{"id":7350,"date":"2025-11-13T15:04:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T21:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=7350"},"modified":"2025-11-16T15:45:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T21:45:40","slug":"visiting-the-texas-of-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/visiting-the-texas-of-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting the ‘Texas of Germany’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Last in a series on my recent trip to Bavaria and Austria.<\/em><\/p>\n

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UNTERNEUKIRCHEN, BAVARIA <\/strong>\u2014 Famed European travel writer Rick Steves once called Bavaria the \u201cTexas of Germany.\u201d It is by far the largest of the 16 German states, comprising about one-fifth of the country. Just as folks in Texas often refer to themselves as Texans \u2014 a habit not practiced in most states \u2014 folks in Bavaria often call themselves Bavarians first, rather than Germans. Both Bavaria and Texas were once independent and not part of another country.<\/p>\n

As Steves notes, many Bavarians really do wear dirndls and lederhosen on special occasions. I witnessed it during my recent trip there, especially at Oktoberfest in Munich. Daughter Mere and son-in-law Matt \u2014 two thirds of the Teutonic Trio, as we dubbed ourselves \u2014 donned theirs for the event. Bavaria has a distinctive folk culture with its beer gardens and host of festivals. In general, Bavaria is more conservative than other parts of Germany, particularly in its rural areas. At least, that is my sense after spending two weeks there.<\/p>\n

Mere and Matt live on a quiet street in Unterneukirchen, population 3,500. The name translates to \u201cLower New Church.\u201d The Upper Bavarian farming community is about a dozen miles north of the Austrian border crossing at Burghausen, a lovely city profiled last week<\/a>. When I was in Bavaria in late September and early October, farmers were beginning to harvest hundreds of rows of feed corn. Mere and I walked every morning, often along gravel paths flanked by towering cornfields. In other fields where the corn had been harvested, fields were plowed and some type of root vegetable planted and growing rapidly \u2014 radishes, perhaps?<\/p>\n

On clear days \u2014 which were not common \u2014 one can see the Bavarian Alps in the distant south. I managed to get one photo with those mountains in view far behind a self-serve pumpkin patch and rows of feed corn. A stand of pick-your-own sunflowers still holding on, though not for much longer. Already, the morning lows were in the high 30s, highs in the 50s. Having escaped 90-plus degree East Texas, I reveled in the cold weather. It\u2019s the Yankee in me.<\/p>\n

I stayed by myself in the house for three days, house-sitting Rudy the Cat, who had few needs beyond food and water. Rudy is an interesting kitty. One of the few other responsibilities I had with her was to allow her on the yoga mat upstairs, where she would stand and wait for me to clap her on the side several times. She would then walk to the other end of the mat for another mild spanking, purring all the while. I have never seen a cat that enjoyed such activity.<\/p>\n

The town\u2019s skyline was visible from my balcony, up on the third floor of the house, part of a cozy attic apartment with privacy and comfort. Past a sea of tidy houses with manicured backyards and red-tile roofs, the steeples of the two churches on the town square rose into view. I decided to walk into town to get some items from the town\u2019s only grocery store, which is surprisingly well stocked and about the size of a Brookshire\u2019s Spring Market. Not huge, but big enough. I bravely set out, keeping those two steeples in sight as my lodestar. Backpack on my shoulders to fill with needed provisions: wine, sparkling water, chips, crackers, and cheese. The necessities of life.<\/p>\n

Johanneskirche Unterneukirchen<\/em> (Church of St.\u202fJohn the Evangelist and St.\u202fAegidius) is the older parish church, built in 1479. It is now a protected monument, well preserved but no longer used as a church. The newer parish church (both are Catholic) is Christk\u00f6nigskirche Unterneukirchen<\/em> (Church of Christ the King), built in 1960. It was constructed because the old church had become too small.<\/p>\n

I filled my backpack, noted the presence of a nice restaurant \u2014 Raspl\u2019s Steak Wirthaus<\/em> \u2014 for another evening, and headed back. Finding my way back to the house was a bit trickier.\"\"<\/a> I put the address in Google Maps, but the walking feature usually gives me fits. I ended up walking about twice as far, with a couple of false turns, but the weather \u2014 misty and cool \u2014 made it a fine day to be outside. Eventually I found the right street and arrived. Rudy was waiting for me just inside the door.<\/p>\n

I became even braver over the next few days, driving the 2006 Renault with a stick shift they had left me to a biergarten<\/em> in neighboring Garching, about 10 minutes away. I drove to a nearby bakery on Sunday morning for coffee and a cinnamon roll. (Thank goodness Germans drive on the \u201ccorrect\u201d side of the road or I would have never risked it.) I even ordered a pizza delivered from a DoorDash-like service. Rudy and I curled up on the couch and watched a show on Netflix, munching pizza and sipping wine. (Me, not Rudy.)<\/p>\n

|\u2014\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 |\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On my next-to-last day in Bavaria, Mere and Matt returned from their anniversary trip. We headed to nearby Alt\u00f6tting for another Oktoberfest, a smaller affair but certainly enjoyable. We had no trouble finding seats in the wooden hall, as a polka band played. Two volunteers dressed in their lederhosen<\/em> cheerfully posed for a photograph. We again ordered too much food \u2014 Bratwurst, bread, and cheese \u2014 downing it with mugs of Alt\u00f6ttinger beer, brewed in this town of 13,000.<\/p>\n

It was a fine way to end this Bavarian adventure.<\/p>\n

See more photos on my Facebook page.<\/em><\/p>\n

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Print this entry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Last in a series on my recent trip to Bavaria and Austria. \u00a0 UNTERNEUKIRCHEN, BAVARIA \u2014 Famed European travel writer Rick Steves once called Bavaria the \u201cTexas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[81,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-81","category-columns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7350"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7363,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7350\/revisions\/7363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}