Forward!

"Walking is also an ambulation of mind."

Gretel Ehrlich, novelist, poet and essayist (born 1946)

"I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards."

Abraham Lincoln

"He who would travel happily must travel light."

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand and Stars (1939)

"There is an intense but simple thrill in setting off in the morning on a mountain trail, knowing that everything you need is on your back. It is a confidence in having left the inessentials behind and of entering a world of natural beauty that has not been violated, where money has no value, and possessions are a dead weight. The person with the fewest possessions is the freest. Thoreau was right."

Paul Theroux, novelist and travel writer, The Happy Isles of Oceania (1992)

Starkbierfest 2012 Munich

As the name suggests, the following pictures were taken during the Strong Beer Festival held in Munich.

It was a lot of fun. Good beer, good cheer, good band, good dirndl (typical Bavarian dress which I like immensely for the, well, for the view of women's attributes it provides; the male equivalent is called the lederhosen, and I was told isn't practical "if you're in a hurry to piss", which I guess must be the case quite often considering the number of the pints a lambda Bavarian downs in one sitting.) Warmhearted thanks to my friend who brought me there!

And here's a whiff of the ambiance:

Trip to Landsberg

My friend Johanna brought me to her parents' house in the countryside, about half an hour's train from Munich. Fresh air, fresh food from the garden, lunch on the terrace, horses, trees all around, hills. Cloudless blue sky and sun. Old, lovely house. Paintings old and new on the walls and antiquities everywhere. I cannot thank my friend enough for this getaway trip. I was quite serene after that.

On the way to the railway station, Johanna's parents drove us to Landsberg am Lech, fine little town about 65 kilometres west from Munich. Best known perhaps for its prison where Adolf Hitler was incarcerated after his first putsch in 1924. There he dictated and wrote Mein Kampf, together with Rudolf Hess. Quite famous really.

But all things considered, I prefer Rococo.

Klosterkirche, ceiling. 

End of Klosterkirche

Rococo Rathaus 

 Clock tower

Four pictures above: Mariä Himmelfahrt 

View from the riverbank

Haus der Kunst

Very nice place to spend an afternoon in.

Highlight was the Wilhelm Sasnal exhibition. Very powerful images and sensations. Three paintings have made a deep impression on me (specially the last one), but there were others which were quite interesting too. They're all oil on canvas.

Kacper und Anka (2009) 

Bathers at Asnières (2010)

 Kacper (2009)

Astray

Funny how this picture of Munich's National Theatre got suck somewhere in my camera...found it this morning.

Visionary unheard

"We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy - sun, wind and tide. [...] I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."

Thomas Edison, (amongst others) inventor (1847-1931)
 

Nocturnal trompe-l'oeil

The dead of night’s curtain

Which I thought was pulled down

Lets the cool, white darkness in

Thousand-year-old Catch-22

"Cross it, and trouble lies ahead.
Do not cross, and still you're trouble-bound.
Truly a troublous place
Is the Ford of Shikasuga."

Attributed to Lady Nakatsukasa (912?-991?)


Found in As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams, sort of diary/notebook/travelogue written by an anonymous Japanese woman in the 11th Century, translated by Ivan Morris, note 42, p 118 (Penguin Classics, 1975)


PS: I know I put this poem under the Tanka section, but really I can't come up with the 'Waka' tag just for this one...especially since waka is the former name for tanka.

Link

This is a very interesting site on the art of Sesshū Tōyō, famous Japanese painter (1420-1506). The site is in Italian, though. Enjoy!

Budd's eye

Nasu-no-Yoichi
Saw Buddha behind the fan
The Spring breeze its breath