After a final breakfast,
(definitely the best meal of any day of this trip)
......followed by a taxi to the airport with Peter (another of the many things in life that work better when there are two people), and on to the long, long trip home. As is almost always the case when you leave yourself plenty of time, everything went smoothly - whisked into the first class security line (not because I'm flying first class, lord knows, but just because the line was empty), no trouble about getting my suitcase on the plane, and a handsome young thing to help me put it in the overhead.
and then 10 hours of intense discomfort, but nothing worse than that, and so, home.
As some of you who knew my schedule have figured out, I have been home for two days, and have been playing catch-up with these last posts. I'm back at work, most of the jet lag is over and done with, and I am working mightily to satisfy my craving for ethnic food (if I never see another bratwurst, potato dumpling, or even Weiner schnitzel again, it will be too soon!
Final summing up? I'm very glad to have done the trip. Whatever you might think of him (and I think he was a dreadful little man, mean and petty as well as being an anti-Semite), Wagner was a genius, both in his music and in his design of the Festspielhaus. He was a game-changer in the opera world, and I really don't expect to hear that level of sound again.
I still think that the productions were dreadful: if you don't believe me, read http://bachtrack.com/review-sigfried-bayreuth-august-2014, Nonetheless, I am not at all sorry we came. (In fact, we are already scheming about how to get back when the new production of the Ring is out in 2018!)
Otherwise, I don't need to come back to Southern Germany any time soon. No, I didn't dream of Nazi salutes and jackboots, and yes, the language and culture are very familiar to me - I grew up with them, and am actually quite fond of them. But there are so many other things on my agenda. Next possible trip: Viet Nam and Cambodia, if I can make it work financially.
Meanwhile, back to reality.....
(definitely the best meal of any day of this trip)
......followed by a taxi to the airport with Peter (another of the many things in life that work better when there are two people), and on to the long, long trip home. As is almost always the case when you leave yourself plenty of time, everything went smoothly - whisked into the first class security line (not because I'm flying first class, lord knows, but just because the line was empty), no trouble about getting my suitcase on the plane, and a handsome young thing to help me put it in the overhead.
and then 10 hours of intense discomfort, but nothing worse than that, and so, home.
As some of you who knew my schedule have figured out, I have been home for two days, and have been playing catch-up with these last posts. I'm back at work, most of the jet lag is over and done with, and I am working mightily to satisfy my craving for ethnic food (if I never see another bratwurst, potato dumpling, or even Weiner schnitzel again, it will be too soon!
Final summing up? I'm very glad to have done the trip. Whatever you might think of him (and I think he was a dreadful little man, mean and petty as well as being an anti-Semite), Wagner was a genius, both in his music and in his design of the Festspielhaus. He was a game-changer in the opera world, and I really don't expect to hear that level of sound again.
I still think that the productions were dreadful: if you don't believe me, read http://bachtrack.com/review-sigfried-bayreuth-august-2014, Nonetheless, I am not at all sorry we came. (In fact, we are already scheming about how to get back when the new production of the Ring is out in 2018!)
Otherwise, I don't need to come back to Southern Germany any time soon. No, I didn't dream of Nazi salutes and jackboots, and yes, the language and culture are very familiar to me - I grew up with them, and am actually quite fond of them. But there are so many other things on my agenda. Next possible trip: Viet Nam and Cambodia, if I can make it work financially.
Meanwhile, back to reality.....
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