"My first Bavarian home town" Manching by gordonilla

On my first trip to germany, I was fortunate enough to stay with the Grunberg family. My student host was Axel, who stayed at home with his parents, Johanna and Gunther. From memory, I think his father worked at the nearby aircraft production plant.

The picture was taken in 1999, and both were well into their 80s during this visit. We had a pleasant afternoon of coffee and cake. Gunther drove me back to Ingolstadt and my hotel. Gunther was wearing his trade mark beret and his driving coat and gloves. The beret was a legacy from when the lived in France I believe.

Gordon in Manching

This was taken on my last visit to Johanna and Gunther. Shortly after my visit the moved to Geisenfeld to be closer to one of their children - Axel and his family. Gunther took this picture with his Minolta. It is quite interesting looking back now at the picture and seeing how I and things have changed.

The afternoon this photograph was taken, was quite pleasant, and prior to calling into the see them - I made a visit to the near by shopping area. It had not changed very much, but the number of shops had decreased and many were empty units. Interestingly, the bakers was still alive and kicking, very busy as as ever providing a fine selection of cakes and pastries.

We sat on the balcony of their apartment, and Gunther pointed out some changes - the most significant was the new apartment blocks which had been built between the older complexes. In addition it seemed that there were many teenagers around the neighbourhood, which was not the case when I was last there.

The earlier visit had been at a time when there were many parents with young children; I have a faint recollection that there were many foreign families in this area due to the nearby businesses.