Oberammagau - is it really there? (Other locations...)

Name: Mioliere

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Product:	Other locations...
Date:	06/10/08 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quiet and peaceful but very unusual

Disadvantages: A little scary in a Grimm's Fairy Tale sort of way

Lat year we visited Oberammagau in Germany as part of our journey back to France from Lake Garda in Italy, where our son had just got married. The wedding guests flew to Italy from the UK, but we were already in France so decided to drive there. Rather than risk the deadly Milan to Torino road which we had travelled on to get there, we decided it would be safer to drive through the Alps to get back.

It was a spectacular journey which included Austria, Leitchenstein and Switzerland but, by far the most memorable place was Oberammagau, an Alpine village in Germany, famous for it's Passion Play. The play is performed every ten years and involves 2000 singers, musicians and other artists from within the village community. The first Passion Play was performed in 1634; the residents of the village at the time promised God that if he spared them from the Bubonic plague, they would perform the play every ten years and so they do, in every year that ends with a zero. It galvanises the whole village and they are, indeed, very passionate about it. When we were there, there was a furious debate about whether or not it should be performed during the daytime.

NATO's key training school is also in Oberammagau having been started there in 1953.

One of the first things that strikes you about the village is the religious paintings on the outsides of most of the houses and hotels, and the shops full of local woodcarvings and traditional German dress, but very little else.

The people are quiet and respectful, as are the local children. Everything is very clean and efficient but there are a few strange aspects to the place.

For a start, when we were looking for a hotel, whenever we asked for a double room we were directed to a room with fixed twin beds about 30 feet apart. It took a great deal of time to find a room with a double bed and then it was described as a 'shared' bed! It made us wonder how anyone managed to get pregnant there! The bed may have been a small double but it had two single quilts - we gave up trying to sort that one out.

We had a lovely typically German meal in a nearby restaurant where we were served by waitresses wearing traditional Dirndl skirt and embroidered blouses. They would say 'you're welcome' every time you asked them for something.

At night, we found it very difficult to sleep because the room was so warm; everytime we looked out of the window, we could see the shops lit up, literally like Christmas trees. The one opposite sold just Christmas goods, but they were all based on the woodcarving tradition and I found them depressing for some reason. Every so often, no matter what time of night it was, we would see people strolling along eating icecream cornets. We never did find the nocturnal icecream van! Apart from the strangeness of that, it seemed that the locals were part of one of those old-fashioned toy theatres where the characters are pushed on and off stage on the ends of sticks. They seemed to move about as though on wheels. I must say, it was the most surreal night I have ever spent anywhere! I can see why most of the old fairy tales are set in these Alpine villages!

We had intended to spend a couple of days in Oberammagau but, come the morning, we couldn't wait to leave. It all seemed so unreal. We hastily packed our belongings and headed away from the village and I swear, when I took a last look at it in the distance, it disappeared in a puff of smoke! It was so high up it made me think of the Jack and the Beanstalk; I'm sure the place where the Giant lived was based on Oberammagau. A little later I was describing the place to a friend of mine; I said I had the impression that, if I was to take someone there to show them the village, it wouldn't actually be there. She said she had heard that it doesn't really exist! Needless to say, I don't think I'll be returning but I am very glad that I did get to spend some time there, no matter how ethereal it was.

Summary: Curious and fascinating