled with eggs which are a delicacy
It really wonderful avocado and mango smoothie made in a bistro owned by a German fellow who was from a small town near Munich where we happen to be going in the next week
Avocados growing everywhere
And of course we have to have some Korean food to spice up our life
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islands in the sun

A Guinness with a cigar from Cuba. The best thing to do in Pattaya.
My first hamburger in many years. It was pretty good.
One of my favorites, grilled waterfall pork (NAMTOK MOO) with sticky rice.
Having some grilled duck with noodles at the airport
Some pork with noodles in a soup it’s fairly tasty and not
The main international airport in Bangkok has completed its center art piece
I think there is a spelling mistake. It should be “FEMEAL”
Just a photo to keep your attention
Be careful passing his truck. Several times I thought it was going to fall over
Good to know
I didn’t stop in to see if the haircut was really free
A nice cappuccino design
Beautiful flowers at the resort
A view of the fishing village on Koh Kood
Below you will see the original Honda Giorno. They have a new version out this year which is so similar to a Vespa
The license plate is from some island of the host of China
Was Goldfinger here?
Thang you too. Papa makes good bread
The international bocce crowd; Italy, England, Laos and a confused nationality
CORNELL COLLEGE colors
What is a Monk living in my apartment?
In Japan, near where I used to live, beautiful tricycle motorcycles from this shop
Playing tennis at night in Tokyo
Thief wants to be the first to get any snacks in the morning
Some good Lao food
Getting home, one dog begging for food and the other two guarding to keep other dogs away from potential snacks
It seems the use of chemicals produces this green and yellow hybrid bunch
A special Poké bowl presentation
The shark is still there
A Poké bowl falafel
A very tasty chicken and coconut soup
Who says dogs can’t do paddle boarding
This cat from White Elephant fancy himself a leopard
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Paksong -Southern Laos (coffee, tea, avocados)

Local monks helping fix the walkway by the river
A beautiful sunset in Pakse
Waiting with the family tractor for the rain to stop
Tad fang waterfall in Poksong
Do you wanna do the zip line across the canyon? Pretty scary
You can have a table sent along on the zip line so you can drink your coffee suspended over the canyon. They have another option so you can sleep in a hammock on the zip line over the canyon. Is that on your bucket list?
The dogs don’t care who’s doing the zip line training
Parallel zip lines. The guy in Orange on the right is getting his phone ready to video the person on the left as they go across the canyon
Avocados are available in this area for about $.70 per kilo and they are delicious. Most people have avocado trees in their yard and then they put up a little stand in front of their house on the road to sell their avocados
There was quite an accident with these trucks and trailers
A captured American army Jeep with the wrong force identifier under the windshield. It obviously it’s still running but has been extensively used
This very aggressive Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer is using 3M for some parts of their manufacturing and probably display the company symbol. This was on a local taxi, part of a new, inexpensive, taxi service in Vientiane
The new Lao development bank in Pakse. The architecture is a little bewildering. It is very white.
The kid on the back really wanted to wave to me but he is following the strict orders from his younger brother who is driving to hang on tight and not let go
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Food and friends

At Mauro’s Babylon Italian restaurant on Koh Chang
Falafel dish at Poke Bowl. Can’t say it is very Hawaiian but it is good food
A nice café desert
Sweden and the U.S. at one of our usual haunts
Chicken rice (KAO MAN GAI) in Vientiane
Lao style “sushi” in a hot open market, not my idea of sushi for sure (Vientiane)
small lunch, spring roll
gee at her coffee stand before moving back to her home town in Surin
in the city (SFO) we used to have Mr. Muso’s cookies like this one in my cappuccino
in Laos, pineapple picked the day before. Soooo sweet
delicious Indian food in Lungprabang
Cooking for Gee’s return home party. We will miss her.
In Pakse, Laos, a remarkably delicious pizza lunch
Laab (spicy minced pork), tam som (papaya pok pok), and dried, fried beef in Vang Vieng, Laos
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Paris – Villa Savoye

in the outskirts of Paris there is this very interesting and modern looking home built in the 1920s by a famous French architect. Below is a link to further information.

Villa Savoye

The cars parked down below in a garage inside the area color in blue. What was unusual at that time is the servants quarters were built on the first floor.
The master bath
The problem that plagued the house for years was water. What many architects now know is that building roofs and tops of buildings with flat areas creates many opportunities for water to start leaking below.