Salzburg – the sound of music

before arriving in Salzburg there were a number of things I didn’t know about the city. This is where the von trapp family lived and were some of the movie for the musical “the sound of music “was made. The story played out here and we were lucky the famous UNESCO recognized marionette Playhouse in the third generation was giving a performance, “the sound of music”. Being one of my favorite musicals I had to go.

Here are some photos of the inside of the marionette theater which is 111 years old
Some Indonesian representations
Old billboards of their performances
At the end of the performance the puppeteers take a Bow. They received quite a few ovations. It was such a wonderful experience if you enjoyed the musical. The singers were relief fantastic.

verona – a gentleman visits

Verona is very crowded with tourist but there are also some uncrowded places you can go which I was fortunate enough to enjoy with my friends from Verona and Guarda.

The arena is used often for opera and other events. It’s one of the older buildings in the city, more than 1500 years old.
At 6:30 in the morning when we arrived
We did not go up to the tower when the bells were ringing. It’s such a beautiful view from up here
I didn’t check this history out but it looks like a place where some bad people were hanging around
This is one of the palaces which is now a very interesting museum
Just imagine the people who painted the ceilings, lying on their back and getting perspective
I took this photo because this supposed kid looks like he’s 40 years old
It’s important to know the history of this guy. He not only influenced the Christian concepts of suffering, redemption and hell but he also standardized the Italian language.
This is Dante in Stone
From google map description: “The Arche Scaligere, located in Verona, are a monumental funerary complex in Gothic style of the Scaliger family intended to contain the arches (tombs) of the most illustrious representatives of the family.
The tombs are enclosed by a wrought iron enclosure in which the pattern of the staircase, a symbol of the house, is used, while the sarcophagi are located on the ground or on raised floors.
The arches are:
the ark of Cangrande I Della Scala
the ark of Mastin II
the sarcophagus of Albert I
the hanging ark of Giovanni della Scala
this is such a beautiful shop front for sausage, salami, olive oil and other necessities of Italian life.

Landshut – a few notes

Landshut is a very interesting and beautiful place to visit. The old buildings, the rivers and all of the services that make it a very livable place as well. Here are just a few parting notes.

You can tell from this I like wheat beers in Germany. This is a very nice one
I found this brewery to be exceptional
On the way to the castle, going up the steps, you will pass Ristorante Rossini. It is exceptional food and the service is more than you could expect from any restaurant. Just look at the fresh basil picked from the garden. In addition they are growing basil on the table so you can pick it off and put it in your food. This pizza was very delicious and the Vegetarian ravioli with the beautiful cream sauce, almost like a four cheese, was very rich but not overly.
Even here you see hang gliding
The pizza at Pizzeria Pomodoro & Mozzarella is also exceptional. We ate here three times it was so good.
The neighboring town of Freising had some amazing history associated with one of the popes, the retired one, along with some important political stories for Bavaria.
There is constant improvement in the city. It’s such a nice place to walk around.

verona – romeo and Juliet

so I think you understand the story of Romeo and Juliet. But now you are going to hear the rest of the story. This famous building, I have not conclusively determined, may or may not have been the building Shakespeare went to in describing his play. What I hear from local people is that Julia was a real person but lived in a different house in another part of town which is now a shop. But this is a nice tourist attraction where everyone is supposed to go to the bronze statue of Juliet and touch her boob. So you can go visit a house that Shakespeare may or may not have visited to try to experience a story that may or may not have happened. But the building ownership records are clear. Go to Verona and dig more for the rest of the story.

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

Pride Munich 2024

The Pride March was right in the center of Munich. It was interesting to see the first parade since the Phuket vegetarian festival when people stuck sharp things in their bodies (1995) and the first stage event since Tony Bennett in 2000. No, wait, Dinah Ross in 2017. There were tens of thousands of people and kilometers of people in the parade. It was quite a fun event.

Some famous german singer
Another famous german rapper
See the tin warrior?

Euro 24 Soccer

in a few days the final game in this European soccer championship will be played and there will be a big party in the winners country. I visited when the games were in Munich. Here are some photos.

The scouts were all ready in their kilts and some and some were Pipers. They love German beer.
A sign in the subway station
The BMW museum is here at the Olympic Stadium area. Here is one of their iconic classics
The Scotts were everywhere and friendly with everybody
As you know BMW owns Rolls-Royce
You put some money in the machine and a robot makes your coffee for you and possibly serves you a snack
Beach volleyball along way from the beach
The Olympic swimming pool is now for Public use
The glockenspiel
Romanian fans were having a great time and singing their fan song
The Scot’s were competing with their songs and pipes. The Scots drew the biggest crowd
Hofbrau house was packed with more than 1000 customers
I didn’t know they had sales for police cars
It was nice to see a new lotus in the showroom. I remember the Elan from “the avengers”.

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.

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

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

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.