Bavaria (Bavaria)

Member Name: cosmo

Product:	Bavaria
Date:	09/08/00 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots!!

Disadvantages: Activities in the evening

Bavaria conjures up.... mountains, cable cars, winding roads..etc. etc., yes there are many mountains, cable cars and railways to the top, add to that an excellent road system, an area which is 'unspoilt' many picturesque lakes, and you have...Bavaria, to those of you who like me only speak 'tourist' German be prepared, I did not really understand a word of the language, It would seem the Bavarians have a dialect to call their own, but, as in lots of other places in Germany the population seem pleased to try out their English on you, we stayed in a place called Kochel-am-See, the town is alright for a 'base' but being very small has nothing in itself to offer, there are two or three hotels in the town, and some accomodation on a bed & breakfast basis.
The am-See bit from the towns title is of course the Lake, very attractive, but not for swimming! it is so cold!, opposite the town on the other side of the lake is the Kesselberg Mountan, follow the road out of town South towards Walchensee, on the way you will come to the Cable Car Station on the right which will take you to nearly to the top of the Kesselberg, and, after a quite strenuous walk up the winding path to the top, what a view!! the Lakes North and South, the Tyrol to the South, looking down on the lake at Walchensee, magnificent!!.
The lake at Walchensee has a modern legend, it appears that when the Germans saw their defeat coming during World War 2, they took all the gold and valuables, and dropped them in the lake!, and, they have supposedly never been found.. I did say supposedly.. further south and about 10 miles from the Austrian border, and easy drive from Kochel-am-see, is Mittenwald, (middle of the forest), if any town in Germany could be more picturesque I would like to see it, the huge Karwandel Mountain dominates the town, and again a cable car will take you nearly to the top, on which is the German/Austrian Border! so you can see many good views back into German
y, with the advantage of the Austrian Tyrol to the South a tunnel cut into the mountain at the side of the mountain top restaraunt can give good views from viewing platforms cut out of the side of the tunnel, only one small complaint, it was so cold in that tunnel, take a jumper...the town of Mittenwald takes advantage of its' position, the houses are decorated with wall paintings, and, it has many shops to look around, very clean and tidy, much to offer.
From Kochel travel to nearby Schwangau, the home of Neuschwanstein Castle, of 'Fantasia' fame, unfortunately you cannot get a very good photograph of the castle unless you take to the air!, most of the good photographs of Neuschwanstein you will have seen will have been take from a plane/helicopter, but worth the time to visit, in a field quite close by stood as though someone built it then forgot it is St Colomans Church, unfortunately when we visited it was locked!.It appears King Ludwig squandered most of his fortune on the two castles at Schwangau, before he came to a 'mysterious' end with his doctor. he and his doctor are purported to have drowned in the nearby lake.
If you have a penchant for the larger city Muncih is only a 40 mile drive from Kochel, we preferred to travel South toward Austria, we were there only a short time, but found time to visit Innsbruck, over the Brenner Pass and spend the day at a place called Vipiteno, quite close to Cortina, and all the other places we have named in this article.. Travellers by car can if they wish travel South for a short distance towards Innsbruck, then turn right towards St Anton and make your way back to Germany/France over the St Anton pass.. through the St Anton Tunnel, (I thought it would never end) into Switzerland, back through the Black Forest.. a very, very scenic route..
Disadvantages, well we did not find any, but friends of ours who had visited Bavaria in the June/July before had extremely bad weather, we went in Septem
ber, and all I can say is we never saw a spot of rain, or a cloud all week, it was so hot!, but you takes your chances, remember it is a mountainous region, it can be changeable, but even on very hot days in September it was quite cold on the tops of the mountains, take some decent footwear to go, up the mountains, it is not advisable to go up in 'ordinary' shoes, the paths at the top are quite gravelly, and could be quite slippery..
Us?? we loved every minute of Bavaria... we were very sorry when we came down the pass from St Anton, and found we were not in a mountain region any more...

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