Road trip north, part 12

Munich: to some, it's the land of beer. To others, it's the home of the BMW museum and factory tour! Tip for visitors: try to book ahead for the tour in English. Otherwise you end up on the German tour and have no idea what the guide is saying. In our case, the tour guide wouldn't even give us the earphones so we didn't even get to try to hear what was said. Still, you can see factory workers and robots putting together the various parts of the cars and pretty much figure out what's going on.

No photos are allowed on the factory tour, alas, but we did take some in the museum. A classic motorcycle:



There were some real beauties on display.



What lines! Smooooooth.



And oh, yeah, we looked at the town as well. Here's the Town Hall (Neues Rathaus).



We were lucky to catch some great chamber music on the street. Ever seen buskers with a piano before? Not exactly the usual instrument of choice of street musicians.



Here in Bavaria and also in the Tyrol (Austria and parts of northern Italy), we noticed many shops that sell traditional clothing, like lederhosen, caps with a jaunty feather, and sort of peasant girl/milkmaid outfits. In Munich, non-traditional colors are available, as shown below.

Road trip north, part 11

Does anyone know what these flowers are? We saw huge fields of them all over the Czech countryside.



Kutna Hora is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a former silver mining town.



Miners even figure in the cathedral's 15th-century frescoes.



On to Prague, the beautiful capital city.

Here's a closeup of the astronomical clock in the main square.



Spires and statues.



A view from a hill.



Intricate design on this facade.



The famous Charles Bridge.



Is this guy proposing marriage to the deer? If not, what is this about?



The Vltava River.



A mural that makes one think. You might not be able to tell, but it's the infinity symbol.

Road trip north, part 10

Olomouc, Czech Republic. Doesn't ring a bell? It's a city in the eastern part of the country, in the region of Moravia. It was conveniently on our way between Krakow and Prague, and it was approaching dinner time, so we stopped there. (Note: restaurants in Olomouc close much earlier than those in Rome. Be sure to finish your meal by 9!)

Olomouc's Holy Trinity Column (another baroque plague column) is a UNESCO World Heritage-listed monument.



There are several fountains around Olomouc. The one shown below is the Arion fountain. Arion was a mythical singer who was saved from drowning by a dolphin attracted by Arion's song. As you might be able to tell, this sculpture is contemporary (completed in 2002).



On one wall of the Town Hall is an interesting astronomical clock. This one is different than many others that we've seen in that it features scientists, workers, and athletes rather than saints and religious figures. Apparently the communists replaced the original religious-themed clock with this one between 1947 and 1955.


At noon the little figures near the top rotate around, and the blacksmith hammers in time to the clock chime.



Saw this ad outside a shop. Does that photo make you want to buy those glasses?

Road trip north, part 9

This may not merit its own post, but I forgot to mention something about Poland in part 7 of the Road Trip North posts. The topic is dubbing.

American television shows and films are popular around the world, and they are often dubbed into the local language before being broadcast. For example, here in Italy we can watch Lost, Rescue Me, Veronica Mars, West Wing, Alias, and other shows in Italian. Actors speak in Italian over the lip movements of the original American actors. You can tell it's dubbed, but it's done fairly well with emotion, not just saying lines.

In Poland, though, it's another story. There aren't multiple actors playing each dubbed part. Instead, there's just one guy called a lektor reading the script. He reads every line of every character, whether it's a man or woman, little kid or old person. He uses the same monotone voice no matter how dramatic the situation. I read that it's a holdover from Communist times. Seriously lame! I wonder if this annoys Polish viewers. I found it at first laughable, but then unwatchable. They should go with subtitles.

The Wall Street Journal published this article about it in 2007.