Nativity play in the snow

At the local Nativity Play

Lindau is a blink-and-you-miss-it village of 218 people in Frankonia, not too far from the border of the Czech Republic. Our hosts, Ricci and her mum Doris, are like many Germans who live in a small village or town but do all their activities in a larger town nearby. Lindau is well-known locally for its Christmas Play, held on the 3rd Sunday of Advent each year. The locals put together a nativity play, laced with regional or even political themes of the day, and it's held in the middle of the village, surrounded by the ubiquitous stalls selling gluwein, bratwurst and various regional sweets. Of course we didn't understand much (the odd "Gott", "Maria" and "Josef" are pretty easy to understand in any language.)

The 3 kings look the same anywhere

The weather has been lousy, so we've been a bit limited for activities. However, Doris and Ricci have taken us around a bit, to Kulmbach, the local town which is most famous for its beer, and to Beyreuth, which is home to Richard Wagner. We went to a very old wooden opera house, the oldest in the northern hemisphere (circa. 1780) where Wagner staged many of his operas. Napoleon apparently visited and was so taken with the beautiful stage curtain that he nicked it and sent it to his father-in-law as a gift! Richard Wagner became frustrated with the limited size of this one and built his own further up the hill, and both opera houses are still used today.

Sampling the local Kulmbach brew

It has been a mix of snow and rain in the last couple of days, but I did manage to get out and do a geocache that was not buried in snow! It is beautiful outside in the snow, as long as you are well rugged up.