Garmisch, Germany

this is a copy of an email I wrote about a trip we took in July 2002.

We were discussing the trip on the way home and came to the conclusion that it just might have been the best trip ever. However, I think we have been saying that about every trip, on the drive home, for quite awhile now. I guess we just love our trips.

We drove up to Garmisch Germany, which is a United States Army recreation facility. Located in the Bavarian Alps, Garmisch is the most beautiful place on earth. We started our journey at noon. Originally we were to be seven people but due to the rain we became six people. Jeff, Mandy and me along with Dan and his two girls Courtney and Heather. Mandy rode there with Dan and his two girls. We live at the base of the Alps, and our destination was about 200 miles northwest, directly through the Alps. However, negotiating the Alps is difficult unless you drive on the Autostrata, which is a wonderful highway. So we had to drive southwest, thru Venice and Verona. In Venice we got hit by a huge storm and ended up driving about 20 miles per hour for about 60 miles.

We finally entered the Alps and drove north thru Italy and Austria and finally into Germany. We saw at least twenty castles along the side of the rode on the way there. It seems that almost every mountain with a flat surface area at the top has a castle or fortress built on it at some point in the past. Everything from Roman ruins, to medieval Castles to Renaissance palaces. I am trying to teach Mandy about the different periods in European history and was proud we she could distinguish between the different periods when we toured castles. This was to be our camping and castle trip. I love to enter into the Alps. I have now been to Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy and the Alps are amazing in all these places. We have seen so many wonderful things built by people over the last two thousand years, churches, castles, palaces but, nothing compares to the mountains. They are covered with trees and grasses, which paint the mountains in every shade of green imaginable. Some are rocky with no vegetation. Every twist and turn of the road and it is a whole new world. It is impossible to explain how beautiful it is.

So we got to the campground. Pitched our tents, grilled our dinner and went to bed. It was a bit drizzly but not too bad. Back in Italy we had been suffering thru the upper nineties with no air conditioning but here in Germany we could see our breath as we said our goodnights. The girls slept in their own tent and giggles for a while. We awoke to the sun rising over the most beautiful mountains imaginable. It reminded me so much of Washington State. The sights the smells and the crispness of the air. Soon we were in the car on our first adventure. I was the navigator. Which was a bit difficult because I am not familiar with the German language. The names of the towns were so foreign it was a bit difficult to find our way. But we made it to our first destination without a single wrong turn. This was a monastery in the city of Ettal.

It was very beautiful, the inside of the church amazing. The difference between a Germany and an Italian church was amazing. Then we bought some souvenirs and rain jackets as it was sprinkling again. Then we were off down the road to the next stop. Again I found it flawlessly. Linderhof was the name of this castle. It was the smallest of King Ludwig II’s three castles, but the one he preferred and the only one he actually finished. We got a tour of the inside too. This is the first time I have got to tour a castle that was still furnished. This castle was built in 1880, after the Civil War. Jeff says it is not really a castle but a palace. Very different from the medieval castles we have toured. The walls were covered in golden carvings and rich paintings and tapestries. Riches beyond imagination. We toured the grounds and then grabbed an authentic Bavarian lunch in a wonderful restaurant. The girls all had fried pork chops and the adults, we all tried different types of sausages. We had cheesecakes and strudel and ice cream for dessert. We were so stuffed and sleepy from our hike up the mountain.

The next castle was an hour down the rode and I navigated us to the main rode and told Jeff to turn at Oberammergau and fell asleep, oops. Jeff thought I said to turn at Augsburg, which was about 100 km down the rode from Oberammergau. So when I woke up we were way off course. But we finally found our next stop, Neuschwanstein castle in Fussen. Can you begin to see by all these city names how hard it is to give directions? And then when you fly by a sign saying to turn right to go toward, and it lists three cities and left to go to three different cities and straight to go three different cities. I was getting a headache. But I found it, I was very excited when I actually saw the castle on the side of the mountain. So we rode a horse drawn carriage up the mountain to the castle and then we had to wait about an hour for our tour. We all took a little nap.

Then we got our tour. It was beautiful. The castle was the inspiration for the Walt Disney Cinderella castle. From the castle we could see a lake on one side and a waterfall and bridge from the other side. After touring the castle we decided to hike up the mountain and go see the bridge. It was amazing to be so close to the waterfall and see the castle and the lake in the background. We took pictures, but I don’t think the pictures can capture the beauty of that moment. We hiked back to the car and I found our way back to the campground. We only got turned around once and then had to find our way thru a detour.

The drive back was so lovely. So we spent the day driving thru the mountains and villages and touring the castles and churches of Bavaria. It was so much fun. We got back to camp and grilled our dinner and since it was a clear night we sat out and watched the stars. We noticed several bonfires lit on the top of a couple of the mountains surrounding us and have no idea what they were for. The next day was Sunday and we had to journey home. It was sad that we had to leave, first because it was a truly lovely day and second because it was the day of the world cup and it would have been fun to watch Germany play in a German bar. But, we headed home. The trip home was clear and smooth sailing and we made it in record time, we stopped once for McDonald’s and once for gas.