Blogging Yin & Yang - spam comments

Frau A and I are seeing some consistent traffic on Schnitzelbahn now, and that's rewarding for an income-free hobby.  We also enjoy learning through the blogging experinece, with its tools (like Squarespace, our host) and site meters (like Google Analytics).

Of course everything comes with its downsides, and we're seeing one such example more frequently nowadays:  spam comments!

Check out the comments added to Schnitzelbahn on August 9:

I'm not sure if these were added manually, or automated like email spam can be.  I wonder how the person (or computer algorithm) chose those specific Schnitzelbahn pages to spam?  And do you ever wonder why spam is so nonsensical?

Well, who wouldn't want to buy "replica Jessica Simpson Boots" from a watch store???

So I just had to check out the spam link.  It does, in fact, bring you to a web site that appears legitimate.  But when you look closely, things seem a little...off.  At a professional UK site, you have certain expectations about the language, tone of voice, consistency, etc.

First, I noticed the top banner on the page:

"WristWatch" is spelled with a second capical "W" -- strike one.  The price (at a UK site) is in US dollars -- strike two.  And A Rolex for $88? -- strike three.  Maybe theey know the guy that used to sell them down my street in New York City...

Also, you do not sell Rolex watches because they are "World-Recognized".  Rolex buyers are attracted to the prestige, quality and craftsmanship, and elegance.  Strike four?

Even better were the "buyer" comments (not "customer" comments!):

 

I love that "Dawn" is a guy (Dawn is usually a girl's name, but not always) and that "Cynthia" does not look Finnish at all!

Finally, I went to their "About Us" page at the spammed link:

Classic spam.  The first thing they say is how "reliable" they are (but at least admit that they sell replica watches).  More funny is that customer satisfaction "means the world to us" and is also their "chief objetive".  It continues with subtle (unintended) humor through the description.  It would be "pretty wise" of me to choose them!

I guess this spam is the extra cost of blogging, but it's worth it.  We'll just continue to delete them as they come.

Munich Restaurants - Milagros (Mexican)

Within the foreigner community in Munich, people are always discussing new things to see and do.  "Have you eaten at [restaurant X]" is one of the most popular topics.  Therefore we decided to blog some Munich restaurants for both locals and visitors alike.

In this case, the first one is the easiest, because we can say it up front:  Milagros is the best Mexican restaurant in Germany.  Together Frau A and I have sampled places in Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Bonn, and Munich, and there's no contest.  (Granted, Germany doesn't do Mexican very well as a rule, but Milagros would make it in Manhattan.)

Milagros opened its doors 10 months ago -- October 2010.  It sits in the city center, not far from the Viktualien Markt and Oktoberfest Museum.  Great location.  The owner, Scott Myers, is a Mexican-American who married a German woman and moved back with her.  It's certainly no Taco Bell -- his mentor David Sterling is head of the Los Dos cooking school in Mérida (Yucatán)!

We ordered the "Fiesta Mexicana" platter for two, which includes steak arrachera (marinated & grilled), cochinita pibil (slow roasted pork in homemade tortilla), barbacoa de pollo (marinated/grilled chicken), and carnitas (braised pork in homemade tortilla) with condiments of guacamole, refried beans, and salsa.  It's a great way to try different items, and they taste as good as they look:

To drink we had a top-shelf margarita (no salt when the tequila is this good) that uses fresh juice (no mix):

Above, you'll notice on the chair the familiar Yucatan striped pattern textile -- the decor is pure Mexican.  Below, notice the hanging lamps on the right, textile patterns in the upper left (on the ceiling), and the Virgin Mary in the bottom left.  (With Mary, it fits perfectly in Bavaria.)

It is important to clarify that the food and decor are not "tex-mex".  Most Germans (and Europeans in general) would not differentiate, but it's important here because the dishes are so authentically Mexican.

To finish, we shared a chocolate flan -- not sticky sweet at all, but a rich cocoa instead, with some fresh fruit:

Milagros claims that key or special ingredients are sourced from Mexico (e.g., chiles, Mexican oregano), but where possible local (Bavarian) produce is used.  Also, they use the traditional cooking methods:  tortillas pressed by hand, wood oven and grills using mesquite from America, and real banana leaves for slow-roasting the pork.  It's serious food, and should be a perfect match for the organic, quality-focused Munich diner.

And people are noticing.  The "Restaurant Kritik" wrote a very positive article (with interviews of the owner and mentor), reviews on Tripadvisor are good (it's already in the top 100), and Google reviews are excellent too.  Since it opened we're probably been 4-5 times already, it's that good.  (And Frau A lived in Dallas, so is a tough critic.)

Locals should try the best Mexican we've had on the continent so far, and visitors can take a break from a steady diet of Bavarian food with fantastic authentic Mexican.  Higly recommended.

And Bavarian Whisky Liqueur

Last week we sampled some Slyrs, the Bavarian single malt whisky.  As we were quite pleased with it, we decided to try their whisky liqueur.

The website describes it as a diluted whisky (30% vs the usual 43%) with the addition of honey and vanilla notes.  All things that sound good, but we've had whisky and we've had schnapps...and we really had no idea how this would taste.

Luckily most of the stores here sell single serve bottles of liquor, so we grabbed a small one to try. Better than being stuck with a full bottle of something we don't like...

My first impressions were its light color and an aroma that reminded me of the wonderfully intoxicating smell of vanilla extract.

Off to a good start.

While it does have vanilla notes to the taste, the vanilla is much more strong in the aroma than in the actual taste. It was a really subtle and well-blended drink. Very smooth and sweet, but not too much so. In fact, all of the tastes (sweet honey, whisky, vanilla, and caramel) mixed perfectly so that none dominated.

Of course my initial thought was "Wow, this is great. It's like a girlie whisky!" When I later looked it up on the Slyrs' website, I was amused to discover that whoever does their marketing is very in tune to customers' thoughts.  They mention that when they tested the liqueur in the destillery, it was not only women visitors who enjoyed it. And also that they sell in miniature 50 mL sizes "for the skeptics."

Well, we are skeptics no longer, and bought a normal sized bottle yesterday.

I'm thinking this would be great for eggnog and also a really good gift to bring someone from Germany. While it's not the strong smoky whisky taste that some love, it will definitely please those who love a smooth whisky. It's very subtle and really good.

Munich Zoo - Sea Lions and the rest

Unfortunately, this is the final photoblog from our June day at the Munich Zoo.  After the baby elephant, lions & polar bears, and various birds, we'll finish with sea lions and other creatures we caught on camera.  (But surely we'll go back to the zoo this Autumn.)

While they were swimming and playing, California sea lions were some of the most difficult animals to photograph because they move so fast, and often underwater!  So we pointed our lenses at those sea lions "kissing" on the edge of the pool:

At the far side of the pen was a mom and baby.  She was usually shielding him/her from sight, and we had to be quick to capture this shot:

Further down the zoo path was the house with tortoises.  I think these are from the Seychelles (definitely not Galapagos)... I need to remember to take a photo of the information plaque as well as the animals next time!

Surprisingly they were quite active, because it was lunch time: 

The baboons were not so active.  The young ones played, but many like this guy just sat around munching on something.  Wonder what it's thinking?

I looked through the entire list of Munich Zoo animals and think this next one is an Indian Gaur -- the largest species of wild cattle.  Its horns are less curvy, but other Google images indicate that this is the closest match to the zoo's list of residents.  (Yes, I really have to take better notes next time.)

In the next photo, a Vicuna (native to the Andes) and an ostrich are standing together.  It's always funny what animals the zoos can/will put in the same pen.  The ostrich comes from Africa and and Vicuna from South America! 

Small creek-size branches of the Isar River run through the zoo.  This next photo was just outside the zoo while crossing a bridge.  The fish in the water is bigger than the duck (and swam right under)!

We almost didn't get this last one, but he emerged for a moment at dusk, just as we were about to leave.  The giant anteater hugged the fence on the far side of the pen, and hustled away to hidden places.  We figured it was time to go home as well. 

Google Analytics Part 2 - Where in the World?

In the first post on Google Analytics for Schnitzelbahn we looked at data and charts about pages per visit (and Bounce Rate), duration per visit, plus technical information about visitors' computers.

But it's much more fun to see the locations from which people are visiting us!

Coming from the Dashboard you can go to a world map showing visits by country.  You can change the view (boxed in the lower left) to sub-continent/region or even just continent.  (The "dimension" list on the bottom right lets you filter the map.  For example, you could show only visits of people using Macintish computers, or those who stayed longer than 5 minutes.).  92 countries - fascinating!

The map has a little bit of interaction to it -- if you hold the mouse over a country, it flashes the visitor count (within the timeframe you have selected).  I pasted a few over the graphic.  Nothing from Greenland in this view, but a couple from Ecuador & Pakistan, plus solo visitors from Uganda and Mongolia.  Thanks!  (or, better yet, "weebale" and "bayarlalaa")

A pie chart format gives a better indication of what nationalities are reading Schnitzelbahn.  Germany is #1 and together with the U.S. accounts for over 3/4ths of the visits.  Not surprising.  I found Brazil (#6) and India (#10) interesting though.  (Note:  the good-sized gray area is "unknown" location - some users block this info.)

It gets more fascinating when you dig deeper and look at Pages per Visit and Average Time on Site for the countries' visits.  Think there might be a cultural difference between U.S./U.K. and the European Continent?  Check out the Average Time on Site.  Perhaps it has also to due with native English viewers vs. those with English as a secondary language (reading a bit slower, like us reading German).  But some of that gap has to be due to faster/slower lifestyles, right?  Further down the list, it appears that our friends in Turkey, the Philippines, and Denmark actually hang out and read the posts - thanks!  (2+ minutes per visit)

Further down the list (not seen above) are some intersting findings.  The dozens of Hong Kong visitors have looked at over 4 pages per visit on average.  (Most of the 92 countries measure 1.5 or less)  Dozens more readers from Iceland, Algeria, and Syria read more than 2 pages per visit.  Plus, we've had a grand total of 1 visitor from Panama but he/she looked at 16 different posts!

Going back to the global map, let's change to a city view.  Europe and the U.S. are very crowded, but this perspective points to some interesting cities in South America (Santiago-Chile, Pelotas-Brazil), the Middle East (Beirut-Lebanon, Tel Aviv-Israel), Eastern Europe (Tbilisi-Georgia, Kiev-Ukraine), and Asia (Shibuya-Japan, Cebu-Philippines).  I've been only to Tel Aviv, but would love to visit all of them and post some photos "on site"!

If we "click" on the U.S., it can also show a gradient map by state...

... but in Europe it goes right to the city view.  Here is Germany (I overlayed some of the major cities, if it wasn't obvious):

Once again, we can drive down to a list of cities ordered by number of visits (either globally, or within a specific country).  This is the global view below.   Munich sits #1, with German cities taking the top 4 spots (cool!).  A couple of cities appeared surprising at first, but after investigation showed that they are the U.S. locations, not the originals!

It's just enjoyable to see random visitors from all over the world.  Beer and lederhosen lovers are everywhere!  Thanks for stopping by...

We have one more post coming on Google Analytics, that will look at how you (the viewers) got here, and what you looked at.

Munich Day Trip - Aying

Most of our previous 'Day Trip' blog posts, like this one to Kufstein, have a destination at least 1-2 hours away from Munich by car.  If you don't need a mountain fix in the Alps, there are options closer to the city that still feel like you're getting away.

One such destination is a walk from Aying -- it's a small town (population 4,500) with a station on the S-Bahn (commuter train).  It takes about 40 miniutes from the Ostbahnhof to get there on the S7 line.  The trains run every 20 minutes in each direction, during normal hours.

 

Aying is most well known for its brewery Ayinger... but that is something to visit after our walk.

After you get "out of town" (which just means walking down the main street -- that's basically all there is) the route will run in a circle, past Göggenhofen to Grosshelfendorf.  The return path goes through Heimatshofen and Graß (Grass) back to Aying.  All of the above are very small, and you walk through these villages in minutes. 

Here is a map (plus ascent/descent chart) I found on a German site:

As you can see in the chart above, there are no mountains here!  The complete circle takes about 2.5 hours to walk, depending on speed and stops of course.  And 9 of the 12 kilometers are on some kind of sidewalk or street ("asphalt"), while the rest simply uses the local farmers' tracks or wide forest path ("weg").

In an early stretch between Aying and Grosshelfendorf, the route goes off-road through light woods, and I caught it at the perfect time for a photo (this was in the Winter, obviously).

The primary destination of this walk is the Marterkapelle (Martyr's Chapel) of St. Emmeram in Kleinhelfendorf, marked on the map above with a cross.  This is what it looks like on approach across the farmer's field: 

As the story goes, the itenerant bishop St. Emmeram was martyred nearby in the year 652.  The Bavarians were "idolaters" at this time and he was trying to convert them, but I guess after 3 years the Duke of Bavaria had heard enough and had him killed.  The chapel has a large scene depicting the event in the middle of the church, almost entirely made of wood (see photos below). 

 

In the center of the display is the martyr's stone, where supposedly the saint died.  Pretty gruesome rendering of the martyrdom:

 

The ceiling shows biblical events and themes too, in the rococo (late Baroque) style.  Note that the original chapel was built in 1640, but was replaced in 1752 with the current structure -- renovations are probably what keep it looking clean, bright, and colorful. 

Kleinhelfendorf also has a larger Church of St. Emmeram, which is where Bayern Munich star and German National Team captain Philipp Lahm chose to get married.  The Miesbach stucco work is supposed to be some of the nicest in Bavaria.  It's fine for a second stop along the route -- the two are quite close (church left, chapel right).

If you don't have the time (or desire) to head into the Alps, something like this countryside walk around Aying is perfect for a relaxing weekend getaway.  Frau A and I will visit the brewery some time too...

Bavarian Single Malt

Frau A and I hosted the German Beer Tournament last year, and are starting to plan the next tournament.  It might be German wines, sausages, or just more bier.

In the mean time we continue to look for new/unique things, so when Frau A saw a German-distilled malt whiskey, we had to try it.

Slyrs is produced in Bavaria, about an hour south of Munich in the start of the Alps.  Its home in Schliersee is not far from Tegernsee -- unsurprisingly, both Slyrs and the most popular malt beverage in this area trumpet the quality of their mountain water.  (Both lakes have essentially drinking-quality water.  Bavaria really has an excellent track record of keeping things clean and healthy.)

Slyrs was launched in 1999.  Its founder was a beer brewer, and it took a few "unsuccessful attempts" before the result was "harmonised".  The data look like typical single malts:  beechwood smoked grain, copper kettle, (American) white oak barrels...but foreshot and feints are not used again (as in Scottish whiskey) but dumped, and the mash is washed only once (vs. multiple times for scotch). 

But how does it taste?

First, the packaging was the essence of German quality and understatement.  This is NOT an economy bottle, however -- check out the prices here.

Personally, I loved the taste.  Slyrs was exceptionally smooth -- maybe the mountain water working its magic?  There was one note in its flavor that was unusual and we couldn't place it.  Not bad, just different.  Frau A likes it too.  It finishes so well, it might be the best "scotch" for non-whiskey drinkers.  (Of course if you prefer strong smokey/mineral/earthy whiskey, this will be too soft.)

We were both surprised and impressed.  This will stay in the liquor cabinet.

Now we're interested in trying their other products, especially the "whiskey liqueur" -  diluted to 30% alcohol, added honey, plus accents of vanilla and caramel.  Sounds perfect for post-skiing relaxation this winter. 

Also, we have moved a Slyrs distillery-tour higher up the to-do list.  Maybe we'll pick up some of their whiskey-infused chocolates or fruit spreads while we're there.

Follow-up:  we also tried Slyrs' "cask strength" whiskey called "Raritas Diaboli".  Whoa - 55.9% alcohol, and it tastes every bit of it.  A little too much alcohol for our preference.  They claim that it has hints of cinnamon, but I couldn't get any subtlety past the alcohol.  We're going to try again with a few drops of water to see if it "relaxes" a bit.

Germans are experts with malt, so it's not too surprising that they're moving on to whiskey.  It's a good start.