Entrance or Exit

Morning dog walk in the Bannwald past Ottobeuren's High Security Fence protecting the town's water supply. Never seen the gate open but was relieved it was due to someone working on something inside. The nearby van's sign mentioned window cleaning but presumably, as he pump house lacks windows, the firm must offer more.

Spent the walk and all day thinking about the EU, triggered by the flag & signage shown in yesterday's TV link of the celebration in the basilica. The EU flag being adapted by the catholic church and sitting in the front row, Theo Waigel a local politician who was Germany's Finance Minister for 10 years from 1989-98, kept things going during the German reunification and given the credit for coming up with the name for the EU currency, Euro, after the UK had vetoed all the suggestions for Franc, Gulden, Krone. I think everyone was glad it wasn't called the ECU, the name that had been used for years for the predecessor paper currency.

After the walk, popped in to the - cheap - supermarket and was surprised to see honey being sold for a sensible price, in fact the same as many local bee-keepers sell theirs, €5 for 500g. It was announced as "Quality from Baden-Württemberg", the neighbouring state about 25km away. It was labelled as "Forest Honey" is honeydew which the bees make from tree sap rather than flowers. Makes sense as the Black Forest is in the state. Then read the label which pronounced the contents were a mixture from EU and non-EU countries and got angry - probably from Chernobyl area of Ukraine and includes a few Polish bees which lost their way.

I did however make the effort to research at home before blowing my top on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Blip. The bottler is indeed in the Black Forest area, a small bee-keeping business (15 employees) expanding it's horizons and everything I read suggests their products are OK and can be recommended.


Well I suppose English honey will soon have to be declared as non-EU. I wonder if English will be taken out of the list of official EU languages as it will no longer be the official language of any country - Ireland and Malta both have their own languages as primary and English as secondary, "Minority" language. I guess the Bavarian State website will continue to offer English on their webpage along with the other 10 languages.

Bavaria has been putting up a sort of symbolic fence but is keeping it's gates wide open, hoping those that come will read and abide by the Bavarian constitution, only available in English, French & Spanish so far but hopefully soon in various other languages.

I like Article 3a - nowhere will you see written, Bavaria is part of Germany!

Bavaria declares itself to be part of a unified Europe, which is committed to democratic,social and federal principles governed by the rule of law and the principle of subsidiarity,
which safeguards the independence of the regions and ensures their involvement in European decisions.Bavaria shall work together with other European regions.