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Published: August 28th 2006
Mr. Bojangles our hiking companion
Attached to the neck of all the cows is a very large and loud bell. So when Mr. Bojangles was lost, we were able to find him.Hello Everyone!
We survived our overnight train to Munich, even thought the cabin was a bit crowded, but we’ve gotten pretty used to sleeping like sardines in a can. We had plans to meet up with some friends in the small village of Tegernsee later in the afternoon, so we had about 5 hours to kill in Munich, which was enough time to introduce Heather to the German state of Bavaria.
Our first stop was at a bakery for a fresh made pretzel, which are the best in the world, and then we grabbed a big coffee because we were still asleep from the train ride. We then found some ground in the Marienplatz (one of the many town squares) in front of the Neues Rathaus, the new town hall that is famous for their Glockenspiel…the bell clock—which is like a large cuckoo clock. Everyday at 11am and noon (and 5pm in the summertime) the famous bells chime and big wooden figures come to life. It is a good thing to see at least once, but isn’t the most exciting display. The pickpockets love the area though because for about 15 minute everyone is looking up, but after Barcelona
we were prepared.
We then walked around the pedestrian area for a little bit taking in the sights then headed to the train station and on towards Tegernsee. We arrived earlier than my longtime friend Daniel and decided to check into our hotel and take a much needed nap. Around 5pm, Daniel arrived with his girlfriend Elsa and shortly after we got a call from our friend Casper and he was at the train station waiting to be picked up. Daniel (from Berlin, Germany) and Casper (from Ikast, Denmark) both were exchanges students to Skyline High School in Idaho Falls with Fred and me. They were on a year exchange and over that time we all became great friends and have kept in contact over the years. It had been about 8 years since I had seen Daniel and 10 years since I had seen Casper so it was really good they both could make it to Tegernsee.
The first time I came to Germany back in 1996, I was able to stay with Daniel at his parent’s house and was happy to hear that his parents were also going to be in Tegernsee for the weekend. We
all had thirst and hunger, so we headed to a local beer garden and Daniel’s parents joined us with their dog Otis. We misheard one of the translations of a menu item and almost ordered a dish made from cow lung, but luckily someone over heard us and had us change our order. After chatting for hours we decided the next day we would wake up and head into the Alps and do some hiking for the day.
The hotel we were staying at was quite fancy (it was like the Ritz compared to where we have been sleeping) and we woke up to a huge German breakfast of breads, meats, cheeses, eggs, and juice and coffee. After we ate too much we headed towards the mountains for our exciting adventure of hiking. The mountains were quite high, so we took a gondola to the first peak and then from there we did some hiking. Once off the gondola, Daniel saw a peak that looked close and we decided to head that way. Well, looks were a bit deceiving and what looked close ended up being about an 8 kilometer (5 miles) hike, but the views we had were
totally worth it. Casper wore flip-flops though and even though he had no injuries, I am sure he would have liked to have shoes.
We returned to the hotel and were greeted by Sarah, Casper’s woman friend from Frankfurt, and who would be joining us for the beer festival. In the evening we met up with Daniel’s parents again and had a great meal of elk or moose and fresh caught fish then off to another beer garden, but only for one beer because the next day was the Waldfest or Forest Festival which sounded like a good reason to have a beer to me!
We arrived and the men were clad in their Lederhosen while the women wore their Volkstracht. We all had to start of the day with a maß or a liter of beer and then the festivities began. There were many traditional Bavarian dances and lots of traditional foods like weiße Wurst mit süssem Senf (white sausage with sweet mustard which I love) big pretzels, and many delicious desserts. After polishing off our fair share of beer and saugages, we headed back to the town center to go swimming in the lake because it
was a hot one! We relaxed for some time and then Sarah and Casper headed off towards Frankfurt while the rest of us stayed one more night in Tegernsee before heading off Monday afternoon. Daniel and Elsa headed back towards Berlin while Heather and I decided to tour a couple more countries before heading up to Berlin for the World Cup finals.
Our first stop was in Salzburg, Austria, where The Sound of Music was filmed, the birth place of Mozart, and also home to these candies called Mozart Kugeln, which are balls of marzipan covered in chocolate, delicious! Here our guidebook recommended trying to find a Private Zimmer (similar to a Bed and Breakfast) because they are very affordable. We found one for 32€ a night that was in the mountains and had a full breakfast…it felt just like home!
That night we walked around Salzburg a bit to check out Mozart’s birth house and to get a little food, we then headed back to the B&B where we found lots of fireflies buzzing around the neighborhood in the dark. I had been to Salzburg once before, about 10 years ago, and did a Sound of Music
bus tour, but we didn’t want to mess with paying for a tour so we decided the next morning I would give Heather my own version of the tour by foot. First we were going to visit the famous Hohensalzburg Fortress, which is perched on a mountain in the middle of the city, as well as check out some of the churches before we got our singing on.
The Fortress is the largest completely preserved castle in all of Europe mainly because it was never successfully attacked. Inside the fortress they have a nice audio tour which includes going up to the watch tower with the most spectacular panoramic view of the city. We enjoyed the views, but it was time to get our singing pants on for the slightly ever-so-famous Sound of Music Tour in Benny-vision.
Our first stop was at the Nonnberg Abbey right next to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. For those of you that have seen the movie, this was the abbey where Maria was becoming a nun and they sang, How do you solve a problem like Maria? which Heather was kind enough to sing for me. We then walked down to the Mirabell Palace
and Gardens where a few more scenes of the movie were filmed, and we had a great time reenacting and recording on our camera…if there were only a way to post videos on our blog. After all the excitement we found these bikes on the water front that you could rent for one hour free so we decided to go for a ride, but our timing wasn’t just right.
The sky was looking a bit gray and the temperature was dropping fast. We rode away from the dark skies, but knew we would have to head back sooner or later. Once we decided to head back, the skies opened up and let the rain down. We tried to make it back to the bike area, but the rain with the strong wind was too much and we found shelter under a bridge. Eventually it slowed down, which gave us enough to return our bikes in time, and then we found a local pub to watch the Brazilian soccer team beat Japan. The next day we were heading to Switzerland to tour the Swiss Alps in Luzern.
Once on our train, I noticed that we could make a quick
stop of in the small town of Innsbruck, Austria for two hours and take in the local sights before heading to Switzerland. There wasn’t too much to see besides the spectacular mountains which hosted the ‘64 and ’76 Winter Olympics and they also had a quaint downtown area. After realizing the time, we ran for about two kilometers straight back to the train station in just enough time to catch our next train.
A Bavarian Beer Festival was probably the greatest way to be introduced to Germany and Austria was absolutely gorgeous, but we were excited to spend a couple days in the Swiss Alps. So look forward to our next blog were we tell you about the Perfect Storm we had while on a boat ride, our hunt for the largest cuckoo clocks in the world, finding Germany’s highest waterfall, as well as pulling a “McGyver” that saved us a lot of hassle.
Love Ben and Heather
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Mary (Mom) Wright
non-member comment
Beer...
Wow... those beer appear quite substantial... I think you could get four hasher down-downs awarded with one stein/mug/jug (what do they call those, anyway?). Couldn't tell if Ben was napping or listenting for the ocean. It all looks like fun. On-on!