reichenbach im vogtland, saxony

reichenbach im vogtland, a small saxon city with huge industrial and theatre history was our 1st stop at the year's end trip to the national park saxon switzerland (sächsische schweiz).

all our stops were (separate blog posts will follow as soon as i will find the time to write them, i promise):
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• reichenbach ~ read more in this blog post below :-)
• bad schandau / sächsische schweiz ~ the place we stayed for a week with beautiful (not too difficult) hiking trips all around 
• dresden + pillnitz ~ this time we have visited with friends the palace pillnitz and the eastern part of dresden (the bridge das blaue wunder, TV tower, loschwitz (schillerplatz, körnerplatz) ~ but yes, let's jump back few weeks, we have been to dresden in early november too and joined the night life and visited the old city center
• fortress königstein ~ huge saxon fortress build on the rocks of the saxon switzerland 
• bastei ~ the no. 1 sightseeing destination in saxon switzrland according to both, google and our hosts
• kuhstall (cowshed) ~ a nice trip from bad schandau through the kirnitschtal valley with the historic tram (since 1898) to the lichtenhainer waterfall & the kuhstall rock formation ~ schmilka: the last village before the czech border
• czech switzerland ~ hrensko, jindrichovice, marienfels .. coming soon .... ~ what about our last year's visit in the area? even if there was no snow, because of the frost and frozen humidity on the trees we could make amazing pictures :o)
• chemnitz ~ the industrial heart of saxonia

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if you asked me, reichenbach which is located in saxonia in the western part of german ore mountains (erzgebirge) remembered me at the small mining cities in slovak ore mountains (slowakisches erzgebirge), especially at göllnitz (gelnica). but according to wikipedia it was famous for its sewing and weaving industry, later for metal working, paper industry and even the factories for the famous noble cars horch and audi (founded by august horch) were located here. did you know, that 'audi' is the latin translation of 'horch!', probably not :-). anyway, the most famous citizen of reichenbach was friederike caroline neuber ('neuberin'), 1697 - 1760, german actress and theatre director.

 

more pictures here

eof

ingolstadt

you probably know already that when at long trips, we do not like to make stops on highway restaurants. we usually find a nice (small) place close to the highway and try to find s.th. nice and some food there. on our way home from poland and dresden, we have visited the medieval city of ingolstadt (bavaria, germany) at the danube river (donau), today probably best known for its audi car plant and its soccer and ice-hockey teams.

if it was saturday afternoon and all the shops were open (the regular shops are still not allowed to be open on sundays or all night in bavaria, you know?), it was quite difficult to find a restaurant there. so we stayed at corso italia, something between a cafe and a sports bar, with very few main dishes and had a really tasty pasta and i additionally enjoyed the beautiful women at all their pictures + menue list.

enjoy few pictures, too :o)

 ingolstadt castle (schloss ingolstadt)

medieval city walls

 the main (shopping) street

 cafe / bar corso italia

sex sells, isn't it?

few more pictures here

some old pictures from 2010 here

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what abt trucks? MAN's AGM

last thursday there was the 130th (or the like) AGM for the MAN shareholders. of course, there were many ups and downs in company's more than 250 years old history, the recent corruption and power struggle scandal was just the latest sad episode ... well, volkswagen's (VW) almighty rowdy god ferdinand piëch won again and the former soooo sympathetic and sooooo succesful CEO hakan samuelsson lost his job :-(

i was very interested abt MAN's outlook for the future, so i accepted to endure hearing to grandpa piëch's soooo slow and soooo boring speach (besides his VW functions he is also the chairman of the advisory board @ MAN because of VW's 29% stake in MAN) and been there from the very start. MAN's business decreased in 2009 by approx 30% as in the financial crisis out there, both the car (trucks & buses) + the diesel engines (ships & power plants, esp. solar energy power plants) divisions suffered badly. thx to samuelsson's lead MAN managed to make a small profit anyway, there will also be a small dividend at my account on monday ... btw, did you know that more than 50% of all ship transportation worldwide is driven by MAN diesel power engines? well, as ive expected the economy prospects are still baaaad, baaaaad, baaaad :-(

damn! what is the motivation for the already 73 years old millionaire/billionaire piëch (btw, he is the grandson of the great ferdinand porsche, who has already in 1899 constructed an electric car) not to slow down, not to simply enjoy his life, not to let other folks continue his work and run 'his' car imperium? it is s.th. tied-up with his tough battlesome character, isnt it?

im not sure if my list of volkswagen's holdings (often 100% or some other major stake) is complete, but its a lot anyway:

• audi
• bentley
• bugatti
• lamborghini
• MAN
• scania
• seat
• skoda
• suzuki
• porsche
• volkswagen 

useful links:

• company website: MAN 
• last year's event: same place, different time :-)
• my MAN involvement: xmas shopping orgy ;o)
• ohhhhh, i have found a link (source: wikipedia) abt former + present brands of volkswagen group, there are also 5 inactive marques via Audi AG => enjoy