One saying that is unfortunately true is that all good things must come to an end, in this case it is my part of our Germany holiday. As Diana has just finished her masters at uni, passing with distinction I might add, Klara and her will be staying on a little longer.

It appears that the German language has a term for everything, in this case it is ‘Abschied Schoppen’ which translates as ‘going away drinks’. Wolfgang done a great job on the ‘grill’, keeping the bratwurst coming to feed us all and to lay a nice base for me to get through the last of the wheat beers from my birthday case

As the weather has been fantastic, the evening was spent in the back garden of Doris and Albert’s where a couple of trestle tables were laid out for the night

Back in Obertsdorf I purchased myself a new Bavarian hat, so what better place to make its debut than in Hessen, hundreds of kilometres away from Bavaria   At the moment it doesn’t have any pins in it, all the new ones are packed in my luggage as I don’t want to risk a airline security incident by trying to board with 2cm long pins in my hat.

As the night went on, Bernie and I regaled his son Max with ‘Australia Stories’ from when Bernie visited us back in 2000, here I am showing Max how big the spiders are that he might encounter when it is his turn to visit, as we had been enjoying the evening for a while at this point, I may have exaggerated just a tiny bit

So there it is, my Germany adventure with Diana and Klara will be complete tomorrow when i say ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to everyone. The great thing with goodbyes in Germany is that you do say ‘Auf Wiedersehen’, its great because it literally means ‘See you again’, which is far more appropriate than goodbye!

JW

Today we had to say goodbye to Bolsterlang and hello to Stadtallendorf so it was back onto the autobahn for a drive of around 480KM. As there was little traffic, the trip was rather uneventful and we got back in Stadtallendorf at a reasonable hour. We had planned to leave a little earlier but the dinner on the previous night was followed by a games session which was enjoyed way into the early hours.

Arriving back we were greeted by the heat as the temperature had risen again, we were now looking at a temperature above 35c

Given the thoroughly enjoyable, but exhausting previous week, along with the temperature we took it easy in the afternoon and just headed into the town centre for a little shopping of supplies and to grab an ice cream, later in the evening we sat down to watch Germany take 3rd place in the world cup, this time Klara got to yell ‘Tor’ plenty of times.

Today Anke, Timo, Sarah and Marie headed off for a long hike into the mountains surrounding Bolsterlang before Timo and Sarah would head off back home later in the afternoon. As they had to really push through their hike if they wanted to be back at a reasonable hour for the trip home, we decided not to go with them as Klara sometimes likes to head at a more leisurely pace.

We took what Klara calls the baby train, or cable car up another 600 metres from Bolsterlang to the berg station at 1540 metres. At the top of the berg station there is a playground and we thought it nice if Klara played there whilst we headed individually on a small hike each, I first headed up to Weiherkopf and then when I got back to the berg station Diana headed to the Bolsterlanger Horn.

The hike up to Weiherkopf, whilst not long, was nearly vertical but presented great views of the valley,

Looking back to the berg station you can see how high the hike up to Weiherkopf was, somewhere there Diana and Klara are playing

When I returned to the berg station, Diana then headed to the Bolsterlanger Horn which also included an artists path on the trip, from there she got a great panoramic shot of the valley below from a different angle

as well as a shot showing her at the end of the hike.

Later in the evening, we attended a Italian dinner where we were staying, along with the other guests we were treated to a fantastic meal and some nice music and stories, even better, Klara found some friends to play with in the kids games room, only returning to us to grab some tasty morsals before running back to play.

JW

Today we headed about 1 1/2 hours east of Bolsterlang, cutting through Austria and then back into Germany to visit the highest point in Germany, the Zugspitze, rising 2962 metres above sea level. Upon reaching the base of the Zugspitze, we started our journey up from the station at Eibsee, luckily for us, they had a section on the platform for groups of Australians to gather:

The journey up to the summit itself was undertaken in stages, starting at Eibsee we took a cogwheel train to the Zugspitzplatz, this was outdoors for about 20 minutes and then in a tunnel gouged in the mountain for another  20 minutes as we climbed the last stage. Stepping out from the train as it emerged from the top of the tunnel we were presented with this view.

It was hard to believe that yesterday we were swimming in the Bodensee and today we are nearly 3000 metres above sea level playing in snow. Klara found it absolutely fascinating and couldn’t keep her hands off it, we had to keep an eye on her hands as she had no gloves but didn’t care about the cold if it meant she could throw snowballs around.

Also at this point is Germanys highest chapel, sitting within the snowline.

From Zugspitzeplatz we took a cable car the last couple of hundred metres to the ‘gipfel’ or summit, from here we had travelled in a short time from the highest chapel in Germany to Germany’s highest beer garden, which we took great advantage of, sitting in the sun and snow.

On the Austrian side of the summit was a huge pile of snow which led me to see if I could be Germany’s highest juggler of snowballs, seeing as though it is also world cup time I added in an appropriate finish:

After spending a few hours at the summit, we took the quick trip down in a cable car which takes you directly from the Zugspitze to the station at Eibsee within 10 minutes, the summit itself is quite tiring, being so high in the thin air, so it was good to then have the quick trip down, the train trip up is definitely worth it but is much better taken first going up when you have the energy to enjoy the journey. However, one person below did not seem so tired, perhaps being closer to the ground she was not as affected by the thin air

JW

Today we headed West from Bolsterlang into Austria to visit Bregenz and the Bodensee, the Bodensee is also known as Lake Constance. After reaching Bregenz we decided to catch a ferry to the beautiful old town of Lindau which is on an island on the Bodensee. Lindau is actually back in Germany, essentially on the water/lake border with both Switzerland Austria and so after driving from Germany to Austria, we ferried ourselves back into Germany. The Lindau harbour is protected by Bavaria’s only lighthouse and a giant lion as shown below, both built in 1856.

In Lindau we wandered around the aldstadt for a few hours taking in the buildings which date back hundreds of years before grabbing some lunch on hopping back on the ferry to Bregenz

Back in Bregenz, Austria, we decided to now head into the Bodensee after spending time on it. The water itself was quite warm but for us it felt strange being such a large body of fresh water, the Bodensee is so large that you cannot see any land in the horizon and it contains many large ships, giving it the feel of being by the seaside, not lakeside, thus we also had a feeling that there should be salt water

One thing that we would definitely do if we came back here to swim would be to bring along kayaking shoes to wear into the lake as the shore is comprised of medium to small stones which, whilst being smooth, do take a toll on the soles of your feet. After having a short swim, Klara made great use of the stones by sitting on the edge of the lake, just in the water, throwing the stones one at a time into the lake as far as she could, saying ‘bye bye’ to each one as she threw it. She was so content doing this that she would have done it all day if we let her.

After driving back into Germany to return to Bolsterlang, we headed off for a short walk to the local church to show Klara the ‘ding ding’, below is a typical view from Bolsterlang to the surrounding mountains as well as a panoramic photo taking from just in front of the church.

Heading back to the house, we settled in to watch the Semi Final of Germany and Spain, unfortunately Germany seemed to have lost their way in this game and didn’t perform too well at all, losing 1-0 to a patient Spain. It was during this game that Klara learnt her latest German Phrase ‘Kein Tor’ which means ‘No Goal’, saying it repeatedly as Germany pushed the ball around the midfield.

JW

Today was still a little rainy but we wanted to head off to the BreitachKlamm (Breitach Canyon) for some hiking and as the forecast was for the rain to clear we headed back into Obertsdorf again for a little more wandering around as we waited for the weather to fine up. Here is Klara with one of her favourite things in Germany behind her, every town we pass Klara is sure to point out the church, or ‘Ding Ding’ as she calls them

In order to ensure that it definitely stopped raining we purchased an umbrella which Klara soon took possession of, the good news was that about 30 minutes later it did stop raining and didn’t start again

As it had stopped raining, the hiking trip through the Breitachklamm was definitely on, the canyon is about 2.5KM long and up to 150 metres deep in parts but only metres wide which makes for a amazing walk as the water from the Kleinwalsertal above rushes through. As we are also high in the mountains, it made for a tough walk but it was worth every effort.

We decided that instead of returning on the same path that we would do a circular route and stop off for a snack along the way, unfortunately our map was only 2D and did not show the HUGE hill, or was it a mountain side, that we would have to drag ourselves up to get there. Somehow Diana managed it with Klara in the backpack!

The reward for the effort was Klara got some ice cream, to make the backpack even heavier from the Alpe Dornach guesthouse.

However we did also reward ourselves a little as well:

One great thing about the guesthouse we are staying in at Bolsterlang is that it has a drinks cellar for the guests to access, we just head downstairs, tick off what we used and enjoy. Unlike most holiday places, they dont try to rip you off with the prices either.

JW

Today started out a bit rainy but eventually cleared up to bring us a nice evening, as it was raining on and off we decided on some shopping in Obertsdorf, I was after a new Bavarian hat to replace me previous one purchased back in 2001 and to use for putting the many hat pins on, as well as something to wear to Octoberfest

We also made sure to drop into the cake shop again for some more afternoon coffee and cake, we just couldn’t go past it.

After the weather had cleared, we headed up to the playground site again as behind it was a fantastic vista from which to take some photos, first all the ladies lined up for a group photo with the alps in the background:

Then we grabbed a classic family shot which will probably find itself being enlarged:

After these shots, everyone had a go at jumping in front of the mountain, with Diana’s coming out best:

After getting some photos, we all dropped into the walking pool below, this is a 3/4 metre deep bath with 15 degree water constantly flowing through it, the idea is to walk in a circle around the steel rails with the cold water improving your circulation. Klara had other ideas and wanted to swim

JW

We decided it was a nice day for a mountain trek.  In the village of Blosterlang, where we are staying, there is a gondola called the Hoenerbahn to take us to the top of the nearest mountain. From here we hiked through the hills and valleys, pausing at one of the many guest houses along the way for a coffee and a snack. The next photo is from the guest house looking back towards the village below, you cant make out the village as it is deep in the valley but you can see the storm clouds pouring rain onto it. Because we were high up in the mountains we did not receive any of the storm until much later when we had hiked back to the gondola to head back down.

One of the constant reminders that you are in the Bavarian Alps is the ringing of the bells that lay around the cows necks, these are not just in advertisements for the tourists, below is one of the said cows and its bell, you can also hear her friends bells in the background. The bells themselves are used by the farmers to help them locate the cows as they are often wandering in fields which may be many hills away and there is no line of sight to the cow.

As Klara is not yet a seasoned hiker, more of a walker (boom tish), we borrowed a baby backpack to take with us onto the hiking trips, at first she wasn’t the keenest to use it but as time went on and her legs tired she decided it wasn’t such a bad idea after all. She eventually became so accustomed to it that she nodded off for a mountain air nap as we hiked along.

One thing for sure though, the mountain air can definitely build an appetite, and what better way to tackle that appetite than with a huge slice of local cake. In the next town of Fischen there is a fantastic cake shop called ‘Kaffe Pause’, they make the best, fresh cakes filled with juicy, sweet, summer fruits, this was our second trip to this cake shop and it wont be the last. If you head there, be sure to go early as they only have fresh cakes and once they are gone…..

Klara now knows that the playground is just a short stroll away and under her direction we headed back up there early in the evening, as it doesn’t even start to get dark until around 9pm, there is plenty of time for fun in the sun. On this visit we even spotted two monkeys who looked surprisingly like Klara and Diana.

The earlier hiking trip generated so many photos that i put a small collection in a album than can be reached from below

View Full Album

JW

This morning, or shall i say last night as it was early enough, we got up at 3:45AM to drive south for about 500KM to a town called Bolsterlang, which in winter is a ski resort, but in summer is a great base for hiking trips into the surrounding mountains. The town itself is about 900m above sea level with ski lifts that raise you into the surrounding alps to approximately 1750m high.

We are staying in a holiday apartment for the next couple of days but at the moment it is only us and Anke, Anke’s brother, his girlfriend and another friend will be going us soon. The photo below is taken from the kitchen window of the apartment and shows the snow capped mountains nearby.

After settling in, we heading to nearby Fischen to do some shopping for the next couple of days and to grab some lunch, at lunch we grabbed some of Murray’s recommended Hirschbrau Pils, you can see below how ‘tops’ he thinks it is:

On arriving back at our apartment, it soon resembled a retirement home as we all collapsed after being up since 3:45am. Catching up on lost sleep before rising before the next stage in the world cup for Germany, a date with Argentina. Luckily Klara had plenty of opportunity to practice her new German word ‘Tor’ (goal) as Germany took it to Argentina 4-0.

After the game we all headed up to the local playground which had plenty to offer before going back to the apartment for dinner.

JW

As we have done previously, sometimes the best time to catch up with people is over breakfast, today we headed back over to Diana’s aunt Lisa’s house for a breakfast catch-up which turned into lunch which turned into coffee

The photo below is the temperature when we got back to Albert and Doris’s house from Lisa’s, considering it’s only around the corner, we now know why it felt so hot, it was 38.1 degrees!

After breakfast and when Klara’s 2nd cousin Cedric got home the two played for most of the day between a slide, bobby cars and a wading pool, as you can see, Klara brought her best swimming costumes, later Cedric was to follow her fashion tips.

All of the playing certainly built an appetite for two as they shared a lunch of spaghetti noodles before heading off for more play.

It was great to sit for half a day out the back of Lisa’s house, enjoying the great weather and catching up whilst the two kids played, mostly, together

Later in the evening, Diana’s uncle Ludwig took us to his colleagues house as his colleagues daughter is heading to Australia for a working holiday very soon, so we had a chat and gave her some tips. As we are heading off very early tomorrow to head south, it has been good to have a quiet couple of days ‘off’ the road.

JW