Konigssee, Bavaria

In June, we decided to enjoy the great outdoors by taking a trip to one of the most scenic locations in Germany, Konigssee.

This is actually Obersee

Konigssee is located in Berchtesgadener Land, a national park in the Bavarian Alps on the Austrian border. Konigssee is best known for a few things. First, the close proximity to the Eagle's Nest which encourages a lot of visitors with interest in WWII history. Secondly, the famous "horn echo" which occurs when a horn is blown from a certain spot on the lake, causing an echo throughout the Alps which sounds like a symphony of horns playing. Finally, the beautiful views and amazing hikes through practically untouched Alps speckled with traditional wooden buildings and milk cows. German travel websites are covered with picturesque Bavarian scenes from Konigssee and the surrounding area.

Our main reason for making the trip was to enjoy a hike in the mountains, which we hadn't gotten to do since we lived in Colorado. On Friday afternoon, we packed up Augustus and the Jeep and set out for the southern-most portion of Germany. Unfortunately, we didn't get out fast enough to avoid traffic, so our road trip took almost 3 hours longer than anticipated. When we got to our hotel, the staff had gone to bed, so they left our key at the desk with a welcome note.

The next morning, we got up early to catch one of the earlier boats out. Konigssee can only be crossed on a particular kind of electric boat. No other vehicles are allowed on or near the lake to preserve it's crystal clear water. There are only two different stops to get off of from the boat and you pay by how far you plan to go. Each boat stops at a particular point to blow the trumpet in order to hear the echo.

On the day we went, it was soaking wet and pretty cold outside. We dressed Augustus in his best hoodie, put on our thickest rain coats and took a seat on the boat next to a group of British college kids. They all sort of laughed at Augustus cuddled up asleep in Greg's lap the whole trip. He barely noticed the trumpet playing, which, due to the weather, was pretty anticlimactic. The echo didn't have the same triumphant effect in the pouring rain, but it was still kind of cool. There is a famous chuch on the water which is where most people exited, but we stayed on until Salet which is the trail head for a path to Obersee and the Rothbach waterfall, the tallest in Germany.

Obersee is only a short and easy walk from the Salet port, maybe 10 or 15 minutes. However, there is a longer trail which leads along the edge of Obersee and through the mountains until it reaches a cottage which sells fresh milk. If you continue to follow the trail, it ends at the Rothbach waterfall. Despite the rain, we decided to hike it. We weren't totally prepared for that much hiking. Because of the weather, we assumed we wouldn't want to spend that much time outdoors so we didn't dress for the occasion. We ended up hiking several miles anyway.

Augustus was awesome. He only got tired and had to be carried for a short period, and I think it was more so because he was so wet and not because he was necessarily tired. He climbed up the steps carved into the rocks and carefully approached the cows blocking the path to see if he could venture forward. We even saw the British kids later in the hike who mentioned how good he was as hiking.

We stopped at the milk cottage and got some beer. It kind of grosses me out that people were stopping to get luke warm milk while hiking. Augustus got cold from all the rain so we had to wrap him up in Greg's hoodie to dry him off. The views were absolutely beautiful and worth the walk. After a short break, we decided to walk towards the waterfall before heading back to the boat. We didn't walk all the way down the waterfall trail, but instead stopped and allowed Augustus to run around for a little while in the cow pasture. He was interested in the cows, but not enough to attempt to approach them.

Luckily, the hike back was much more dry and the boat much less crowded. Augustus was so exhausted that he curled up in a nest he made in Greg's hoody and fell asleep. All of the Germans were watching him and laughing as he dug his way up under it to sleep "under the covers." This was definitely the longest hike he's taken since we moved to Germany.

Once off the boat, we dropped Augustus at the hotel to rest and ate an amazing Bavarian dinner on the water overlooking the lake. It was a nice end to the trip. At the hotel, we learned that it was a common practice for travelers in the area to return to their hotel at night for dinner. Most of the hotel guests did this. They even reserved a table for each of the hotel guests. We decided to go down to the restaurant for beer and cake.

There were more things that I had wanted to do in that area before we returned, but the weather was so bad that it wasn't worth it. There is a cable car that you could take to the top of a mountain overlooking the lake, but we didn't bother since the clouds were so low that you couldn't even see to the top of the mountains. There wouldn't have been much to see. We didn't go to the Eagle's Nest because we didn't have much interest. We considered stopping through Salzburg, Austria, on our way back, but I forgot to bring our passports so we didn't.

We most likely won't make it back down that direction again unless we try to go snowboarding in the area this winter. The drive to Bavaria/Austria is miserably slow. The scenery is certainly beautiful but that's pretty much all we are interested in around that area. I don't have any huge desire to visit Munich especially after realizing that Oktoberfest can be had in just about any city, but with less tourists and a smaller crowd. Maybe we will return to Garmisch at some point if we have time.

First Day.

So, I haven't updated in over a month. In the past month, we packed up our entire apartment, visited all of our family and flew out to Germany. I plan to post all about our move and vacation once I get a chance, but I'll start with something much easier- our first day in Germany.

Greg and I were extremely lucky to be able to fly a commercial airline from Atlanta straight to Frankfurt. Most military families PCS'ing to Germany are required to fly on Patriot Express (a military chartered flight) from Baltimore to Ramstein AFB, but we lucked out. When Greg was completing the paperwork to receive tickets, the man in the travel office accidentally booked him to fly out in May instead of June. Opps. Once they realized their mistake, there was no room left on the Patriot Express to bring Augustus. Instead of making us leave our chihuahua-child behind, a very kind woman at Carson Wagonlit filled out some extra paperwork so we could fly Lufthansa and bring Augustus aboard with us.

Did I mention they give out free wine?

Pretty much everyone who knows me knows that I'm terrified of flying. It doesn't matter how many times I do it, I hate it. This trip was no exception. I'll spare you the details, but I'm extremely happy to have a husband who has learned how to deal with my anxiety. Augustus did much better at flying than me. Mind you, he's flown many times before, but only back and forth from Colorado to Atlanta. That 3 hour flight was nothing compared to the 8 hours he spent confined to his little carrier.

Once we got to Frankfurt, we were both dead tired waiting for our luggage to appear. Every minute felt like an hour. Once we finally got everything loaded onto the trolley, we followed everyone else out the exit. The sign pointing to the customs area was closed, so we didn't even have to go through customs. We went to so many vet appointments with Augustus to get the proper paperwork filled out to get him into Germany and then literally no one looked at it throughout the whole journey. No one working for the airline, no one in Atlanta and not even a single person when we arrived in Frankfurt seemed to care that I had my dog with me. The most eventful moment with him was when the girl sitting next to me on the plane told me that I had "a very well behaved cat."

No one had really specifically said what we were supposed to do once we landed in Germany, so we figured we'd just find the USO office and see if they could call Greg's unit. After walking for all of a minute, suddenly two men appeared behind us yelling "Brickman!? Are you Brickman?" Apparently, Greg's sponsor was on top of it! They picked us up, took us to our hotel and then starting showing us around the area.

Now, I have to say, I don't remember a single thing we learned in our first 24 hours here. Greg's sponsor gave us a lot of wonderful advice, but I can't recall a single word of it right now, I was so exhausted. I felt like a zombie wondering around aimlessly staring into space. The only thing I recall is them telling us over and over again that the wonderful weather we were having was not normal. It was low 70's, sunny and gorgeous, much different than the usually overcast and rainy German weather. I could imagine if we weren't completely dead tired, we would have probably really enjoyed being outdoors yesterday.

At 2 pm, we finally got back to the hotel and crashed. I remember telling Greg, "Don't let me fall asleep, I'll never wake back up" and then waking up at 9:30 in the evening starving. Great. Everything within walking distance closed by 8 and our only option was to call an Italian restaurant that would deliver. Listening to Greg attempting to order was seriously comical. Thankfully, they delivered wine as well. You know that feeling that you get when you're at the Vietnamese owned nail salon and you know everyone in there is talking about you because they know you don't understand them? Imagine having that feeling all the time. All the Germans know you're American and have zero understanding of the German language. They are all very kind so far, but you can't shake that feeling that everyone is talking about what an idiot you are for not understanding them. I don't blame them at all, but learning an entire language when you just found out you were moving to a different country 3 months ago is pretty much impossible.

We ended up staying up until 4 am because we took the world's longest nap. We can't really go anywhere right now, so we get to hang out in the hotel and watch German programming and AFN until we get some understanding of this area. I'm not sure if I even want to venture outside after witnessing my first German cockamouse last night. Once Greg wakes up, maybe we can explore this particular housing area we're isolated to for the time being. 

As of right now, we're both extremely jet lagged, disoriented and in complete culture shock. Not only have we never lived in a foreign country, we've never lived on a military post before. Even the "American" way of life around here is totally different than in Colorado. We have a lot to learn!

One Year

A week ago, Greg and I celebrated one year of being happily married. Even though we've only spent a month of that time living together, it was great to get away and reflect on the roller-coaster that was our first year of marriage. With so many military members having these miserable marriages that end so quickly in divorce, I'm happy to say that Greg and I are adjusting very well back into our relationship together since he's been home.
We drove out to Pagosa Springs for a long weekend of snowboarding, hot spring dipping and drinking. As is typical for us, we took more pictures of the stops we took on the way to our vacation than our actual vacation. On the way there, we stopped at the Royal Gorge to walk Augustus and generally terrify myself on the giant bridge to nowhere. Augustus had an intense stand-off with a bighorn ram, but somehow, we all managed to make it out of that park alive.

Imagine a rickety wooden bridge swaying over a million foot drop to jagged rocks.

The scenery everywhere was awesome. I wish we lived farther west in the Rocky Mountains where everything is beautiful all the time and it snows in increments of feet.

Pictures don't even do it justice.

On Sunday, we spent the day at Wolf Creek, where they actually had 4 feet of real snow on the slopes. No need for the fake snow they have to throw down on most ski resorts in Colorado. I took a snowboarding lesson while Greg boarded the most difficult slopes alone. We are at two very different skill levels, obviously.

It was about 5 degrees outside by 3pm

The rest of the time we ate, drank and froze our butts off getting in and out of the hot springs. On New Years, I was so exhausted I passed out around 10 pm. Guess we're getting old? Augustus had to sleep in a cage because the cabin owners were heartless chihuahua haters. He was happy when it was time to head home.

Along the way back, we stopped at the Great Sand Dunes which really just looked like giant snow drifts this time of year. Augustus chased Greg around off leash to get out some of his energy and then passed out the rest of the way home. 

Just a man and his chihuahua

It was a great trip! Next year, I'm thinking Paris for our anniversary and New Years. I mean, we'll only be a short train trip away, right?