Sunday 4 December 2016

Summer surprised us...

He thought of Hartmann, whom he now saw to be lively, exuberant, festive, not stricken by this fatigue du nord which hung over Berlin. Hartmann, of course, was from Munich, an elegant and already southerly city.
Latecomers, Ch. 13

I once, from Munich, took a suburban train to Starnberg, to see the Starnbergersee, solely because of its mention in the opening lines of 'The Waste Land'...

Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.

The resort, I recall, gave off a sort of civilised reticence, the lake high, a large inscrutable presence. The day was drizzly, murky, and I didn’t tarry long; I'd just wanted to be there for a time. It was very Brooknerian behaviour.

(I have looked through Latecomers for mentions of the Starnbergersee, which I seem to retain, but can find only memories of the Englische Garten and of Nymphenburg.)


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