october-2012

NOW WE ARE 10
Germanwings turns 10 this year and to mark the occasion, the airline’s
10 most popular destinations have sent gifts typical of their locale
Graffi ti art from Berlin
Graffi ti is now as much a part of
Berlin’s identity as Ampelmännchen
(the jaunty behatted Walk and
Don’t Walk fi gures from East
German traffi c lights) and
Currywurst. The graffi ti that
was daubed on parts of the
Berlin Wall in Kreuzberg in the
early 80s has rapidly spread all
over the city since Soviet
disintegration.
Many of international graffi ti’s
big names have left their mark on
the cityscape, from Banksy, with
his image of a rat in Mitte, to the
Brazilian twins Os Gemeos with
their fi ve-storey-high image of a
yellow man in Kreuzberg. The city
is also particularly proud of its
local graffi ti artists. The Berlin
authorities have realised that
urban art attracts tourists, so
graffi ti is now rarely removed.
Big names in Berlin’s street
art scene include Anton Unai,
Daniel Tagno, Marok and
XOOOOX. Like Banksy,
XOOOOX keeps his (or her)
identity a secret, in order to
protect him/herself from
prosecution. If you want to learn
more about Berlin street art,
take one of the city’s many
graffi ti tours. You can even have
a go at producing some yourself
at one of Alternative Berlin
Tours’ workshops.
A four-hour graffi ti workshop with
Alternative Tours Berlin costs
€15 per person.
www.alternativeberlin.com
A Lipizzan horse
from Vienna
Lipizzan horses may originally
hail from Spain, Italy and the
Middle East, but Europe’s oldest
stallion breed has been at home
in Vienna for over 400 years.
The horse is named after the
Lipica stud in what is now
Slovenia, where the horses were
bred for the Hapsburg monarchy
in the 16th century. Empress
Sissi owned two of the elegant
greys, which despite their mild
natures, were primarily bred as
war horses for battle. You can
watch the horses demonstrate
their fi ghting technique at the
Spanish Riding School in
Vienna.
In addition to weekly gala
shows, the Spanish Riding
School also opens its doors for
horse training sessions held to
music, known as ‘morning work’.
Visitors can also check out the
school’s impressive Baroque and
Renaissance architecture by
taking one of the guided tours.
Two hours of ‘morning work’ with
music costs €14 for adults, €7 for
kids, with concessions at €10.
www.srs.at
Bach pipes
from Leipzig
When musicians Matthias
Müller and Johann-Georg
Baumgärtel came up with the
idea of making chocolate
pralines in the shape of organ
pipes, the aim was to put ‘Bach in
aller Munde – Bach in everyone’s
mouth’, a play on the German
expression for ‘get everyone
talking about it’.
Their sweet idea was inspired
by the 250th anniversary of
Johann Sebastian Bach’s death.
The chocolate-fi lled pipes are
based on an instrument
resonant of the composer’s era.
Over the past 12 years, they’ve
become one of the most popular
souvenirs in Leipzig.
Although they’re dedicated to
the Saxon city’s most famous
resident, the chocolate pipes are
actually made in southern
Germany by confectioners
Heilemann. But that doesn’t make
them any less special. You can
combine purchasing your Bach
pipe organs with a visit to the
Thomaskirche in the city centre
– the tasty treats are on sale at
the shop next door.
Bachpfeiff en 100gr, €7.75.
www.bachpfeiff en.de
A Swatch watch
from Zurich
The Swiss watch industry,
famous for its technical precision,
is going back to its surprisingly
simple roots. During the 18th
century, mountain farmers in
French-speaking Switzerland
spent their winters constructing
complicated watches. This
hobby soon mutated into a
profession and Switzerland
became the world’s leading
manufacturer of timepieces.
Over the centuries
Switzerland has had its status
challenged on two occasions.
At the end of the 1900s, mass
production in America
threatened to ruin the Swiss
watchmaking industry. But by
the 1920s, Swiss inventions such
as the fi rst waterproof watch and
the fi rst automatic wristwatch
had brought the industry
through the crisis.
Then, in the 1970s, the
introduction of quartz clocks
threatened to wipe out Swiss
traditional craftsmanship. This
time it was a design innovation,
rather than a technical one,
which revived the industry in
the early 80s. The Swatch
watch off ered high-quality
manufacturing at an aff ordable
price, and made wristwatches
fashionable again. Fans of Swiss
precision craftsmanship can
now take watchmaking courses
in Zurich, like the one off ered by
Beyer Chronometrie.
A two-hour watchmaking course
at Beyer Chronometrie costs €167
per person.
www.beyer-ch.com
A football from
Barcelona
It’s not only football fans who
associate the Catalonian capital
with FC Barcelona, or Barça, as
it’s known. Top player Lionel
Andrés Messi Cuccitini’s strip is
one of the world’s bestselling,
and a popular souvenir of
GW—43