Much Ado About Munich: Dreaming of a white... Easter!

Somebody swapped holidays on us. Christmas was warm and green (well, brown) and Easter near the Alps gave us 30 cm of snow! But it was still lovely.

Since our friends the Salditts were in Munich for the Easter holidays, we had arranged with them to spend two nights over the Easter weekend in a little mountain hotel (200 m from the Austrian border) near the national park of Berchtesgaden, which is the south-eastern most tip of Germany.

We rented a car for Saturday morning, and within a couple hours we were at the Königssee (Kings Lake) which is central to the Berchtesgaden park. Thanks to the park protection, the area is undeveloped, uncommercial, and gorgeous. The only vehicles allowed on the lake the electric boats run by the park.

Our two families, enjoying the boat ride down
the Königssee

The lake is long and narrow, with some impressive cliffs on the side. Half-way through our ride down to docking point, the boat tour guide stopped the engines a couple hundred meters away from the most vertical of the cliffs, and we sat quietly while he played a trumpet melody. The crystal-clear echo made it sound like he was playing a duet with himself!

Approaching the St. Bartholomä landing point.

At a point on the west side of the lake, several kilometers away from the village where we started, lies the famous pilgrimage church of St. Bartholomä. The church, as well as the boat dock and a small inn lie stunningly nestled among the mountains.

Once we landed, we couldn't help but take (too many) pictures of the church and its gorgeous setting.

Getting off the boat, looking south, towards the hiking trails.

The church and inn are just north of where the boats land.

The roofline of St. Bartholomew's church.

Looking back up the lake, north, from between the church
a small hunting lodge.

There are hiking paths that start near the dock, and since it was not (yet) raining, we set out to explore the park for an hour or so.

The Salditts, making a silly video while Julia films...

The rocky beach at the south end of the lake was ruggedly beautiful, even in the light rain...

Nicole and I, wet and dry.

After getting to our hotel and warming up with a swim in the pool, we had a lovely dinner, chatted late, and got ready for Easter morning...

View from our balcony, Easter morning.

Although it looked beautiful outside, the sledding hills were closed for the season, yet the hiking paths were too wet. Not so much of a good "outside" day.

The six kids had fun finding Easter chocolate
in the snow... between snowball fights.

View from our hotel, Neuhäusl, in Berchtesgaden.

After a leisurely Easter breakfast, we headed to Salzburg, just a half-hour drive away. The weather was not great for sight-seeing, but it's a beautiful city.

On of the main squares, Kapitelplatz (in the wet snow).

A view of the Salzburg cathedral, with the
Marienstatue in front, from the Domplatz.

A cold and rainy day is a good day to be in a museum: especially the house where Mozart was born.

An original keyboard of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The museum was very large, with original scores, instruments, letters, trinkets given to the two child prodigies (Wolfgang and his sister "Nannerl") as they toured Europe, etc. I especially liked the small violin that Mozart played as a child (but no photographs were allowed).

OK, I have to admit that I had never thought about why Salzburg is so named, but the region is famous for salt (Salz)! The salt mines in the region have been supplying salt for centuries, and the visit to the Salzbergwerk in Berchtesgaden that afternoon was a lot more fun that I would have credited.

First you need to dress in miners clothes (which I thought a little hokey, but it turned out to be a good idea). Then you get on a small mining train which zips you into the mine remarkably fast (and with narrow tunnels, in the dark... seemed almost like a Disney ride, but without the seat belts, and real).

"Official picture" of all of us on the train, just before entering the mine.

Once in the mine, we walked around with a tour guide for nearly a hour. They make it interesting, especially for kids, by mixing up the information sections with slides to different levels (wide wooden beams that you straddle -- they're fast) and in one place a very cool ride in a boat across an underground lake.

It turned out to be a surprisingly busy and eventful rainy Easter Day.

View of Fraueninsel from the mainland.

Monday morning, on our way back to Munich, we stopped at the Chiemsee, which has two islands: Herreninsel and Fraueninsel, which refer to the fact that there is an abbey for monks (i.e. men, or Herren) on the one, and a convent for nuns (women, or Frauen) on the second.

The boat docking on the island.

We took the five-minute boat ride to the smaller Fraueninsel and spend a good couple hours wandering and exploring.

I love this picture of Lottie and Benjamin. They
were horsing around the whole time together (but
not with arms around each other... Thomas caught
this when she was drawing with snow on his back...)

I saw crocuses on the island, both snow-covered, and then wide open in the glimpse of sun we got. It must almost be spring?!