It is Friday night already.
Our 3 weeks in Germany is rapidly coming to an end.
Last night while at the Ravensburg Christmas Market, we saw
a Rotary tent. The Rotarians were giving
children the opportunity to make Christmas cookies. Dough was prepared so the
children could make cookies in whatever shape they desired. The cookies were baked and within minutes the
children were able to decorate them. It was a very popular place and a wonderful
Rotary fundraiser. While the children were baking cookies the parents or
grandparents were having coffee or shopping.
Since we want to be near Munchen by Friday evening we knew
we needed to be on the way earlier than in the past days. After getting the car packed we were on our
way to Fussen.
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| Germany in the Snow |
To get to Fussen we had to drive through more of the German
Alps. With the snow still clinging to
the trees and the sun shining we enjoyed the scenery of the snow covered
mountains. Fussen is near
Neuschwanstein, one of the castles of Mad King Ludwig. We did not go into the castle, as we had been
there in the past, but we drove near so we could get some photos. Fussen is enclosed by a wall and has the old
town feel to it. We found the market in
the courtyard of the cathedral/museum.
The problem was that it did not open until 2:00 pm. Since we did not want to delay that long, we
walked around the town before returning to the car and were on the road to
Garmisch.
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| Fussen Market and Basilica |
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| Fussen Castle |
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| Neuschwanstein |
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| Hohenschwangau - Ludwig's Parents Castle |
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| A Panorama with both castles |
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| Austrian alps |
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| Anyone want to try the slopes? |
To get to Garmisch we had to go through Austria. The Alps continue to captivate us with all of
the snow. We drove through ski towns and
past ski slopes. With all of the snow
the slopes are open and the villages were busy.
We thoroughly enjoy driving through Austria. Before we knew it we were back in Germany and
into Garmisch. We had trouble finding
the market, but all of a sudden it was in front of us. The market was smaller than we had
anticipated, but it was nice.
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| Garmisch Market - Mountains in Background |
From Garmisch we went to Oberammergau, the town of the
painted houses and passion play. There
were not as many painted houses as we remembered from an earlier visit. The market definitely had a local
flavor. The goods being sold were
locally made rather than brought in from the big producers. We also browsed around in several souvenir
shops before we were back on the road.
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| Oberammergau Painted Building and Market |
One of the towns we drove through on our way to Oberammergau
also had a market. The town of Ettal has
the St Marys Kloster Basilica. The
market was located around the Basilica.
This was a different environment but very nice. While walking through the market, we sampled
a sweet bread we had seen them make at other markets, but had not yet tasted.
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| St Marys Basilica |
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| Market around the Basilica |
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| Notice the amount of snow |
After leaving Ettal we were on our way to the Hotel Seehof in
Starnberg, which we had booked on-line last night. We found the hotel, and relaxed for a while before
eating dinner in an Italian restaurant associated with the hotel. The food was excellent. It was a busy restaurant with locals, as it
appeared groups were having Christmas dinners.
Before they seated us we had to agree to be out of the restaurant by
8:00 (2 hours) as they had other reservations.
There was plenty of time for us.
Starnberg is located at the north end of the Starnberger
Sea, which is 30 minutes south of Munich. Several lakes are this is region and
many of the small towns around the lakes had Christmas markets last
weekend. From our hotel room we have a
lovely view of the sea and the Alps in the background. Hopefully in the morning we can get some good
photos.
Tomorrow (Saturday) we plan to take the train into Munich
for the day.
