GAP - Driving Driving Driving

Today was somewhat aggravating, nay frustrating. Our goals were to go to the top of the Zugspitze and then on to Oberammergau. But first I must digress.
I did not know that people still wore the traditional Bavarian clothing with the lederhosen. Not a lot, but they do. This gentleman is in full Bavarian kit and he is riding a really heavy bike up a steep hill at a good clip. So, there you go.


Back to the Zugspitze. There are two ways to reach the top of Germany's tallest mountain. There is an amazing electric cog wheel train that climbs up to a 25% grade, or there is the cable car. We wanted the cable car since the train takes 1.5 hours each way, and half of the trip is in a tunnel. But no, the cable car is down for maintenance until the 26th. We decided to bail on the Zug due to the time commitment involved.

So it was off to Oberammergau. I would not recommend this town unless it's a year than ends in zero, and you're there for the Passion Play. It's just not that interesting. They do have some fantastically painted buildings.


All of that detail is paint, the front of the building is flat.

They also have a well developed carved by hand wood craft tradition. But over all it's just not that interesting. It felt a little like Leavenworth. For those of you who are not from Washington, Leavenworth is a small ex-logging town that outright reinvented itself as a Bavarian themed tourist trap. They have been very successful with it.

It was raining off and on, so hiking was not really feasible, so we up and decided to drive out to another of Ludwig's castles, and then planned to return to GAP via Austria. This is Neuschwanstein. It has a medieval Wagnerian theme. It was never finished and Ludwig did not spend much time there. It's perched on the side of a small Alp. This is it from a distance. You can get a sense of how huge it is.

I took this later after the torrential rains moved on with my telephoto lens from pretty far away. This was after driving in to Fussen and discovering that the road that went into Austria and back to the hotel was closed. So we had a pretty long drive back.

It's a beautiful part of the country. The Alps seem to spring bolt upright out of the plains where there is all of this rolling farmland.

See the yellow traffic sign? The top half is the bridge speed limit for trucks. The bottom is for tanks. This is not something one would expect to see. The sign has only been in the Bavarian region.

Hopefully it will quit raining tomorrow so we can walk. We need some exercise! The plan is to drive in to Innsbruck and walk around and see what we see. In case you're wondering, GAP is the official abbreviation for Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Munich to Garmisch with Two Stops

Today was the drive from Munich to Garmisch-Partinkirchen. It's not terribly far, so we hit a UNESCO Heritage site and one of Ludwig the Mad's castles on the way down. It's taken two tries, but I finally got the church photos up; the pics of the castle and our hotel room may or may not go up tonight. Internet here is like the water temperature in the shower, hot then cold.
Just north of Fussen is the Wieskirche. In 1730 a farmer noticed his statue of Christ was weeping. This was a miracle, and his farm became a pilgrimage site. So many pilgrims came to see it, a church was built to house the statue, and what a church it is.

When you walk in and look to the back of the church, this is what you see. (I left the photos big, click twice so you can see detail.)

See the red in the above photo, this is a detail of that painting. It's beautiful.

Detail of the lower part of the back.

Looking to the other end of the church, the organ pipes.

Painting above the organ pipes. Look at the door.

Ceiling detail, with cornices below it.

More ceiling.

One side of the church.

Is this amazing or what? The Frauenkirche in Dresden was beautiful, but this is just over the top.

Then it was on to one of Ludwig the Second's castles. This was the only one that was finished that he was able to spend time in. Ludwig was a solitary kind of guy, he slept all day and read books all night. He did not entertain here, this was a get away for him. The guide said he was here about half the time. Ludwig's reign was short lived, Bismark took over Bavaria in the creation of Germany, and Ludwig became a figure head king. After the ruling people in Munich saw the palaces he was building, they declared him insane and de-kinged him. Shortly after that he died under mysterious circumstances in his early 40's. He should have been an architect.
This is a small castle, but he liked it alot. On his floor was a bedroom, dining room, reading room and 2 waiting rooms for the servants to hang out it until he sent for them. He had this cool dining table for one that would be cranked down into the kitchen and set with plates and food and then cranked back up to his level, he didn't have to interact with anyone at meals.

There is a water fall running behind the house that he had build to help cool the castle in the summer. It was an early misting system.

The fountain in the front.

A ceiling detail from the web. Does this remind you of anything?

They don't allow photography in the palace, but I did sneak one of this chandelier. Ludwig was a great admirer of Louis XIV. Much of his palaces' design was done in homage to Versailles. He was not afraid to mix architecture from various centuries. This is a Dresden porcelain chandelier, notice the pineapple on top, the symbol of hospitality. See all of the gold stuff? That's not painted, it's carved wood or stone that has been covered in gold. It's EVERYWHERE. The chandelier in his bedroom weighs 500 kg.

The furnishings are in remarkably good shape, and most of them are still there. It's an impressive little palace.

Speaking of palaces, this is where we are staying, the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl. The room is huge, there are closets with mirrored doors everywhere. We have furniture.

The bathroom has a jetted tub and a shower. The shower stall is weird, it's like being in a closet with water because you can not see through the door. That would be peach colored carpeting surrounding that tub.

OK! I'm caught up. Loading pictures has been very tedious.

Not sure what we're doing tomorrow. I think it will depend on the weather. We've had thunderstorms tonight, so we'll see.

Munich Day Trip to Dachau and Bad Tolz

Last night was fun. We rented "Morning Glory" which was a funny romantic comedy. Parts of it made us laugh out loud. Then we opened the room window (windows really open, you could jump out if you wanted to) and watched the thunder and lightening. It was impressive.
Today we drove to Dachau. It was the prototype for the concentration camps of WWII. It was originally populated by people who resisted the Nazis. I did not know that Jehovah's Witnesses were on that list. But they were. There are two memorials there that are very powerful. This is a big one that is outside of the museum. Those are people looking like barbed wire.

As the Allies came closer to the camps, the Nazis forced the inmates to walk to other camps. They were trying to cover up what they had been doing. Thousands died on the death marches. This commemorates those people.

It's a sad place. Never again.

After Dachau we had planned to go to Rothenburg until we discovered how far away it was. So we went to Bad Tolz instead. It's a spa town south of Munich. On summer weekends people from Munich like to come and swim at their giant pool and enjoy the scenery. It's just cuter than a bug.


This is the Muhlfeldkirche. It's a smallish church with a beautiful interior.


Here is the Church of the Assumption, which is undergoing a total renovation. It's a beautiful church, whenever they finish, it should be stunning.

We stuck our heads in and got a picture of this. The vaulting and organ pipes were equally beautiful, but we had to leave without photos.

Detail from above.

On the hill, is the Kalvarienbergkirche (Calvary Church) on the right and the Leonhardikapelle on the left, which is the destination of the Leonhardi pilgrimage.

Inside the Calvary Church. There were several rooms and levels in this church; all unattended and full of old beautiful religious items. We were the only people there


This is from the Leonhardikapelle, which was a small building.

I was raised Baptist, so although we find the Catholic churches beautiful, I can offer zero explanation or insight into what we're seeing. Which is why I publish a lot of pictures with no information!

Tomorrow will be the rococo church at Wies on the way to Garmisch. Yes, I know, another church. Then we will be in beautiful scenery and maybe there will be something new to see, like shoes.

Munich Day Trip to Obersalzberg

We got up early today and drove to the Obersalzberg (near Berchtesgaden), the home of Hitler's Eagle's Nest, and a documentation center that tells the story of what Hitler and his henchmen did here. In the mid-1930s Hitler and his top guys decided they liked the area and confiscated land to build second homes for themselves and eventually a meeting center and many other buildings to support their takeover of the area. Martin Bormann had decided that it would be good to have an impressive place for meetings with other world leaders, so he had the Eagle's nest built at the very top of a mountain there. Ironically, Hitler is said to have suffered from vertigo and never used it. At the lower level is the documentation center, restaurant, and entrance into the bunkers that were built in 1943. The bunker system is huge.
This is the walkway into one of the bunker complexes.

Bormann also had a 4 mile road with a 25% grade built up to the top of the mountain. They drilled an elevator shaft through the rock 400 feet high to get to the site of the Eagle's Nest. It's now a restaurant with an amazing view. Hitler's Berghof and the homes of his henchmen were destroyed late in the war and are now gone. In 1952 there was discussion of dynamiting the Eagle's Nest, but they decided to keep it and make it a tourist area.

This is the current restaurant. There is a trail behind it you can hike up to see the surrounding mountains.

The Alps and a lake.

More Alps and the trail.

It's more of a drive from Munich than we thought it would be, in large part due to construction. Going out the GPS took us off the freeway and through the country side to avoid a huge backup. We saw part of it crossing the freeway and were pretty danged happy not to be in it. The museum is good, there are a lot of words, but it's good. Taking the bus up to the Eagle's Nest was unbelievable. The road is really steep. The elevator up is lined in brass and is original. It's a surreal experience, but I am glad we went.

Being American and somewhat sheltered, I never really knew what a Biergarten was. I thought it was an outdoor area where beer is served. No, it's so much more. They're huge. They're an urban oasis with trees, and flowers and food and beer. I took this picture out of our hotel window at the one across the street. I believe the tall structure is a May pole, they appear to be common to all of the biergartens we have seen to date. The heavy equipment in the background is demolishing something and is not common to the biergarten.


After returning to the garage, we walked over to the grocery store to obtain dinner. There was a Japanese woman with her 3 year old son, who was having a tantrum of epic proportions. She was speaking to him in low tones in Japanese and he was just wailing "Nein, nein". It was an impressive bilingual tantrum at such a young age.

Tomorrow is probably another day trip. Then it's on to Garmish with a side trip to a church in Wies I want to see.

Munich - Old Town & Nymphenburg

Munich is just lovely, and the people are lovely as well. It's obvious that this is the most prosperous city in Germany. The people in Dresden and other cities in the former eastern zone did not have the polished, well fed, and professionally manicured look that the people in Munich have. The haircuts are better, and they are very well-dressed. All it takes is an application of money. If I had more bandwidth I would upload shoe pictures; but no, you're getting old buildings. Our hotel is pretty far away from the city center, but we have great freeway access. It's a 10 minute walk to the U-bahn. So we tubed into the old town this morning. The glockenspiel was playing and the dancers were dancing in the tower of the Altes Rathaus on the Marienplatz. Bavaria! Gotta love it.

We then walked down to the local Frauenkirche which here is Catholic. For some reason I did not get an exterior shot. It was pretty dang impressive inside, the paintings they have are magnificent.

It's unfortunate that she's smoking, but aren't they just turned out?

Bicycles, everywhere.

After mooching around Munich for awhile, we took the U-bahn, the S-bahn and two trams out to Schloss Nymphenburg, one of Ludwig the Second's homes. Apparently kinging requires a lot of real estate. It's an enormous palace with enormous grounds.

Detail from a ceiling.

Then it was back to the downtown Kaufhof, which translates as “buying station or house”. The lower level is a gourmet shopping experience. They have mass quantities of food beautifully presented. We bought a rotisserie chicken. We are so happy to have a meal that does not involve some part of a pig. Many pork products are eaten here.

I've been observing us and what we're missing while out of the country. I am missing TV in English with a plot (I am tired of BBC & CNN International), cereal with cold milk and ice. Jim misses hot weather, hot oatmeal and Mexican food.

Tomorrow we're either driving to Bertchesgaden or Rothenburg. Depends on the weather forecast. It'll be good to rest the feet.