To Salzburg Day 6

An earlier wake up today (perhaps we should not have crowed about beating jet lag yesterday) and we enjoy a repeat of Day 5 breakfast – successfully creating a double espresso this time.

Since we have a whole of Bayern transport pass today we take the U2 one stop to Sendlinger Tor to see the Asamkirche (St Johann Nepomuk). It is being vaccuumed inside and out and all tourists are shooed away by a determined little nun. So we walk back through Platzen and the old Botanischer Garten.

After introducing our newcomer to Viktualienmarkt we head back to the Asamkirche via the river. Amazing paintings reward us when we get inside, plus some organ practice.

Asamkirche, Munich

We are just in time to catch our train to Salzburg HBF which is packed this Friday afternoon. Luckily Mr 32’s wariness based on prior experience of European trains saves us from ending up at Rosenheim due to being in the wrong half of the train.

Train to Salzburg

We arrive in Salzburg at 5pm and make way to the apartment – with some difficulty. Dinner en route to the river involves Dumplings, Spargel, Huhn and Bieren and then the long walk home.

Too late I find out that 6 June is International Doughnut Day. Do doughnuts have holes in Europe?

Schloss and Biergarten Day 5

After our breakfast picnic and a slight incident with the in-room coffee machine, we catch our first München tram and find the expansive Schloss Nymphenburg sitting in the middle of a suburb. Following the lines of kindergarten children with backpacks we admire the approach – and realise this is only the back entrance.

Schloss Nyphemburg

Inside the Schloss is a Gallery of Beauties full of portraits of young women admired by Ludwig I of Bavaria. All beautiful, and one slightly familiar.

Portrait of Lola Montez in Schloss Nymphenburg

Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld (aka Lola Montez) one-time mistress of Liszt arrived in Munich in 1846 and took up with King Ludwig. In 1855-56 she also had a fling with Australia, performing on the Victorian goldfields and causing a stir in Ballarat according to many Australian press reports of the day. It is interesting to compare how the German Wikipedia article treats Lola. No separate sections on the United States and Australia, and a long list of Lola references in the arts subdivided by artform, whereas the English article has an unordered list entitled ‘legacy’.

Swans in gardens at Schloss Nymphenburg

There are many more beauties of the horticultural kind outside the Schloss in the extensive gardens including mini Schloss and greenhouses.

Beeren

On the way back school is out with kids on bikes filling the streets. Another stop at a fruit stall to replenish our Erdbeeren and Himbeeren box.

Waldwirtschaft

Next challenge is the train to Großhesselohe-Isartalbahnhof where we arrive at Biergarten Waldwirtschaft for our rendezvous with Mr 32 just in time. English jazz plays in the background to pleasant catching up on cycling adventures and downing the mass bier, some roast pork, sauerkraut and pommes.

Munich Day 4

After a long but not too uncomfortable night we land at Franz Josef Strauß airport. A very helpful young Munchener man returning from LA to visit his parents buys us a group ticket at the airport machine so we travel as his groupies the 40 minutes to Hauptbahnhof and then he sets us towards Dachauerstraße. Our hotel not surprisingly is not expecting us at 6am. Though they offer us a smoking room we opt to leave our luggage and come back later for our non-smoking room.

With no plan in view, we dodge the cyclists and early morning utility vehicles everywhere through Platzen and Gassen, surprised when our mobile devices start downloading messages. Big thanks to eduroam.edu.au – university wifi to go – even en voyàge.

St Michael’s Church is the favourite find. From street level there is little sign of what is inside.

Sankt Michael sign

Angelic door handles

Not expecting to be able to open the massive doors but trying just in case.

St Michael’s Church, Munich

Finally we find our way to the Englischer Garten. Pleased to sit on a bench at the Frauen coffee shop near the gate for espresso, chocolate croissant, and the first beer of the day Neumarketer Lammsbräu Urstoff half litre bottle.

There is some statistical data about the garden in the in the Wikipedia article that makes it clear our visit is a taste only.

Total length of paths and walkways: roughly 75 km (26 km roads, 36 km footpaths, 13 km bridlepaths)
Length of streams: 8.75 km
Bridges: over 100

Wonder why this is buried in the article rather than in the Infobox? Note that the Infobox for park is being considered for merging with the Infobox for protected areas. A consideration for another day.

We did see a stream surfer from our bridge.

Off to the Viktualienmarkt for supplies, to the hotel to unpack and rest. Then back to St Michael’s for the 17:00 organ music, a quick schnitzel and the long Day 4 ends.

Sydney to Singapore Day 3

Keynote 2 is complete and went well if the buzz afterwards was any indication. Feels strange to have no further bookings for presentations in the calendar. Thinking of everyone getting started at #EduTech in Brisbane today.

It was great to catch the session following mine on the Dictionary of Sydney which was described by presenter Lisa Murray @SydneyClio as Not the Wikipedia of Sydney.

Unlike Wikipedia, the Dictionary’s articles are authored by and attributed to historians, and Dictionary of Sydney can contain multiple articles on the one subject. Lisa acknowledges the good relationship their project has with Wikipedians especially Sydney wiki folk.

Features of the Dictionary of Sydney include permanent, logical and easy to cite URLs, good metadata, and entries harvested into Trove at article level. It includes useful thematic entries such as education, children, culture and customs, and history of ethnic communities.

The new Old Irish Sydney walking tour app is sponsored by the Government of Ireland.

A cause for celebration is the recent publication of K-6 educational support resources centred around the critical and creative thinking general capability – all thanks to Sydney teacher librarian, Christina Aloisio.

The virtues of a subject thesaurus are promoted in the Dictionary of Sydney. The vocabulary is currently carefully managed by a noted librarian working in a volunteer capacity. The amount of metadata for their image and audio resources is growing.

Thanks to all the contributors to Dictionary of Sydney.

Then it is time to head to the airport and resume The Voyage. Other than stupidly throwing out my boarding passes with the conference presentation notes back at the convent, progress through checkin and passport control is easy. The WikiVoyage App comes in handy as reading material but is not really required for finding our way around Sydney or Singapore airports. Our Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore is comfortable and Grand Hotel Budapest is finally off the movie to-see list.

SQ328

What did I learn from Wikimedia Day 1?

I am thinking ‘what I learned from Wikimedia today’ might be a theme for #blogjune 2014.

Day 1 is spent packing for a rest of June voyage. The wiki that is top of mind is WikiVoyage – a relatively new addition to the Wikimedia family. Not one I have had much need of up till now. A good way to evaluate the quality of a travel service is to check out what it says about a place you already know well. So how is the Australian content on WikiVoyage?

multicultural and sports-mad, this vibrant city includes many cultural institutions…

Seems close enough to Melbourne to me. The main Melbourne article currently has a ‘districting debate‘ underway which those more Melburnian than me might like to talk to.

The food and public transport information seems pretty reliable, although I did have to add the tip about the tramTRACKER app which was the first thing I learned from my Melbourne mentor.

BTW I really don’t like editing wiki on the tablet. But perhaps I’ll learn to love it more after a month of no laptop.