Garmisch: Day One!

On the tenth, the day of our departure, Brittany and I woke up around five-thirty to catch our six-thirty train. We found our own compartment for the first leg of the journey, which was nice because eventually we both fell asleep. Changed trains in Munich, and then it was just one hour to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The scenery changed abruptly from flat fields to high mountains on both sides of the train.


The bed-and-breakfast where we'd made reservations was just a five-minute walk from the train station, which proved to be extremely convenient during our stay. The place, called Alpenkranz, was (sorry to use clichés) cozy and quaint. The owner's daughter showed us to our room, which was a perfectly acceptable room, but then two minutes later came back to say that they had a better room for us. The new room was larger, with sofa and chairs, our own bathroom, and even a balcony with patio furniture. Upgrade!



We only stayed to take off our backpacks and we were off again to Partnach Gorge (it was only eleven-thirty, so we still had most of the day). It was about a forty-minute walk from our B&B, and it was sunny outside. The walk took us past the Olympic Skistadion: the Olympic ski jump. The Olympics were held here in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936, as well as the World Alpine Ski Championships in 1978.


The only gorge I've been to is the Columbia, so that's what I was imagining. This gorge was not like the Columbia at all. It was a narrow fissure in the rock (less than ten feet wide at points), very deep (200 feet in places, sometimes deeper), with a river rushing through the bottom. It was loud, too; the sound of rushing water through such a small space was deafening at times. A walkway had been created along the side, sometimes through the rock itself. You'd walk into a tunnel and it would be pitch black, with only your hand on the raw rock wall guiding you. There must have been streams above us as well, because even though there was blue sky, water was constantly streaming down from the rocks above.

Brittany even brought her umbrella--the streams from above were sometimes small waterfalls! I was glad my coat had a hood.


The walk through the gorge itself took twenty minutes, and then the path widened into a sunny, open area. It looked almost like a beach, with people sitting and eating by the river. We turned 180° and walked up a steep path that would take us back up over the gorge, parallel to where we'd hiked next to the river, but above the fissure. It felt exactly like Alaska, with pine trees around us and logs set into the path as steps. We came out into the open after ten minutes, and the view was amazing.


There was a large hotel and restaurant (Forsthaus Graseck) at the top of the hill, which seemed like an odd, inaccessible location for such. Patrons of the hotel don't have to hike there, as we did, but instead take a cable car up. Please note the remoteness of hotel on the very official Google Maps visual below:

Brittany and I sat in the sun and had lunch (well, mid-afternoon meal) at the restaurant. I had goulash, Brittany had salad with chicken, and we shared apple strudel for dessert. We took the cable car down. It was teeny.




Our stay at Alpenkranz, along with other B&Bs in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, comes with a Visitor's Card, which gives one all kinds of freebies and discounts in the city (mostly for the tourist attractions). With aforementioned Visitor's Card, we were able to take the city bus for free. After taking the cable car down and walking back to the skistadion, we took the bus directly back to the train station. We walked to the town center, and Brittany knew of an Indian restaurant that she and John had enjoyed on their trip to Garmisch. I felt guilty about eating Indian food while visiting Germany, but Brittany reminded me that I'd already had German food twice and did I remember how rich it is? I wasn't expected to eat the local cuisine at every meal. I felt better after hearing that... plus, I love Indian food.

Partnach Gorge

The three days Brittany and I spent in Garmisch-Partenkirchen were absolutely fantastic. Incredibly long post to come, but here's a picture of the Partnach Gorge to tide you over. Click for larger view!

Amberg

Despite the fact that the forecast had predicted rain, when we arrived in Amberg (forty-five minutes from Weiden) yesterday, the wind had blown all the clouds away and we enjoyed gelato while we walked around the stadtmitte underneath clear blue sky. Yogurt with cherries for me, Smurf-flavored and watermelon for Brittany (the Smurf-flavor was blue and undefinable, but good nonetheless).


We saw people walking on the balcony around the clock tower and tried to find the way up. We walked around the entire cathedral and tried several locked doors (some were teeny), to no avail.


Giving up the search for the stairway to the clock tower, we strolled along the main street, enjoying the nice weather, until the crowds thinned and we came across this empty cobblestone street. It happened to be the Amberg library, with statues of men reading on the steps. Brittany took my personal favorite picture:


We walked back to the river to see the Spectacle Bridge, named so because the arches' reflections in the water create two circles, like spectacles.



Last but not least, a friend had told Brittany that Amberg boasts the smallest hotel in the world, but Brittany didn't know where it was located. So we went back to tourist information, hoping that they would point us in the right direction. If they didn't, no big deal, on to Vilseck for dinner. But if they did and it wasn't too far away, we could try to find it. The woman knew exactly what we were talking about, and she pulled out a map. Turns out the Wedding House, or Eh'häusl, as it is known, was less than ten minutes away, back the way we'd come. While we walked back down the sunny strasse, Brittany read aloud the legend that goes along with the Wedding House:

"According to legend, a couple could only get a marriage license by the municipal authorities if they owned a house or some property within the city. A clever husband-to-be discovered a courtyard between two estates, acquired it, put up a front wall and a back wall completing the structure with a roof. Technically this fulfilled the regulations. The legend has it that in the following years the "Eh'häusl" very often changed hands thus enabling many couples to enter matrimony."

Finding the little house was very easy. It had a very notable door, and the flower boxes were decorated with wedding rings. Knowing that we had found this tiny attraction was fun partly because the street was deserted except for us.


An ominous dark cloud was quickly blowing our way and we felt raindrops, so we hurried back to the car and headed to Vilseck for dinner.


Brittany and John's favorite German restaurant, Gasthof Specht, is located in Vilseck, about twenty minutes from Amberg. Schnitzel! Delicious fried schnitzel. Although not with noodles. I am truly my mother's daughter, as I'd sung "My Favorite Things" to Brittany before eating at the restaurant, and when I called my mom later that night to tell her I'd had schnitzel without noodles, she began to sing it as well... My schnitzel came with onions and a fried egg, with tater-tot-like potatoes on the side. Brittany's favorite schnitzel comes with a mushroom gravy.


Tomorrow we leave for Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a town on the border of Bavaria and Tirol (Austria). We'll be staying for a couple days, but prepare to hear all about the Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany, upon my return. "Tschüs" is the Bavarian farewell, pronounced "chuse." Tschüs, dear readers!

Kulmbach beerfest, or, I just had the one beer

On Tuesday night, Brittany, two of her friends, Katie and Melanie, and I drove to Kulmbach for my first beerfest. Katie and Mel's husbands are also deployed at the moment. Brittany wore her dirndl, as did her friend Katie. I'd assumed that dirndls and lederhosen were the Americanized stereotype of German attire, but at least half of the crowd at Kulmbach were rocking the traditional getup.

I don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't expect a giant tent with a band playing, and hundreds of people standing on the benches singing and clapping along. The noise was incredible. Sorry for the poor-quality photo, but at least it conveys the size of the tent.


I had a liter of beer--that was one stein of beer (although it bears noting that the word stein is an English neologism; it means "stone" in German). Not only was it an enormous mug of beer, but German beer has a higher alcohol content than American beers (or so I was told). I went to the fest thinking I'd have several beers over the course of the evening. Yeah, I had one and it was more than enough. We all got dinner from the food carts surrounding the fest test--mostly bratwurst in rolls with french fries, but there were other food options as well. I got my bratwurst with curry sauce: "currywurst."

The four Germans sitting next to us as we ate and drank didn't speak very much English, and we didn't speak much German, but that didn't stop them from attempting to converse. They were two couples, and in between "Prosts!" they asked us why we were in Germany. Katie, the best German speaker of the four of us (she's been here a year and a half), gestured to we four and said, "Mann ist Soldat," which means "Husband is a soldier." I leaned over and said, "Nein mann. Nein mann! Prost!"

Servers were offering small trays of some kind of white wavy item, and Mel got me some so I could see what it was. Turns out it was peeled, salted radish. I did not like it, but Brittany did!


We walked around and inside the fest tent, amid the deafening crowd singing along with the music. The songs were usually traditional German folk songs, with some popular songs as well. Dessert to follow (my delicious chocolate-dipped banana not shown).

Castra Regina

Brittany and I drove to Regensburg last Monday (wow, I need to get better at this posting thing), a gorgeous town on the Danube, an hour's drive away from Weiden. The downtown area where we walked around was almost stereotypically European, with pastel-colored buildings and cobblestone alleys.

There was a restaurant on the river that Brittany wanted to show me as a place we could possibly eat lunch, but on the way we stopped at a wine and oil shop called Ziegler. They had bottles, decanters, kegs of different kinds of oil. Brittany wanted a refill of her favorite garlic olive oil.


Then we came to the the stadtmitte, the city center, where the largest building in Regensburg by far resides: Regensburger Dom, or the Regensburg Cathedral. It was colossal. We walked around the hushed interior and marveled at the soaring vaulted ceilings (105 feet in the air!), and even got to walk down into the creepy crypt.



After the cathedral, we went to the Historical Sausage Kitchen or, in German, Historische Wurstkuchl. It's right on the water, and the weather was fantastic, so all of the outdoor seating was of course full. We could have stood in line for take-away, but even that line wound out the door. Brittany had raved about the quality of the sausage at this place, so we waited for a table. In Germany, one does not wait to be seated out of doors by the maitre d'--one just watches like a hawk for patrons reaching for coats and/or purses, and swoops in politely but firmly. It got pretty hairy, but Brittany and I commandeered a table (that's an exaggeration. We just swooped.).




The "usual" at the Historical Sausage Kitchen is simply sausage (you can choose 6, 8, 10, or 12) over sauerkraut. And that's it. I ordered a Hefeweizen, just to balance out my first authentic German meal. Everything was delicious. I've never like sauerkraut nor mustard, but I enjoyed both with the sausage immensely.


After lunch, we went to find the Porta Praetoria, a remnant of a Roman fort built almost 2000 years ago. Brittany was able to find it from memory, which was awesome! This plaque was next to the gate itself.


I had to use Google Translate in German and in Latin to figure out almost the entire message. It reads (more or less): "The gate of the camp commanders' quarters/the Roman fort/Castra Regina ("fortress by the river Regen"; the Latin name for Regensburg)/built in 179 A.D./by Emperor Marcus Aurelius/revealed (something) 1885." The Porta Praetoria itself is an arch (the gate itself) and part of a tower.


We walked over the Danube on the stone bridge, which provided a gorgeous view of the cathedral from afar.


We also found a lovely well, and... it's Europe. Despite the fact that I'll be living over here for the foreseeable future... I feel like I'm in the puppy-love stage with Europe. We're in the first, new, giddy phase of a relationship. Europe and I haven't even kissed yet; just shyly held hands. Everything is a "first" and novel and exciting. I know that I was here when I was sixteen, but I was sixteen. I didn't know anything when I was sixteen. I get to have a second chance at my Europe "firsts", at being over here, at remembering everything and making it count. Hence, I pose when we find this well.


After Regensburg, there was one more stop that I wanted to make. Walhalla, modeled after the Parthenon in Athens (kind of mixing up our mythologies, aren't we?), was supposed to be closed on Mondays, but there was no harm in checking. And, lo and behold, it happened to be open! We were there at the perfect time, as well. Despite the clouds in the picture, it was actually gorgeous. It was so great that it happened to be open--kismet and closure for a fantastic day.