The town of Grein (meaning whine) on the Danube earned its name from the sailors who whined when they came upon this particular treacherous bend in the river that often caused accidents. A video in the museum titled "Shipbuilding and Shipwrecks" explained that they had a lot of both in Grein. I guess one led to the other and visa versa. We found ourselves grinning, not greining, when we stepped into the oldest town theater (1791) still holding performances. The original seats remain and have keys to lock up the seat bottom so nobody can sit in your seat. They sold keys instead of season tickets. Because nobody wanted to miss a scene, a toilet was installed right in the theater. Since the theater connected to the town jail, prisoners could peek through a window in the stone wall to watch the shows. If audience members didn't bring prisoners enough snacks, drinks, and smokes, the prisoners would disrupt the production by shouting and whining, holding the audience prisoner!
That's so cool about the seat keys!
ReplyDeleteI'm enchanted by the seat keys. More ingenuity from the Germanic peoples.
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