GW—
43
NOWWE 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
Graffiti art fromBerlin
Graffiti is now as much a part of
Berlin’sidentityas
Ampelmännchen
(
the jaunty behattedWalk and
Don’t Walk figures fromEast
German traffic lights) and
Currywurst. The graffiti that
was daubed on parts of the
BerlinWall in Kreuzberg in the
early 80s has rapidly spread all
over the city since Soviet
disintegration.
Many of international graffiti’s
big names have left theirmark on
the cityscape, fromBanksy, with
his image of a rat inMitte, to the
Brazilian twinsOsGemeoswith
their five-storey-high image of a
yellowman inKreuzberg. The city
is also particularly proud of its
local graffiti artists. The Berlin
authorities have realised that
urban art attracts tourists, so
graffiti 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
graffiti tours. You can even have
a go at producing some yourself
at one of Alternative Berlin
Tours’ workshops.
A four-hour graffiti workshop with
Alternative Tours Berlin costs
€15 per person.
A Lipizzan horse
fromVienna
Lipizzan horses may originally
hail fromSpain, 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 fighting 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.
Bach pipes
from Leipzig
Whenmusicians Matthias
Müller and Johann-Georg
Baumgärtel came up with the
idea of making chocolate
pralines in the shape of organ
pipes, the aimwas 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-filled 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’tmake
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.
Bachpfeiffen 100gr, €7.75.
A Swatch watch
fromZurich
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 soonmutated 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 first waterproof watch and
the first 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 offered high-quality
manufacturing at an affordable
price, and made wristwatches
fashionable again. Fans of Swiss
precision craftsmanship can
now take watchmaking courses
in Zurich, like the one offered by
Beyer Chronometrie.
A two-hour watchmaking course
at Beyer Chronometrie costs €167
per person.
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
