The weather threatens to be frightful but our day turns out delightful

Ettal monastery

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The skies weren't mirroring the colors of the Bavarian flag today but at least the rain was holding off. And so far the tour buses don't seem to have added this place to their itineraries yet.

We almost stayed here

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Back when I first started booking this vacation I had made reservations to stay here in Ettal at the Ludwig der Bayern luxury hotel. It was more than double the cost of rooms I had booked elsewhere on the trip, but I was hoping for a big tax refund this year. It didn't happen and the down payments for the car also cut into the budget. In the end, I was more than satisfied with the Hotel Wittelsbach in Oberammergau. Maybe next time we can come in the winter, stay here and use the indoor pool and sauna.

Luftmalerei

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Literally "air painting", this style of home decoration originated in Oberammergau and is popular throughout southern Bavaria. I would love to add this architectural element to our house.

Ettaler Hefeweizen

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It seems that they added "Benediktiner" to the name since we last visited. Gail continued to drink the wheat beers we both loved but my fragile stomach was not agreeing. I had to switch over to lager beers for most of the rest of the trip.

Ettaler Kloster Biere

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The lagers went down smoothly. Thyere's just no comparable American beers despite what every micro-brewery tries to tell you. It must be the mountain water that makes the Bavarian beers so perfect.

A little religion after imbibing

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We finished off our third round of beers and then walked over to the monastery church for the evening service.

A patch of blue peaks through

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Vespers would be starting any minute so no time to take many pictures.

What is he saying?

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The entire vespers service was conducted in Latin. Fortunately a parishioner in front of us knew the drill so we watched him to figure out when we should rise or be seated.

Back to the old reliable

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When your hungry in Germany, order the Käsespätzle.

That went down fast

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We didn't bother to pause and take a picture of our free Schnapps from the chef. We were afraid they might take it back. This serves as evidence that we did enjoy it.

An early evening stroll through Oberammergau

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After closing down the town of Ettal we drove back to our home base. This time the parking lot behind the hotel was full. I found a space, but it was on the other side of town. We took a roundabout route to get back to our room.

No time for Käthe Wohlfahrt this trip

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We pretty much already have all the Christmas ornaments and decorations we could ever need so neither of us shed a tear about the world's best Christmas store being closed.

Window shopping

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We might not be interested in buying anything but it didn't keep us from admiring the goods in Wohlfahrt's window.

Holzschnitzerei

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Oberammergau is renowned for its wood carving artists. Most of their work is religious and rather expensive. Most of the work is quite amazing.

Sausage vending machine

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This was a first for me: a streetside vending machine stocked with Weisswürst, Bockwürst, Brats, curried chicken and pork BBQ.

The town is still deserted

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I don't know where all the people owning those cars filling up the parking lot went, but none were out taking the air on this beautiful Bavarian evening. This hotel looked to be closed.

Will that fit in my suitcase?

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This is a very common theme among the wood carving crowd. I'm not sure what the significance is of this guy puffing away on his pipe while hauling junk on his back. You see it everywhere.

St Peter and Paul Church

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No, we did not go into this one. We need to save something for the next trip.

Heavenly voices above us

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While we traipsed around the church graveyard we could hear singing coming from inside the church. It must've been Thursday night choir practice because when I looked up at the steeple I could see lights on and silhouettes of seated people. An organ accompanied them. Maybe these are the folks that owned those cars in the parking lot.

Serving the local booze

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The night before when we both ordered Ettaler beers at dinner our waiter in Oberammergau screwed-up his face and told us he doesn't care for the neighboring town's beers. Maybe he's like to trade places with us.