Europe at its best
OK, having given 15 years of our lives to a great German company, I was born in Germany and Kristi studied here where she learned fluent German, you could say we have a fondness of this lovely country.
Germany is actually a wonderfully beautiful country, we were planning to visit our wonderful ex-boss in Stuttgart, Kristi’s ex-university in Freiburg and started with a week in the stunning area of Bavaria. Viewing the photos from this blog is an absolute must, so don’t miss out in clicking on the gallery link.
Bavaria is a landlocked federal state of Germany. With an area of 70,550 square kilometers, Bavaria is the largest German state by land area comprising roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany. Sited in the Southeastern corner on Germany and touching the borders of Czech Republic, Austria and Liechtenstein, and a very short drive into Switzerland. We made the village of Kruen our base for exploring the German side of the Alps and then for the short drive into Switzerland for our next destination.
The village was typical for this area, surrounded by snowcapped mountains, and chocolate box type architecture. The best bit for the boys was the fabulous play park within a few hundred meters of the accommodation. Not your typical playpark with the obligatory slides, swings, and teeter-totter (see-saw for those of us from outside the USA). It was more German engineering for toddlers and gave me a smile that said in my head “no wonder these guys are so clever in technology.”
Play park Germany style
The top left picture had a spiral mechanism that for 1 Euro you pay for a wooden ball, the ball went into the spiral and you wound it up to the top and then watched the ball fall through channels, ring cowbells, go around corners and eventually land back in you hand about 30 meters away. The boys were mesmerized by this, and to be honest so was I, and you get to keep the ball!
The water feature had them (and us) thinking how the water that you pump could best spin the fins and which way was going to have the best effect.
The accommodation was lovely, except for the first and what ended up being the only time we had a terrible owner. The house was split in three levels, ours was on the middle floor and the owner’s Mom was on the ground floor. She ended up being the worst host, complained constantly and totally without cause about the noise we were making (which wasn’t even us half of the time), even complained about the car being too loud when it was idling, shut Kristi out the door and yelled at me in German through the car window, even her son said she was a crazy women. Anyway, after contacting the owner she kept out of our way as we did hers. The accommodation was surrounded by fields and mountains and the village friendly cow herd, clanging their bells as they went about their business.
We were excited to go hiking in the Alps, Lara and I immediately vetted Kristi’s first hike and found out she had found us a beautiful, fairly flat loop that went past a beautiful lake where we could stop and swim. The weather was magnificent, not a cloud in the sky, the temperature on the car reading 30 degrees C and more, the lake was looking inviting.
Kristi was getting into her stride with communicating in German and I found this really attractive and proud to see her doing this at all levels. I had no idea what she was saying but it worked every time.
The loop started through the buttercups and dandelions and the opportunity to snap photos was not to be missed.
Now we were in Bavaria, close to the Von Trapp family’s home of Austria, but we were in the Alps probably looking at Austrian mountains and Kristi couldn’t help herself…….
The walk was gorgeous, we all know the Germans can also be a bit liberal in nature and the walk gave Lara her first impression of this with a lady in her birthday suit just drying herself off from a swim …..and then there was the lake we were looking for……
The lake was situated towards the end of the walk, surrounded by snow cap mountains and beautiful woodland. We couldn’t resist jumping in.
We must have spent an hour here, just playing on the pontoon and soaking up the best that nature had to offer.
Our local town, where we chose to eat most nights was Mittenwald. A gorgeous and typical quintessential Bavarian town. The window shopping was great as was the beer garden
In between our two main hikes, we wanted to visit somewhere that Kristi had been to and is probably on everyone’s list of places to go when in this area, the beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle.
About a two hour drive away, we set off early with a pre-booked tour of the inside. The view as you approach this stunning building from the highway simply takes your breath away.
Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th-century castle built on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau in the southwest of Bavaria. Called a palace, it was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat. Ludwig paid for the palace out of his personal fortune and by means of extensive borrowing, rather than Bavarian public funds. Kristi got her own back here for the easy hike the day before and decided we would walk the hillside up to the castle, don’t do this, take the horse drawn carts or a bus like normal people, it was steep.
The castle was intended as a home for the King until he died in 1886. It was open to the public shortly after his death. More than 1.6 million people visit this place a year.
Known for its setting as the King’s castle in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” all I could do was annoy Lara on the tour by repeatedly saying “I vant that Kar” or “Toot Sweets, toot sweets” I couldn’t get the scenes out of my head of that childhood movie that seemed to be aired almost every Christmas along with reruns of Elvis. Today it’s Harry Potter and The Lord of The Rings.
Kristi has already seen the inside in a previous visit so Lara and I queued up and spent about an hour looking around the inside of this amazing place. Again, the things we learn when touring the world. This castle in the mid-1800s had running water AND central heating!! Come on New Zealand get with the central heating age, you are almost 200 years behind, get with the program!
We were not allowed to take pictures inside but the restoration was underway, in about two years it will be well worth coming back for another look.
The next day, our second hike in the Bavarian Alps was a little more challenging but we picked the right day to visit the castle (cloudy and a little overcast). Therefore we were blessed with totally blue skies for our walk. Kristi chose a walk close to Mittenwald up the Kranzberg mountain.
Oh my gosh, it was stunning. The weather certainly played its part. Thankfully for Lara and
We love hiking and feel so at one with nature when we find places like this. The walk from the top of the cable car to the viewing peak, as I said, was a bit steep but well worth it and guess what? On the way we walked past a pile of snow that in almost three years represented the boys first ever snow pile, so we had to stop and record the occasion.
At the top was also another wonderful bit of German play engineering. A barefoot trail. Designed for sensory stimulation and almost two kilometers in length, there were various stations where the kids, and you can learn about different textures under your feet.
Finished off by another brilliant water play design where you had to think about how the water was going to get from A to B. We all loved it.
Here is a darling video of the kids just finishing the barefoot trail and running down the hill to catch Lara, the happiness and excitement on their faces, including Lara’s, was wonderful to catch and is probably the most-watched video clip we have of the trip so far. Turn up your volume to hear the giggles.
The next best bit about this amazing hike is that the start is at the top. We then spent about 6 hours taking the trails down one side of the mountain, through beautiful woodlands and past amazing lakes. Just look at these stunning pictures. Why on earth would we want to be anywhere else in the world right at this moment?
The boys did great for their little legs carried them most of the way down, almost 14 kilometers!! How good is that for them?
I urge anyone to do the same hike, it is not actually that strenuous and can be cut shorter, but why would you? If you are able, make it a destination not to be missed.
We can see why so many Germans head for the Bavarian alps not only for the weekend but for their annual holidays. It is a simply stunning area, very affordable and a play ground heaven for those of us who love the outdoors.
See the full gallery again here.
Next stop Switzerland, another stunner!