Music, music, music

Yes, music has been a recurrent theme over the last few days, along with forests and food!

We had some issues leaving Munich, as the path along the River Isar was closed - and I mean closed, no way to get around the barricades - to foot traffic.  This meant "little" detours which turned into quite a long extension to our day.

St Jakob's church in Munich, with the pilgrim shell above the white door.

After negotiating the first 12 kms or so we felt like celebrating when we found the first marker!  The trouble is that we never saw an eating place of any description after we had our second breakfast on the outskirts of Munich, and so it was time to break open one of the boxes of muesli bars I was carrying,  having a couple each and some Roses choccies for lunch - in the drizzle!  There was a reason for this it turned out, because we had intermittent music as we walked alongside the River Isar.

The first Camino sign we saw - roughly 12 kms down the track!

The music was provided by small bands on log rafts.  Their job was to entertain the boozy mob on board, but they did a good job of entertaining us too.  We were surprised on seeing one raft, then another, and another, and another - 12 in total!  Each band had at least 4 members, sometimes 6, all of them with fantastic brass and reed  players, drum kits, guitarists, and even a double bass on one.  It turns out that these log rafts are emulating the journey made by log traders who, years ago, took the logs to Vienna by floating them downstream.  Nowadays the trip is to Vienna, and when they get there they dismantle the logs, put them on trucks and some back to do it all again.    Great employment not only for the oarsmen, but the musicians too.

One of the log rafts heading down the River Isar.  The band are standing near the green umbrella, the clarinet player is in the red jacket, and though you can't see his instrument the trumpeter is standing next to him - in his lederhosen.

Looking back at one of the rafts.  Here you can see the unusual oar they use - the oarsman is standing next to it, and on the right you can see the fancy toilet!

At Kloster Schäftlarn we visited the church just before we left the next morning, and here we were fortunate to hear them putting the organ through its paces in preparation for a special service of ordination for a new priest.

 Approaching the church at Kloster Schläflarn.  This is a very old monastery (early 700's), and still has a role as a monastery today.

....and from another angle

Inside the church Kloster Schäflarn.

We arrived at Kloster Shläflarn on schnitzel night.  This mushroom schnitzel cost €4.80 plus €2.00 for the rosti.

Later in the day, while we were having coffee and cake we heard a band performing, outside the church we think. We ended up in Starnberg for the night, with enough time to spare to take a ferry ride around the lake.

There was a lot of yachting on the lake.

The chapel marking the spot where King Ludwig drowned.

Today we left a little later than intended, fortunately, because this meant that when we got to the village of Maising we arrived just as some special church service was happening.  The locals were all out following the procession, which stopped at various sites along the way for blessings, homilies etc (at least that is what I assume was happening couldn't understand a word!).  All of this was led by the town band - I even recognised one of the hymns "Nearer My God to Thee". We had to be tail end Charlie on the procession till we got to a cafe for a cold drink, as they were taking up the width of the road and we didn't want to disrupt things.  Most people were dressed in traditional dress, the men in their lederhosen and the women in their longish skirts, pretty blouses, waistcoats and aprons.

 The crowd at the outdoor Mass at Maising.

The scene that had stopped the procession a little earlier.

Our day was capped off spectacularly in Kloster Andechs where we had a fabulous lunch of roast pork sauerkraut and potatoes salad sitting right next to a band playing typical German music.  My day was made.  For all the musos out there this is the place where they have a Carl Orff festival, and in one of the little chapel's there is a memorial stone with his names and dates on it.

Walking towards Kloster Andechs.  I decided to be rash and tried climbing the tower - I got up to the bulbous bit and decided I really didn't want to see the view that much and descended!

The church at Kloster Andechs.

And inside the church.

The big lunch we tried to consume (I couldn't eat it all) while listening to the music.