4:00 a.m Subscribe to our newsletter News Opinion Calendar Music Screens Arts+Culture Food+Drink Books Sports Fun Stuff A pair of German dare-devils walked across a slackline suspended between two hot air balloons, floating at 8,202 feet and created a new world record.  Friedi Kuhne and Lukas Irmler achieved the feat in the skies over Riedering on November 9, 2024, breaking the previous record of 6,236ft that was registered in 2021.  The duo faced some difficulties and had to restart a couple of times. Lukas, attempted the feat first but fell off the rope twice before managing to walk the slackline to the second balloon. With each fall, they had to restart and walk again, according to Guinness World Records.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Guinness World Records (@guinnessworldrecords) "The main attempt of breaking the world record was pretty difficult for me," said Lukas Freidi was the second to attempt the feat but before that “Watching Lukas struggle on the slackline was also very intimidating for me,” Friedi said The weather and the movement of the balloons presented themselves as obstacles when Friedi started to walk the slackline "Not only did the balloons spin the entire time "At one point we were walking kind of downhill — the next minute uphill The tension of the line was going up and down," Friedi said He added that "Nothing could prepare us like that" met our press group at his studio inside a spacious specialty store in Riedering created to sell jewelry and clothing reflective of the region's traditions and Alpine topography our 38-year-old host greeted us sans shoes He said he is always barefoot except when it's deeply cold outside or he is visiting his banker Mamma Bavaria was born on the back of a singular idea Inspired by the crosses that stand atop mountains in Bavaria and beyond Blickenberger hatched the idea for his signature product: customized summit crosses as symbols for personal aspiration or achievement his jewelry offerings are more wide ranging Blickenberger conducts jewelry-making workshops for small groups -- we were one such group -- managing to "work" on silver crosses and pendants without hurting anyone highlights lesser-known regional attractions we were spirited away to the smaller Augsburg (population: 300,000) then beyond to meet local artisans like Blickenberger sip with beermakers and put foot to an Alpine hiking trail Similarly, Munich Tourism strives to spread the wealth by pulling visitors away from the city center. Its website supports that goal Our Munich tour opened in the edgy meatpacking district with a truncated central city visit landing dead last on our rounds Augsburg's highlights include the world's oldest still-extant subsidized housing project The extremely wealthy local merchant and banker Jakob Fugger established a foundation in 1521 to house the deserving poor about 95 cents a year plus three daily prayers Tourist entry fees -- to walk the streets of the walled complex and visit a model 16th-century apartment and other museums -- help fund the private charity Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's great-grandfather Franz Mozart spent 13 years here built to funnel river water into canals to support mills and other industry evolved from the 14th century to today's sustainable hydroelectric system Our guide said Augsburg with 530 bridges has "more than Venice," though they are often short ones crossing canals where the water raged in their allotted pathways during our rainy-day visit And then there is the Golden Hall inside the Town Hall originally built (1615-1620) for meetings involving the Habsburg emperor only to have the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) make that plan moot Even our hotel, Maximilian's in the middle of town has a history -- 300 years of it but the 132-unit property is Augsburg's only five-star hotel site of a Michelin-starred restaurant and member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts and of Virtuoso Schlachthofviertel is Munich's district known for butcheries and meatpacking but it is now appreciated for a buzzy underground culture but the former administration building for another is part of the Volkstheater in 2016 founded a business district of sorts constructed entirely of castaway elements: rail cars containers and anything else that could be a wall or a roof The amount of graffiti is blinding and can be dramatic it will be displaced by a residential development Here are some of the people who made an impression during our visit: conducts button-making workshops for small groups She was patient as we hesitantly wrapped wooden buttons in bright threads she creates modern iterations of traditional dresses Button photos appear at the German-language site: www.posamentenknopf-manufaktur.de illustrator and designer in Reichersbeuern paints using cow dung (which smells like grass when wet) as his medium aiming to raise awareness about food production and push back against industrial agriculture Hartl's paintings, often rural scenes, have the sepia coloring of old-timey photos. Agents with clients who buy art can see Hartl's work and click for contact details at weeh78.de/kuhmistkunst Hartl designed a stein for Munich's Hofbrauhaus which will be in the beer hall's shop this fall • Stefanie Parml operates Munich Wanderland a specialist in daytrips from Munich to hiking trails in the Bavarian Alps Most of her business comes from American agents booking FITs. She is at Stefanie@munich-wanderland.com, and agents can book at www.munich-wanderland.com • Finally, reach Blickenberger at flo@mamma-bavaria.de; photos appear at the German-language site mamma-bavaria.de Mamma Bavaria can be reached from Munich by train plus bus Patting has been completely rebuilt with two nine-hole courses Greens have been designed with gentle undulations and large surrounds Hilgert and Pont of Infinite Variety Golf Design worked with owner Marie Bauhuber on the project Hendrik Hilgert and Frank Pont of Infinite Variety Golf Design have created a reversible course for Golfanlage Patting Hochriesblick in Riedering It is the design firm’s second reversible course, following the May opening of The Links Valley in the Netherlands Golfanlage Patting Hochriesblick was established in the early 1990s with a driving range and six short holes followed a few years later the opportunity arose for the club’s owner her husband Georg and head greenkeeper Sepp Schwaiger attended a seminar held by Infinite Variety Golf Design in spring 2016 Hilgert said: “Frank and I presented the concept of a reversible golf course and Marie and the others immediately loved the concept “A nine-hole reversible only requires the plot size investment and greenkeeping budget of a conventional nine-hole course at the time no reversible golf course existed across Europe and Marie immediately understood that the reversible concept would be an attractive way to market the course and differentiate it from the competition.” Hilgert and Pont were hired to replace the club’s existing nine holes with a nine-hole reversible course plus an additional nine-hole par three course “Marie was keen to also offer a shorter course to her members and her guests as she is aware that time constraints are the major reason why people do not take up golf or lose interest,” said Hilgert she was very keen to offer two nine-hole courses with one offering quicker play given the shorter length and the other being a full-length course for those players that want to devote the required time.” Minimal earthwork was required from the design the architects designed classic strategic greens with gentle undulations asymmetrical green defence and large green surrounds The greens offer many pin positions to challenge all standards of golfers “The key challenge in the design phase clearly was the reversible concept,” said Hilgert “If you want a reversible course to become a success it is obviously important that not just one loop is excellent but both loops have to be excellent and have to offer similar quality otherwise members will quickly become critical of at least one of the loops Frank and I spent a lot of time fine-tuning the general routing making sure that we achieve a good balance and variety in terms of hole lengths and hole types And when we went into the detailed design process the key focus was to build greens that are suitable for the two different angles from which they will be approached “Designing a reversible course thus creates significantly more design challenges but we loved that challenge and we are very happy with the result I don’t think we had to make major compromises to make the reversible concept work at Patting you cannot build a reversible course on any site If the topography is too extreme it may become impossible to build two loops that are even close to the quality of an optimised conventional layout on the same site we were fortunate that the site was quite suitable for a reversible course “We suspect that hole six of the Wendelstein loop will be the most talked-about hole,” said Hilgert “It is a 213-yard par three from the men’s tees with a 2,000 square-metre pond in the carry to a green that is crowned and well defended by a bunker front-left The hole is still in grow-in and will become a very photogenic hole Construction of the course was challenging due to extremely wet weather from April to September 2017 “As we were not building in sand but in fairly loamy conditions we had a lot of standstill during construction,” said Hilgert Marie was keen to ensure continued play on the old course for as long as possible we ended up only building 13 holes in 2017 with the remaining five holes having been built in 2018.” Members were able to play all nine old holes until December 2017 From January 2018 to April six old holes were still in operation and between May and July the new executive course was open to members the executive course plus four reversible holes will be open and all 18 new holes will be open for play by spring 2019 “Marie is a young mother of three who inherited the course from her father around 10 years ago,” said Hilgert “Her father had the idea to convert his farmland into a golf course although he did not play golf Marie’s father passed away way too early so Marie became owner of the golf course at a very young age the design and the construction were fairly basic the golf course did well for two reasons: first the site is wonderful: it is a hilltop that is surrounded by forest the whole atmosphere is very down-to-earth and friendly While there are still many golf courses in Germany that do not feel too friendly towards outsiders or new members Patting has a very welcoming and cosy atmosphere also because Marie is very approachable and quite present every day on the golf course “Member feedback on the executive course is excellent so far Players love the greens which are pure bent greens and already offer excellent putting conditions Players also appreciate that the course is no pushover despite the short length Some of the par three greens are very well defended and quite hard to hit nevertheless there are no forced carries or other obstacles that would make play unduly difficult for weaker players The look of the course is bit linksy: while the course is surrounded with forest there are few trees inside the golf course which provides great views across the course and towards the Alps.”