Up until last weekend, the weather in Germany has been a bit loopy. We had snow, then 20C and sunny, then back to cold and cloudy. There was one point where I thought we changed to summer tires too soon. Now the days are a bit more normalized, with sunny and cool forecasts, absolutely perfect weather for the Mountains. Even better than the weather many of the hikes opened last weekend. To celebrate, Dominic, I and two other couples in our friend group, decided to take a nice stroll through the Aschauer Klamm tour in the beautiful hiking region of Berchtesgaden.The hike itself is very family friendly and took us a little over 3hrs to complete. For much of the hike we followed a beautiful well maintain path along a large stream with rushing waterfalls. There is a lovely Gasthaus where one can drink a Radler and enjoy brotzeit before or after the main part of the hike. Our misfit crew of hikers, taking in the beautiful weather and views.
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Living in Europe has afforded me easier and cheaper travel opportunities especially compared to living on Hawaii. Dominic and I are able to drive a few hours and find ourselves in a completely different country, culture, and language. Sometimes with the ease of exploring new corners of our European neighbors we forget that we have wonderful sites in our own backyard. Many of these magical tourist spots where designed and built by the mad fairytale King, Ludwig II of Bavaria. He bankrupted the State of Bavaria designing, building, and redesigning during the building of some of Bayern's world renowned castles and palaces. On a beautiful autumn day, we loaded up a van with friends, snacks, and adventure, to explore our own backyard in Bayern. Neuschwanstein CastleThe most famous Castle in Bayern is most likely Neuschwanstein. It is believed that Neuschwanstein was the influence for Walt Disney’s own trademark and the Castle in the film Sleeping beauty. The secluded castle was initially made as a refuge for the eccentric King only to be open to the paying public upon his death. Sadly Ludwig died before the castle was complete and to this day it is relatively empty. His personal rooms are the only rooms relatively decorated. From photos the castle seems large, but in person one notices, that although there is a great attention to detail, the castle is actually quite small. What many also do not realize is the castle is how relatively new it is and that it was built with more modern means compared to many well known castles throughout Germany. Linderhof PalaceA short drive from Neuschwanstein is Linderhof Palace, which is beautifully set within formal gardens. The palace and the gardens were inspired by Versailles. If one doesn’t want to pay for the tour of the actual palace, just walking the gardens is enough to enjoy a little bit of what Royal life for Ludwig must have been like. Ludwig spent most of his life at Linderhof Palace surrounded by his hall of mirrors, gardens, and even his own Grotto. We weren’t able to take pictures within the Palace, although I snapped one before I read the no photo sign (the angel ceiling motif). We were able to take photos of the grotto where Ludwig enjoyed private Operas. How decadent. Although King Ludwig II nearly bankrupted Bavaria by bringing his fantasies to life, today those same cash drains bring in lots of money from millions of visitors a year.
Tips: When visiting the Neuschwanstien Castle it is best to book tickets in advance if you are wanting to do the inside tour. You can also enjoy the Castle without doing the tour. I never thought I would love genuine winters, Hawaiian winters don’t count. As a kid winters were great, they meant snow days and violent snow wars but as an adult winter is synonymous with frigid temperatures, an eternal flu, perpetually cold hands and feet, and overall grey and unpleasantly boring days. When I moved to Germany I didn’t have the most positive thoughts about winter but I really tried to keep an open mind, and luckily I did. After being equipped with better winter clothing I learned a valuable lesson in German mentality. “The weather is never bad, one is just poorly dressed.” So that really fits into he stereotype of German tourists wearing lots of Gortex, and seemingly overly prepared.
Dressed in my rain, wind, and cold proof coat, pants, and shoes I am able to take on winter and punch her right in her icy face. Ok, not really. Winter has been that horrendous but I am better prepared and I am able to enjoy winter sports without worry of freezing and or annoying Dominic with my constant cries for heat. Some of the winter activities I’ve taken up are skiing (falling down slopes), normal snowy walks in the woods, and more recently snow shoe hiking. A group of us sampled a 2.5 hr trek in the fresh snow of Berchtesgaden and it was absolutely breathtaking, both from strain and beauty. We enjoyed our time so much that we all decided to purchase snow shoes and pick up a new winter hobby. Ok so yeah debby downer here to strike again!
What’s there to say about Oktoberfest that you haven’t already assumed? Overcrowded yes, drunken yes, touristy yes, lederhosen and dirndls yes, expensive yes, fun? Hmmm. Oktoberfest is a massive party in the heart of München. Germany is already known for it’s lenient drinking laws (drinking on the train or street is perfectly allowed), but why not add 2 weeks from Sept 20-Oct 5, of festivities to encourage tourists to drink themselves stupid? I don’t want to sound like a wet blanket but all who know me know I hate massive crowds. Perhaps I wouldn’t have been so overwhelmed if we went during a weekday instead of a holiday. Perhaps I would have had more fun if we just sat in a beer tent and watched the shenanigans going on. Instead I was stuck at armpit height being pushed by the crowds. Even if I wanted to stop and look at the many attractions, I kept getting swept away by a wave of people. I enjoyed the company I was with and when we lucked out and found a table to seat 8, I really enjoyed the food and beer. Other than my vegetarian friend, who could complain about oxen, railers, baked chicken, and amazingly good cabbage, the works!? To be perfectly honest I’m sure if my drinks were more potent I would have enjoyed myself more, but instead the 0.5 l lemonade and 0.5 l beer concoction just tested the capacity of my bladder. Sadly, not all the bathrooms were well marked with exception of the free ones. Yes I said free ones, the others you had to pay 1 euro or more. So I had to run all over the site to find the free toilets. Thankfully the bathroom queues moved quickly and I was relieved within 5 minutes of standing in line. Unfortunately I walked out just in time to barely miss getting hit by an ambulance or ambushed by officers escorting a bleeding vagrant. It’s unfortunate that the Oktoberfest that started as a celebration in 1810 of a royal marriage, which included horse races and an agriculture emphasize has turned into 7 million people visiting Munich for drunken debauchery. Don’t know what I mean? Look up Munich pukes and you’ll see evidence in colorful pictures. A personal example I witnessed: it was a little past 2 when one poor soul stooped down by us to fall asleep against a wall. Others followed in suit, some with care takers, many left behind as the weak link, all with the classic head bob from side to side and spittle stains on either shoes or shirts. After all is said and done I always ask myself “Was it worth it?” I would still say it was worth it, at least for the experience, but I highly doubt I’ll go again, but if I did I would go early during the week with the rest of the old folks. I scream, you scream, we all scream for Eis Cream, no that wasn’t a typo. Eis is the German word for ice cream. It sounds similar to its English cousin making it an easy word to recall during my transition from my mother tongue of nasally American English to the guttural Hoch Deustch aka high German. Well the goal is that I learn “proper”’' German before I learn what non-Southern Germans consider the “hill billy slang” also known as the Bayerisch dialect. I personally like the dialect spoken around me in the Bayern State. They soften many of the words giving the German language a purr rather than the bark found in the Hoch Deutsch. Other than dialects there seems to be many dividends between Bavaria and the rest of Germany, but I digress, I was originally talking about Eis.
So a recent Sunday, as a treat to our hard weekend of writing, Dominic and I rode our bikes to Emmerting, a nearby village, for some sweet treats at the Eisalm. We weren’t the only one’s with the same idea. By the time we arrived bikes and cars were lined up along the road, while a line was making it’s way out the door. I’m a firm believer in going where the locals go and I clearly hit the jackpot with the Eisalm which, despite its popularity, is a small dairy farm/ice cream parlor operation. The selection was modest with about 10 flavors and a few specialty desserts. The flavors included the classics like Schkolade (chocolate), Edbeer (Strawberry) and Vanille (Vanilla) and a few flavors I’ve found to be popular in Germany Haselnuss (hazelnut) and Straciatella (vanilla with chocolate chunks). The Eis at the Eisalm was different than American ice cream, which has a fattier tongue feel. Their Eis was grainer, like it was made with a water base rather than a cream or milk base. Regardless of the new texture to my tongue I enjoyed my Blueberry yogurt and the sneaky bites I stole from Dominic’s Haselnuss. Next time I’ll get the warm raspberry dessert, it looked fabulous! Last weekend Dominic and I made plans to climb early in the morning, well the initial plan was dashed once we realized we didn’t have our gear . We were still wanting to be active so we opted to do what we thought would be an easy tramp up Hochfelln peak. I’m sincerely grateful we didn’t have our gear to climb, because the easy tramp almost gave me a heart attack. I’m severely under condition to hike anymore. I’ll blame it on the two months I spent back in Ohio.
Well, we started our trek early enough, regardless of our slow pace, that we didn’t run across too many other hikers, on our way up. Since most of the hike crosses through farm land, there were a few cows along the way, but they ignored us. Other than cows dotting the fields, there were ski lifts, a few Almen, which are like alpine restaurants, and a cheaters lift to the top. The paths were well maintained but there were a few parts where the incline/decline was so steep that the gravel rolled under foot. Luckily I’m part mountain goat and didn’t fall. When we reached the top we were greeted by an amazing view and lots of people. The area was big enough that we were able to find a secluded area to enjoy the view in peace. We ate our packed foods, took pictures, and started our way back.On our way down we were surprised by how busy the track got. There were hordes of people, large groups of children on a class trip and families. Everyone was taking advantage of the nice day. |
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