September in Bavaria

We stayed at a small ski resort town at the north edge of the Alps for 6 days. Spent one day at Oktoberfest and 5 days seeing other resort towns south of Munich. Busses abound with lederhosen-clad tourists. Roadside parking lots are full of empty cars while their owners hike in the hills. Obviously September doesn't end the season here in Germany.

Here's a sometimes dull diary of our sightseeing. Town by town. Waterfall by waterfall. Mad king by mad king.

Searched Google and found no laundromats between Innsbruck and Munich except a Best Western in Tegnersee with a guest laundry. We headed there but couldn't find anywhere to wash clothes. But we did spot a laundry with a price list that included "10kg - 20.40€". Lucky us. Brought in our three bags (about 40lbs) and they did them in 4 hours and charged us 20€. Tipped them 3€ and they were thrilled. Hit 2 breweries while we waited. A perfect day.

Bad Tolz. A typical German city. Pedestrian shopping streets downtown. But everything in this one seemed overpriced and kitschy.

Does anyone know what Himalayan Salz crystals really are.
They're not plastic but they look man-made.

The German train system came through again when we headed for Munich. 50 mile trip. 52 minutes. 17€ for both of us and that included full use of the Munich underground, trams, and busses.

At the Munich train station the tracks end and they have efficient-looking sliding train-stops on each track. No Silver Streaks here.

Drove a bridge across a very deep gorge. Stopped to take pictures. The first time that day for snapping shots down at water.

Went to Neuschwanstein to see Mad King Ludwig (II), fantasy castle. It was built in the late 1800s to look like medieval knights should be riding into the courtyard. Everything inside is pure Tannhauser. In fact Ludwig was a major patron of Richard Wagner and encouraged him to write songs about the tales of Siegfried and family.

Ludwig lived in the castle for less than 6 months before he died in 1886. Only the King's chambers and the servant's quarters were finished along with a music hall that was never used until 1969. No additional construction has been done inside except for 2 gift shops - one of which is in the middle of the tour. But what is there is spectacular. It's fresh and clean. All the edges are sharp. All the paintings are bright. No scaffolding.

The rigamarole you have to go through to see the castle is even more complicated than the Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. You buy a ticket for a guided tour at a set time. Then you buy a ticket and stand in line for a half hour for a shuttle bus to the top of the hill. Walk down to the castle. Stand in line when your tour number is called. After a 35-minute whirlwind crowded tour you can walk up to Mary's bridge for the really good pictures and back down to wait for the next shuttle bus to town. All in all, it takes about 4 hours to accomplish the 35-minute tour.

Terry was at the front of our tour group and was ushered to the front of each room without seeing much. Bob ended up at the end of the tour group and never even got into the rooms until the quick lectures were over and the crowd left. He couldn't dawdle and gawk, though, because the next group was waiting behind him. Just too many people - and this isn't the tourist season anymore?

Mary's Bridge is the real highlight. The money shot. An iron truss bridge crosses a gorge and waterfall right where the view of the castle is at its grandest.

Back in town you can also tour Hohenschwangau Castle, the home of Ludwig's parents, the Maximillians.

Just south, on the Austrian border is Lechfall. A man-made waterfall and dam on the Lech River.

Kloster Andechs is a hilltop monastery still occupied by monks (who still brew some very good beer). Climbing seems to be a normal thing in southern Bavaria. The Alps and all. It's a good climb up the hill from the free parking lot and it's worth the 1€ turnstile to walk 14 flights of narrow wooden stairs to the top of the bell tower. Not a great view but an interesting climb. Just don't be in there on the hour.

The church itself is very opulent. It's always been a prosperous community and they boast of some relics from the Crusades (although they aren't open to view).

If you go, take an appetite. The roast pork at their terrace cafeteria is wonderful - real Yoder style. The crackling fat finish seals in the juices. That applies to the Haxe also - huge three-fist sized pig knuckles.

Almost on the Austrian border, the Sylvansteinsee is aptly named. It's a man-made lake behind a 1957 dam at the head of the Isar river that runs through Munich. We drove by on a beautiful sunny morning with no wind, giving a mirror finish to the lake. A lovely picture proudly presented with a panorama.

We went back that way later to catch the sun at a different angle but the wind had picked up and the reflections were gone.

That was on the way to the small town of Massing, NE of Munich where there is a Bertha Hummel Museum. Massing is the Hummel family home for the last 125 years and the museum (and extensive Gobel/Hummel gift shop) is run by her nephew. Coincidentally this is the 70th anniversary of the Gobel figurines and we had a nice chat with the guy who is in charge of the factory tour we went on earlier.

The nondescript museum consists of watercolors by Sister Hummel from the 1920s and 30s and some works for sale by a local artist. The gift shop has probably the most extensive selection of Hummels outside the factory shop itself. Still, they didn't have the AppleTreeBoy lamp that we're looking for.

1929 portraits of Otmar Edenhofer.

A grave cross carved by Viki and Jesef Hummel.

1929 - Bleeding Heart.

Chrysanthemum.

1928 Wild Flowers.

1929 Red Dahlias.

These dolls were produced by the Gobel factory but weren't very popular. Very rare. Not for sale.

Wolnzach has two interesting museums. The Hopfmuseum (all about hops - a major local crop), and the Museum of the Culture of the Hand (all about hands - most everyone in town has one or two). Always a sucker for a strange museum, we were happy to see this was a serious effort and one that gets you thinking a bit.

The first hand art.

The human brain uses a lot of resources to control and feel the hands (and face and tongue).

The woman at the museum waved goodbye to us.

We stayed overnight in the charming town of Berching. You couldn't find a more "original" walled German town if you tried. Even a stream running down the center of the city (ala Beer, Devon).

Nurnberg (Nuremburg) is where the big Nazi party rallies were held and where the last of the Nazi's were tried for war crimes. The Dokumentzentrum is a busy museum of both events. It is located at the arena started in the 1920s to hold the big rallies. This arena was never finished because the scope of the annual events outgrew it while it was only half done.

By the late 1920s a half-million people descended on town each year for a week long series of staged events that were bigger than even our quadrennial Republican and Democratic party fruhfrahs.

You've seen the movies of the torchlight parades - these were in the Zeppelinfield just south of town. You've also seen the film clip of the swastika being blown off the top of the backdrop building in the Zeppelinfield. This place is now a part-time auto racetrack and a public park on the weekends with soccer games and roller-hockey players enjoying themselves and getting scraped up. How wonderful.

On the Sunday we went through Nurnberg, there was a food-fest on an island in town. A city of 500,000 needs a bigger place to stage such an event. Walking was tough and seating at the biergartens was impossible.

Having about 3 weeks before our time on the Continent is over, we headed back to Bamberg. A beautiful laid-back city with the Shlenkerla - the best beer Bob has found.

Synagogenplatz was the site of a synagogue that burned down and not rebuilt. The plaque doesn't say when that was.

It's hard to imagine any German coming to the United States and exclaiming "We're in Indiana" but we've actually said "We're in Bavaraia".

Does anyone know just what these signs mean? There's one (truck) or a set (truck and tank) at every bridge and culvert under every road in Germany. Obviously it has something to do with a weight limit but what is the unit of measure?