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Published: August 31st 2010
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Having had a fairly busy summer with a few sets of family and friends visiting I have found myself in the Bavarian Tourist Industry. For those of you that know me fairly well you won’t be surprised to hear that when we have guests visiting I do throw myself into the Tourist Guide Dept fairly well, keeping every single day of our guests visits fun packed and informative, on all things Bavaria!!
To use an example, and for those of you that have yet to visit Bavaria’s many sights, the following weekly agenda took place just last week when Ian’s sister and her family came to visit.
Day One:
Arrival day, pick up from the airport and then the opportunity was given to relax for the rest of the day with a three course dinner already prepared and in the oven (this is the one and only day such effort was made on the cooking front!?).
Day Two:
Up at your leisure, then it’s into Kempten for a very quick guided tour of the old town and then the new indoor shopping centre. With two teenage girls in the group, a little bit of shopping was thoroughly enjoyed
(especially by me who has never enjoyed shopping on my own). A quick lunch in town and then onto Neuschwanstein which is the castle that Mr Walt Disney based THE Walt Disney Castle around. Incidentally it is also THE castle where Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was filmed (see pic attached).
PM was spent supping a few cheeky beers in our local AlpeWatchers Hutte (this is our local summer time pub on the top of the hill).
Day Three:
An early start was called for so that we could go to Immenstadt Alpsee Bergwelt early doors (to beat the crowds). The Alpsee Bergwelt is Germany’s longest toboggan run at a length of 2,800 meters it runs down the mountain side picking up a good speed if you don’t have some unfortunate (slow) child on the toboggan in front of you (hence the need to be there early for increased enjoyment and speed). We caught the two-man chair lift up the mountain and then the toboggan run back down to the bottom … this is quite easily the best €9.80 you are likely to spend while visiting. As we were all in a toboggan going down the mountain I didn’t
manage to get any action shots here, but see pic attached of Ian’s nieces (Aimee & Jess) posing in a toboggan at the bottom of the mountain.
From Immenstadt we headed over to Obersdorf for a quick bit of window shopping and a spot of lunch. After lunch we drove round to the base of Fellhorn (another local mountain) for another mountainous walk. This time we weren’t allowed to catch the chair lift to the top as Ian and I had agreed that it would ruin the enjoyment out of walking up, a bit of light-hearted exercise and most importantly you wouldn’t get half the views if you were catch the chair lift up!!!
It was only a short 20 min walk up hill that we came across the natural lake in the side of the mountain with gorgeously inviting clear blue water. More impressively was the view at the back of the lake of Fellhorn Sky Flying …. See pic attached to really appreciate the view. We walked round to the Ski Jump and with each step it became more impressive, just seemingly jutting out of the side of the hillside. After having a brief tour of
the Ski Flying itself we then walked back down the mountain and took in the jump from the bottom to really appreciate what these sports men put themselves through (you’ve gotta have respect for the like of Eddie the Eagle when you see this).
Day Four:
A mornings rest to get over the last two days of walking were well deserved, we spent a few hours down on the lake side beach. The air temperature was fairly warm (26C or so) but unfortunately it was coupled with a fairly cold water temperature.
Then after a small lunch (eating is cheating) we all caught the bus (yes - we used public transport) into Kempten to join its yearly Beer Festival (otherwise known as Kempten’s Festwoche). Much to our enjoyment we’d never seen so many people (young and old) wearing Lederhosen’s and Dirndls in one place (this gave us hours of amusement)!!? We walked around the Festwoche trying to fully appreciate the cultural aspect of its stalls before finally ending up in the first beer tent ….. after ordering one of each beer on the menu (thankfully they didn’t have too much of a variety) we then proceeded to taste
all the beer on offer.
After half hour or so we were suitably refreshed and ready to join the throng of Lederhosen clad men in the main beer tent and much merriment. There was bench after bench of Lederhosen clad men and Dirndl clad women, the biggest beers in the world (1 litre), waitresses with arm muscles of steel carrying at least six full steins of beer at a time and of course the local German Oompah Band. (see photo’s attached)
Now us girls barely managed a hour of this before politely slipping away (leaving the men to get on with the drinking) while we chose a much more civilised evening in the old part of Kempten with some traditional German Fayre (which consists of sausage and more sausage for the meat eaters) and a bottle of local wine.
We finally got home at about 9.30pm, beating the boys only by one hour ….. I think the litre steins of beer had got the better of them. Although in much fairness, Festwoche beer is well known for being brewed much stronger than its normal beer!?
Day Five:
A full days’ rest was finally rewarded to get
over any hangovers gained from the previous night festivities. The temperature was almost 30C so we all decided to roast ourselves down on the beach. Followed by a quiet night in with takeaway pizza and of course plenty of beer and wine.
Day Six:
Another full on day, first of all we headed over to Linda Island for a walk by the “coast” followed by lunch. Then we drove up to Meerburg, one of the oldest German towns on Lake Constance. After grabbing a quick beer we headed off, up hill again, to discover the old sea castle, museum, gardens and views.
Day Seven:
On their final day our guests headed off into Munich. By this time I was all out of steam on the tourist guide front so instead of going myself I handed over my Munich guide book complete with turned down corners and post-it notes stuck on pages of importance with must have sights to see, beer gardens to visit and general “useful info”!!
After another full on day I think everyone was pretty much exhausted and perhaps needed another weeks holiday to recover.
With no more impending visits I think I will
hang up my Tourist Guide Gue hat for the summer season and concentrate instead on the ski season ……. although I do have a few months until that starts up …. phew!???
I do hope everyone that has visited Ian and I over recent months have enjoyed themselves, and have not found me playing Tourist Guide tedious or boring. It’s been a pleasure to see each and everyone of you and I look forward to your next visit.
XXX
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Gosh, what a great time you all had.Maybe you should start up your own bussiness as a Tourist Guide ! you'd do a marvelous job.All sounds so very interesting.x