Munich to Austria

Munich

So onto Munich we did go, timed nicely for the weekend in order to indulge in a little of the infamous beer swelling! It was a nice enough city and we enjoyed wandering around but not convinced it lives up to its reputation, I guess it’s a personal choice and depends what you want from a city. There was some nice architecture...



The famous beer halls were an interesting experience but incredibly busy and noisy during the night and impossible to get a seat, but at least we got to hear some umpa lumpa music.

The English Garden is a huge city park, apparently bigger than both Hyde and Central, and home to the Chinese Tower, which is one of the city’s best known beer gardens.

Of course I didn’t eat it all!!

City Surfing

What are pretty cool are the artificial permanent waves, which are present on some of the City Rivers and so allow surfers to practice their moves.

Week 11 –13th to 19th August

Chiemsee

A little way south of Munich is Chiemsee where we stopped for a couple of rest days by the lake.

The Lunar was parked up just a couple of metres from the lake edge; you just can’t beat having a BBQ on your own little private beach with the Bavarian Alps in the background!

Berchtesgadener Land

On the very Southern East border of Bavaria is Berchtesgadener Land; a beautiful area surrounded by mountain ranges (6 of them!) and home to the Eagles Nest. Our campsite was surrounded by views such as this

Eagles Nest

Taking a hair raising local bus from the town up through steep hairpin bends we head for the Eagles Nest. This is where a diplomatic meeting house was built for Hitler’s 50th birthday, perched on top of a mountain at 1834m, quite ironic when Hitler was said to suffer from vertigo and so rarely made a visit. It’s something of a tourist trap since you have to take a special bus up the mountain and then you make the last 100 or so metres in a brass clad lift; the panoramic views however are spectacular and you can see for miles across all the mountain ranges.














Dokumentation Obersalzberg

Obersalzberg became the Southern headquarters of Hitler’s government and this museum provides a very detailed insight into the life, resistance, concentration camps etc of the Nazi terror regime. There is also a section of the bunker, which is open for viewing. Its fascinating and deeply saddening.


Konigssee

This, if you are to believe the hype, is one of the most photogenic lakes and an unforgettable experience. I’m afraid we didn’t quite agree; the lake is nice but it’s is hugely commercial with the approach road teeming with tacky souvenir shops and the lake itself is just one big boat trip paradise. Perhaps the Norwegian fjords have just spoilt us and we’re lake snobs! We decided to rent a row boat, oh yes Andrew was mighty pleased and excited by the prospect and adopted this new leisurely rowing style which we can expect to see in the Oxford Cambridge boat race next year.






Well this is our final stop in Bavaria, and indeed in Germany. We have thoroughly enjoyed Germany and have been pleasantly surprised by the country. Before this trip we would never have thought about holidaying here, but now there are certainly places we would certainly recommend.


Austria

We were ahead on time so thought we would spend a week or so in Austria; it didn’t quite turn out this way since there was nothing here that held us so we pretty much passed through. It wasn’t all Austria’s fault to be fair, the weather wasn’t very good so there was little point hanging around and I guess we were not in the frame of mind for hiking and cycling, which this would be great territory for.
If I tell you that the only photos we took were of a campsite’s toilets – they were very cool toilets – it pretty much sums up Austria for us! The kids section was upstairs and they got to descend through that shoot – if only our bums were a little bit smaller….










Italia here we come!!!