We found a hotel, The Goldenes Schiff (The Golden Ship) -- in Bad Ischl. It was the summer capital of the Austro-Hungarian for at least 60 years. The Crawford, Texas of Emperor Franz Joseph, but with culture and pretty buildings and great pastries.

On the drive here from Munich we were slowed down at one point by young men wearing traditional clothing -- wool hats, lederhosen, etc. -- herding cows across the road.

We had lunch on the way at Hotel Gasthof Mauthaeusl in southern Bavaria. They were having a tournament of the card game Scharfkopf (sharp head), which James's family in Wisconsin, who came from northern Bavaria to the U.S. 150 years ago, also plays.

Last night in Munich, things were already starting to get rowdy one day before the official beginning of Oktoberfest. For the first time I saw drunk, loud, people in the streets. Along the lines of icky people, there was also a CDU/CSU rally (the Christian conservative parties) in Marienplatz, the main square of the historic center.

While watching TV tonight in the hotel room, I saw some performances of pop stars on German TV shows. I was really struck by how "controlled" and choreographed British and American music stars are at this point. The Germans looked so amateurish compared to how our pop stars now look on TV. I'm not saying the music's any better or worse, just that the production values are so different.

We had dinner at a restaurant visible across the narrow Traun river from our hotel room. It's called the Weinhaus Attwenger, and we absolutely had to go there once we read that it was a place where Anton Bruckner dined many times when he stayed here in the summers. There is a plaque near the entrance with a relief of his head in profile and a text telling us this fact.