Spring Events

A photo from the home front (thanks Justin)…

My mom did quite well recently with celebrations and events which landed her with the cornucopia of color above.

Between her birthday on the 7th, Kentucky Derby Day on the same day, Mother’s Day the very next day on the 8th, family visiting from afar and a general celebration of spring – Mom’s table stayed bright and beautiful for quite some time. 🙂

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At the end of one of the final posts of my wonderful R&R trip (Schloss Linderhof) I hinted about yet more travel looming just off the horizon.  Where am I going next in the not too distant future?  Home!

Easter Sunrise

Yes, I know we are way past Easter at this point and even quickly bearing down on Memorial Day, but I really wanted to share our totally awesome (dude) Easter Sunrise Service here at Shindand Airforce Base.   My Facebook followers have seen these pictures already – just had to capture it on the blog.

It was a beautiful Easter Sunday morning, and cool enough for the wearing of jackets.  A larger crowd than expected gathered around the basketball court (next to the chapel) in the quiet pre-dawn darkness.  In the photo below we were treated to some pre-sunrise music, as well as scripture readings as the service got underway. 

I hadn’t attended a sunrise service in so long I don’t even remember, but this was certainly special.  Sitting in a cold metal folding chair on the interlocking matting for a basketball court on a tiny airbase in western Afghanistan – and so far from home.  Surreal even.  The beautifully colored and ever-changing sky as the sun rose over the distant mountains and the nearer hesko walls, sunlight glinting off the trumpet and the guitars and the M-4s… 

As the service ended and the sun was rising over the hesko barriers, the sun (and risen Son) was greeted by the clear sweet tones of the trumpet seen in the first photo above, the sound of which gave chills and goosebumps not caused by the temperature.

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A special thanks to all the Chaplains, musicians and other participants who helped make this a memorable morning.  And yes, the lady Airman is very very tall!

Real Snow, And Hail, And Dust

Spring on the FOB has sprung…  I love the shot above with the wee little wild weed bravely struggling up through the rocks.  Many patches of these are growing along the sunny but arid base of the many hesko walls in the area.  A lot of different types of weather, and mostly abrupt and unexpected changes (can’t watch the weather roll in on the radar like back home – I miss that).

The snow below came in late February or early March, shortly before heading out for R&R.  An actual snow that was pretty cool.  I say “real snow” because prior to this, all we had experienced were a couple of light flake events that you could barely call flurries.  Winter in the desert…  But this event had started out as rain and even though the temperature was dropping, no one expected anything to really “stick”.  Then the flakes started coming down pretty thick and heavy – huge flakes – huge clumps of flakes actually.  The photo below was taken just shortly after the rain had changed over to snow.

So the Hummer got a little snow-covered as well as the SUV, but as you can see in the photos below something is different between the two.  That something is the fact that I took the SUV out over to the other side of base and snowing or not, the prior rains had turned the moon dust to slop.  Big slippery slimy honkin’ big piles and puddles of slop.  So the SUV’s snow cover clashed directly with the mud splashing all over – which do you say won?  The snow survived without being completely “washed” off by the muddy muck, but the pristine snowy whiteness is history.

      

And then, hail back on the 9th of April.  We heard the thunder and knew it was trying to rain, but then the heavens opened up with a hail so heavy and thick, and so long a duration, I was seriously wondering if Afghanistan had tornadoes.  It wasn’t huge hail, but came down in sheets.  And, picture sitting in a thin-walled tin can in a massive hail storm with dime-sized hail.  Yeah, that was me in my conex.  Can you say D-E-A-F-E-N-I-N-G?  What?  Can’t hear you!

The photo above is courtesy of the Shindand USO folks and that’s all hail, not snow.  Just plain simple hail that quickly melted and then ran in under the tent walls onto the floors of the USO.

Is the next photo epic or what?  Hidalgo flashbacks. 

A beautiful pre-summer day in May (the 4th) until the late afternoon when we hear a warning come across the radio that a dust storm is approaching and we’d better tie everything down and take cover.  So of course we all immediately go outside and find a spot to watch it roll in.  One guy said, “Cool.  Let’s go to dinner.”  So we did.  With our neck gaiters and scarves and whatever to keep the grit out of our mouths and nostrils.

A dust storm is pretty much what it looks like – a hot, brown, swirling, choking fog which obscures the sun and nearly everything else.  Strange thing is, the wind (and all other sounds) seem muted even though it’s pretty much gale force.  As we drove over to the DFAC there were a couple of times we had to just stop as you literally couldn’t see past your own bumper.  When it finally settled down there came a terrific thunderstorm with torrential rains.  Weirdest thing?  Almost exactly the same scenario and intensity and timing the following afternoon as well.

Definitely Spring on the FOB.  And in the past few days I’ve seen bunches of one of my favorite flowers, hollyhocks, blooming alongside the roadways (saw many of them at Bagram last summer too). 

But the high temperature we hit last week already?  Over 100 degrees.  Hello summer…

The Music of Europe

Some planned well in advance, some spur of the moment – here’s a tour of the musical wonders we experienced and enjoyed in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Austria…

Munich, Germany – The Munich Philharmonic (Die Münchner Philharmoniker):

This was a formal concert in the impressive concert hall Gasteig (see above) of the Munich Philharmonic.  I had arranged for purchase of the two tickets above for this event a couple of months ahead with the assistance of the Philharmonic’s website and the concierge at the Hilton we stayed at, just a few doors down from the Gasteig.  It’s amazing what a little pre-planning, the internet and a couple of emails can accomplish.  The timing was critical, if coincidental, as Justin arrived in Munich the morning of this concert.  Also, the event was sold out but our clever concierge managed to snag the tickets (at an exorbitant price – but not really, compared to classical music concert prices in the States).  The hotel merely held the tickets until I checked in and I paid for them with the room.

The musical details are as follows:

Johannes Brahms – Variations for Orchestra on a Theme by Franz Joseph Haydn in B-flat major Opus 56a
Ludwig van Beethoven – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 in E flat major, Opus 73
Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 7 in A major, Opus 92

Christian Thielemann, Conductor
Hélène Grimaud, Piano

Justin and I dressed in our best and walked arm in arm down to the venue, oohed and aahed over the hall itself and settled in for a truly wonderful concert.  Hard to go wrong with Brahms and Beethoven, and the pianist was fantastic.  Justin however, as much as he was enjoying the concert was also fighting the jet-lag from a 12-hour flight and multiple time zone changes, understandably nodded off once or twice.

Salzburg, Austria – Mozart Dinner Concert (St. Peter Stiftskeller):

      

As mentioned in the post The Sound of Mozart, Salzburg is a city much in love with its most famous native son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and every day of every year there is some sort of musical event which occurs celebrating Mozart’s music, whether it be a formal concert, opera or open air extravaganza.  Once we arrived and settled into our hotel (a trendy boutique guesthouse called Arte Vida) that first evening, I did some net-surfing to see what might be available even in the off-season.  Found this dinner concert that seemed to be a bit pricey at 40 euros per person.  But hey, it’s vacation, right?  So I purchased our tickets online for the next evening, not really knowing from the descriptions what to expect.

After a full day of sight-seeing all over the city and beyond, we cleaned up, dressed up, and once again strolled arm in arm down the streets, across the Salzach River into the old town, over to the beautiful baroque-designed St. Peter’s Abbey.  We didn’t explore the church itself but I have heard it is as gorgeous as many of the others we’ve seen in our travels.   It was here that Mozart’s famed Mass in C Minor premiered in 1783, with his wife Constanze singing the lead soprano role.  Mozart often directed the orchestra and choir here and played its organ.  During Salzburg’s summer mega-music festival in August, the Mass in C Minor is still performed here as part of a church music concert.

After admiring the night-time view of St. Peter’s (above), we headed on over to experience the promised “unique candlelit concert performed by opera singers in period costume – a musical and culinary temptation in the stylish setting of the restaurant Stiftskeller St. Peter”.  And all I can say is wow, wow, wow. 

The venue was fabulous – very elegant with multitudes of white candles, white linen tablecloths and white clothe-covered chairs (see above) with waiters all decked out in fancy black suits reminiscent of the 18th century.  That’s me in the chair way up front on the left – great seats…  There were five musicians and a male and female soloist, all dressed in period costumes, and they were awesome!  Not a dinner concert, a highly professional dinner concert and opera!  You can see the menu and music selections in the photo below – the music and songs were from three of Mozart’s most well-known operatic compositions – Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute.  Although I didn’t always recognize the name of each piece, I was familiar with most of the music (speaks to the popularity and enduring quality of Mozart’s work).

      

Our three-course Mozart-Dinner was prepared according to traditional 18th-century recipes and served during the intermissions.  The menu items were as follows:

• A lemon soup with quark rosemary dumpling and a cream foam on the top

• Roasted capon breast (small fowl) with pumpkin ball, semolina strudel and vegetables from Father Prior´s garden

• A semi-frozen honey parfait with two kinds of fruit sauces

Strange sounding and at times strange-looking but oh my – so yummy.  We let ourselves be transported into the Salzburg of Mozart’s time, complete with the colorful costumes and culinary delights popular in the late 18th century.  Wisked off to a world of enchantment as we enjoyed the music and singing and acting of the selected Mozart pieces.  It was a long night with much more music and singing than food – it was very late and we were exhausted but happy as we strolled back through the beautiful city.

Bratislava, Slovakia – Slovak Philharmonic (Slovenská Filharmónia):

This was more of an informal concert as it was held in a local church without reserved seating, but was also scheduled months ahead of the actual trip in the same manner as the Munich concert and it was also a sell-out.  Think it cost like 5 euros – awesome deal!  Sure wish Justin had been with me as it was a really enjoyable program.  Some of my favorite music (Vivaldi) in a more intimate setting although it was standing-room-only in that crowded church, floor and balcony.   The Philharmonic is larger than it appears in the photo below, as the first row or two of the floor seating also held musicians (the horns were hidden there, as well as a lot of strings and woodwinds).  The chorale section was only present during the final piece, but the entire concert was tremendous.  Fine music is a universal language and it’s obvious that the Bratislavans love theirs. 

The musical details are as follows:

Antonio Vivaldi – Concert for violin and string orchestra in E Major Spring RV 269

Franz Schubert – Ave Maria D.839

Johann Sebastian Bach / Charles Gounod – Ave Maria

Antonín Dvořák – Biblical Songs Op. 99

Ewald Danel, conductor;  Milan Masiarik, choirmaster ;  Katarína Turnerová, harp

This was a thoroughly enjoyable Sunday afternoon concert – great musical selections, intimate setting, personable Conductor (not that I understood any of his Slovakian speech), musicians who love what they are doing and an appreciative crowd.  That, and since it was too far to walk I hitched a ride both ways with the Hotel Kempinski’s snazzy BMWs.  It felt nice to be chauffeured around town.

Came across the sign below in my wanderings the next day around the Bratislava old town area, an advertisement of the Philharmonic’s concert schedule for March (“Marec” in Slovakian).

Innsbruck, Austria – Tyrolean Folk Music and Dance (Tiroler Abend – Familie Gundolf):

Searching the ‘net while chilling in a little cafe’ tucked into a produce market (and also sampling the fresh bread and grilled wieners), I looked for but did not find any classical music offerings for the time I was in Innsbruck.  Saw the advertisements for the Tiroler Abend (Tyrolean Evening) several places, passed over it a couple of times because it seemed a bit touristy, but then thought – why not?  Went back to the ol’ gastehaus and the innkeeper called to make the arrangements for me, for dinner and a show that very night.  For a few euros the venue folks would come and pick me up, and drop me back at the inn afterwards.

Before the show, a traditional (and very tasty) three-course menu:

Tyrolean cream of herb soup
Viennese excalope (veal) with potatoes and mixed salad
Apple strudl with whipped cream

PROGRAM:

Music
Schuhplattler “Reith im Winkel” (a shoe-slapping folk-dance)
Yodel-song
Tyrolean Figure-Dance
Song on the Singing Saw
Yodel-song
Schuhplattler = Cross Polka (a folk dance)
Solo on the Country-Harp
Alphornklänge = Alphorn-sounds (see photo above – beautiful tones!)
Solo on specially tuned cow-bells
Yodel-song
Hackbrett – typical Tyrolean string instrument
Tiroler Holzhackertanz = Wood Choppers Dance (probably my favorite)

Intermission (refreshment time – picture many tall mugs of beer being distributed – I stayed with my Diet Coke, thank you – also the selling of CDs and DVDs – I’ll take the DVD, thanks)

Innsbrucker Fanfare
Yodel-song
Solo on the Zither
The Millers Dance
Raffele = old Tyrolean string instrument
Jealousy Dance (hilarious)
Hölzernes G`lachter = wooden Xylophone
Cowbell Dance
Yodel-song
Miners Dance (this one was awesome)
Bozner Bergsteigermarsch = The March of the Mountaineers

Finale (popular songs of visiting countries)

The Gundolf Family has been doing this for four decades (and the family has been involved musically for centuries), and it really is still a family affair as well as an affair of the heart.  The family patriarch (Ernst Gundolf) loves the music and dance of his homeland and wishes to see it preserved and passed on.  The family has travelled the world with this show, and won many awards so it is no wonder they are known as the musical ambassadors of the city of Innsbruck and the Tyrol across the world.

For me it was a fun and enjoyable evening in my favorite Austrian city that I was glad to have experienced.

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And that is it for the whirlwind three-country tour – one week with my son and two weeks on my own.  So much more I could share and so many reasons to want to return.  But now it’s back to the FOB – have much to share since I’ve already been back in Shindand over a month and a half!  Unreal…

Ludwig’s Fountain Horse

In a previous post (Schloss Linderhof) I mentioned peeking behind the boarded up Neptune Fountain at the base of the northern cascade waterfall immediately behind King Ludwig’s beautiful castle, Linderhof, and coming face to face with a large horse statue there.  Well, above she be – the more I thought about it, the more I thought she’d make a nice little post, seeing as I actually had a picture and all.  Figured I should share…

This doesn’t count as my last R&R post either, not yet! 🙂

Epic Germany

So, here’s an R&R nugget that I promise is not the final R&R post…

Felt I had to share what I believe to be the most epic shot of the trip – my son near the summit of the highest peak in Germany, taken by an automatic tourist camera and downloaded off the internet – for free actually.  This shot of Justin and the cross on Zugspitze, just as a snow squall was moving in behind, not yet blotting out the sun…

Epic.

And looking at the date stamp in the bottom left-hand corner, it was taken exactly two months ago today, on the 13th.  That wasn’t a Friday the 13th, but today is – and a good day (Justin was born on a Friday the 13th) – so thought I would post it on the 13th at 13:13… 🙂

The photo below isn’t quite as epic, but still pretty cool.  Ja!

Schloss Linderhof

Very near to Oberammeragau (as well as the Ettal Monastery) and just a short bus ride away is another of King Ludwig’s famous castles, the Linderhof Palace.  Not soaring and mystical like the fairytale castle Neuschwaunstein but rather small actually, for a castle and all.   Possibly my favorite though…

Linderhof was completed in 1886 after about ten years of construction.  Although much smaller than Versailles, it is evident that the palace of the French Sun-King Louis XIV (who was an idol of Ludwig’s) was Linderhof’s inspiration.  The photo below is a quickly grabbed shot of a statue of King Louis in the entry foyer of the castle, and you can certainly see the evidence of Ludwig’s admiration of the sun-king.  It was here we received our binders with the tour information in english (or whatever language you needed) as the tour for the time slot I needed was given in German.   

 

The interiors of the palace were very opulent and luxurious and yes, palatial (no surprise) and gorgeous.  Indescribably rich details in the furnishings and modern – for the time – conveniences that Ludwig installed.  For example, his private dining table – an intricate and beautiful piece – could be lowered through the floor down to the kitchen where his meals were laid out.  The table was then raised back up into the king’s chamber so he could eat in private without being bothered by servants going in and out.

In the photos below, the picture on the left was taken from the gazebo (which was built to be a music pavilion) in the picture on the right…  That is not a staircase lined with statues (covered with wooden boxes for winter protection) that you see leading down the hillside to the back of the schloss, but an elaborate man-made waterfall and fountain system.  The wonderful system continues on in front of the castle – to the left and right as well – with pools and fountains and more statues leading back up the hill on the face side to the large statue of Venus (seen way in the background of the first photo below).

       

The grounds, gardens and fountains here will be phenomenal in just a few weeks, and my heart aches that I won’t be able to see it.  Just means I’ll have to come back some day!  Some research indicates these gardens are considered one of the most beautiful creations of historicist garden design.  The park combines formal elements of the romantic Baroque style gardens with landscaped sections similar to the English garden.  The gardens are subdivided into five sections that are decorated with allegoric sculptures of the continents, the seasons and the elements:

The northern part behind the palace is characterized by the cascade of thirty marble steps.  The bottom end of the cascade is formed by the Neptune fountain and on top of it there is a Music Pavilion (again, the pictures above).  I took a peek around behind the protective wooden covering on the Neptune fountain, and found myself nose-to-nose with a full-sized rearing horse!  Coolness.

The center of the western section is formed by a basin with the gilt figure of “Fama” and there is also a pavilion with the bust of Louis XIV.  In front of it you see a fountain with the gilt sculpture “Amor with dolphins”.  This section is decorated with four majolica vases.  This area as well as the southern section was very shaded and still had mounds of snow lying about.

The crowning of the eastern section is a wooden pavilion containing the bust of Louis XVI.  Twenty-four steps below it there is a fountain basin with a gilt sculpture “Amor shooting an arrow”.  A sculpture of “Venus and Adonis” is located between the basin and the palace.

The water section in the southern area in front of the castle is dominated by a large basin with the gilt fountain group “Flora and puttos”.  The fountain itself shoots nearly 25 meters high.  Of course, as I said before, at this time the fountains and all statues are still covered for winter.  *sigh*  The terrace gardens here correspond to the cascade in the north.  On the landing of the first flight there is the “Naiad fountain” consisting of three basins and the sculptures of water nymphs.  In the middle arch of the niche is a bust of Marie Antoinette of France.  These gardens are crowned by the round “temple” with a statue of Venus, seen in the photo below.  All this set with an Alpine backdrop is stunning!

The landscape gardens cover an area of about 125 acres and are perfectly integrated into the surrounding natural mountain and meadow landscape.  There are also several buildings of rather unique and different appearance located in the Linderhof park:

The Venus Grotto is a cave and lake construction that is wholly artificial and was built for the king as an illustration of the First Act of composer Richard Wagner’s “Tannhäuser”.  Ludwig liked to be rowed over the tiny lake in his golden swan-boat as the complicated lighting changed the colors reflecting off the water and “cave” walls.  The Hunding’s Hut was also inspired by Wagner’s in his direction for the First Act of the “Valkyrie”.  Ludwig used to celebrate Germanic feasts in this house.  The Gurnemanz Hermitage is a spot where Ludwig went for contemplation every year on Good Friday.  For this day he always wanted a flowering meadow and if there was no such meadow at the time because there was still snow lying about, the garden director had to plant one for the king.

The structures described above are very baroque in their design and appearance, but Ludwig was also interested in the oriental world.  Case in point the Moorish kiosk.  This building was designed by the German architect Karl von Diebitsch for the International Exhibition in Paris 1867.  Ludwig was eventually able to purchase the kiosk (after being beat out by a rail baron) and the most notable piece of furniture of this building is the peacock throne.  The Moroccan House had really been constructed in Morocco for the International Exhibition in Vienna 1873.  The king bought it in 1878 and had it moved here.  But, this and some of the other structures out on the palace grounds were not yet open to visitors for the season, unfortunately.  I had to rely on exterior views and guide books here…

And of course, no Ludwig residence is complete without the presence of swans – these guys were pretty huge. 

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The photo below shows the end of the rail line, in Oberammergau, and also the end of the line for my lovely European holiday.  One more post will describe some of the musical events we enjoyed while gallivanting about, but that will bring a close to this wonderful R&R.

A morning train ride back to Murnau then up to Munich.  Had a few hours to kill before my flight so grabbed a wiener at the main train station and hopped on an ICE (high-speed) train.  Not even sure where I went (Augsburg, I think) but rode for about an hour, got off then hopped the next train back to Munich.  The German ICE trains are fast, no doubt, at upwards of 200kph, but Austria’s RailJets are nicer and nearly as speedy.

One last train ride out to the Munich International Airport, camped out for a while at a WiFi hotspot, got hit on by a drunken Norwegian on his way to South Africa (he was kinda cute), then boarded a Lufthansa red-eye flight bound for Dubai.  Arrived in Dubai only an hour and a half before my morning flight to Kandahar so nearly killed myself getting around to the other terminal (always a challenge in Dubai – passport control is s-l-o-w), only to find out the flight was delayed for three hours due to weather in Bastion.  Walked back over to the nearby McDonald’s for my standard Dubai airport breakfast of a Quarter-Pounder, fries and diet Coke (had to ask for the three ice cubes I got and the guy looked at me like I was an alien).  This McDonald’s does not serve breakfast food, but does advertise a Chicken Big Mac and the McArabia (a grilled chicken thing on some sort of flatbread – don’t really know).

A couple of days in Kandahar then back to the grind at Shindand.  Bittersweet, except that more travel is looming just off the horizon…

Oberammergau

The train ride from Innsbruck through Garmisch to Oberammergau, Germany, climbing through and across the beautiful snow-covered alpine scenery was the most spectacular of this trip, hands down.  Wanna do it again just because…  I love the rail systems in Europe – we had Eurail passes for Germany and Austria (and it cost me a whopping 4.10 euro to cross over into Slovakia, round trip) and could easily get wherever we were going on any particular day, with amazingly short waits at any station.  On this trip I had to change trains at Murnau, a couple of stops north of Garmisch.  Road a small local train for almost an hour over to the end of its line at Oberammergau (the track literally ended about a meter from where the train stopped).

Oberammergau is a beautiful little burg famous for a couple of things.  One, it is filled with amazingly skilled craftsmen (and women) who do wood carvings – everything from life-size statues to tiny intricate Christmas ornaments, religious figurines to gnomes, cuckoo clocks to crosses.  I very nearly bought one of the clocks, and would have except my last day there was a Sunday and almost everything was closed up. 

The town is surrounded by mountains like most in this southern part of Germany, although the peaks were not quite so high.  The most dominating crag as seen below (first shot is heavily zoomed) also has a cross mounted on its summit.  I was told you can walk (hike, climb?) to the summit in the summer, but the trail is still choked with snow or wet and slippery so inaccessible at the moment.

I spent much time wandering the streets, looking at the wonderfully quaint architecture and highly decorative houses and shop buildings you can see in the photos.  Oberammergau is also well-known for its many buildings with their fantastic tromp l’oeil images that are painted onto their facades.  The multitude of wood shops were amazing – much wow overload.  Food as usual was awesome here as everywhere else we’ve been, whether it was a simple hotel eatery popular with locals and visitor alike, or the ever-popular and always busy Cafe Paradise, with more seating out on the sidewalk than inside.

A quick peek into the local church which dominates the local landscape (St. Peter and Paul) revealed another gorgeous place of prayer and worship.  This beautiful baroque-period church escaped war damage as did most of Oberammergau.

The other major thing Oberammergau is famous for is their Passion Play.  This highly elaborate and expansive production is only performed once every decade.  And they have been doing it since 1634, nearly four centuries!

The town’s residents vowed that if God spared them from the effects of the bubonic plague ravaging across Europe, they would produce a play every ten years thereafter for all time depicting the life and death of Jesus.  Very few people died and villagers believed they were spared  – they kept their part of the vow and the play was first performed in 1634.  The most recent performance was in 2010.  The play is staged every ten years, in the final year of each decade – so the next one will be in 2020 (mark your travel calendars).  However, additional performances are also sometimes worked into the mix, such as the one in 1934 to commemorate the 300-year anniversary of the original vow, and again in 1984 in celebration of the 350th anniversary of that first play in 1634. 

There were at least two years in which the scheduled performance did not take place.  In 1770, Oberammergau was informed that all passion plays in Bavaria had been banned by order of the Ecclesiastical Council at the behest of the Roman Catholic Church, and so the performance was cancelled.  In 1780, the play was renamed The Old and New Testament, and having been assured that the play was “purged of all objectionable and unseemly matter” the performance of the play was approved.  By 1830, the Catholic Church had succeeded in halting the performance of all other passion plays in Bavaria – only the Oberammergau play remained.

In 1940 World War II also forced cancellation of the year’s scheduled performance.

The Passion Play, now performed repeatedly over the course of five months during the first year of each decade, involves over 2,000 performers, musicians, and stage technicians – over half the town as all are residents of Oberammergau.  The play comprises spoken dramatic text, musical and choral accompaniment and tableaux vivants, scenes from the Old Testament depicted for the audience by motionless actors accompanied by verbal description.  And it is a long performance – the play has a running time of about seven hours, with a meal break provided.  Audiences have come from all over the world throughout the centuries to experience the production.

In 1890 a new, purpose-built theatre was built and it would have looked much as it does today.  The theatre was enlarged in time for the 1930 and 1934 seasons and while it was considered ugly and uncomfortable it was praised for its superb acoustics and sight of the stage.  Following the 1990 production both the interior and façade of the theatre were renovated and the stage mechanics modernized.  Today, if still unassuming and lacking the opulence common in other venues, the theatre can seat an audience of over 4700 (see photo below).

The economic impact of the Passion Play upon Oberammergau cannot be underestimated, as is witnessed by the local expression “Die Passion zahlt” which translates to “The Passion Play will pay for it.”  

In another interesting note, the mistress of the lovely local guesthouse I was staying in (Gastehaus Richter) had some major bragging rights – her son, Andreas Richter, played the lead role of Jesus in last year’s performances.

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Long dry spell, posting-wise!  Back at Shindand and hitting work hard (or work is hitting hard) – usually at my desk until after 10pm every night of the week.  Excuses!  Two more R&R posts and then back to the busyness, craziness of FOB Shindand.  No, wait – Shindand Airbase. 🙂