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Bill and Jude's Excellent Adventure- Berchtesgaden Part 3 to Garmisch

The adventure continues.. The plan for today was to go to Konigsee and take a boat ride to see St. Bartholomew's Church, then high tail it to Garmisch where we were staying next. However it was raining AGAIN and a boat ride in the rain just didn't appeal. Plus the half day taken for the lake visit, would have pushed us too late to get to our next stop. So instead we did the responsible adult thing (ugh) and hit a laundromat in Berchtesgaden to do all of our wash. Frightfully boring but necessary and of course we managed to have fun. Naturally the entire control panel on the washer was in German, so I took a photo of it and went to the hotel next door to Google it using their wifi. I got change and soap from the guy at the front desk, and by the time I had it figured out, my husband had made best friends with some random guy doing his laundry there. They went through this elaborate Charades episode with each other, and viola! Clean clothes! We walked around Berchtesgaden for a little bit, then programmed the GPS to take us to Garmisch via Innsbruck. And off we went.... straight into a construction zone and a nifty little detour. OK make that a big detour. Lunch was at a very smoke filled roadside place, but the food was good. A ground pork burger for me, and chevaps for my husband. We got to Innsbruck later than we had hoped, but we still managed to drive around and see a few sights. What we saw was very pretty. We found a beautiful mountaintop restaurant for dinner, and our table overlooked the mountains and the setting sun. Score. We finally got to our guesthouse in Garmisch around 9:30-ish. Thank God for the GPS... Definitely the best thing we did. We stayed at Guesthouse Alpenkranz on a side street near the center of town. Our room was the largest of all we had and definitely the bathroom was the largest. You could actually turn around in the bathroom here.

The next day, we headed for Mittenwald and it did not disappoint. Everyone here said it was the perfect little town with the mountains as a backdrop. We agreed. There was a very pretty church to explore and the buildings were quite picturesque. I couldn't imagine how these people could maneuver their cars through such narrow streets, when we heard a loud bang. Apparently, they can't. Hoo boy...

We found a great take out place and grabbed lunch to go. They had macaroni and cheese, my favorite. I was thrilled to sit on a park bench and stuff myself with a taste of home. After lunch, we took the cable car to the top of the Karwendel and enjoyed walking around up there. It had snowed so naturally we had to start pegging each other with snowballs. Back home they were having record heat in the 90's and here we were throwing snowballs. We made a couple of snow inukshuks and left them up there to overlook the mountain. Back down in town, we looked around a little more, then had dinner at Der Kleine Kartoffelsack. So good! Their gratin dishes hit the spot, hot and plentiful. Dessert was Mohr Im Hemd... Definitely the perfect ending to another great day! Could this trip get any better.

Posted by
16538 posts

...to do all of our wash. Frightfully boring but necessary and of
course we managed to have fun.

Judy, we do the coin-laundry thing at least once (if not twice) on our trips too; it's part of the adventure! You can meet some interesting people in laundromats, and they've been amused but helpful when they've seen us flailing about with "Greek to me" instructions; I know what you mean about Charades! :O)

PS: A fair amount of coin laundries have wifi these days so you can google-translate on the spot with a device.

Posted by
2252 posts

Your trip reporting is so descriptive (and excellent!), I feel as if I'm right there with you. You are doing your trip your way and enjoying every minute and so am I. Thanks for another fun post!

Posted by
7158 posts

I hope every first time traveler to Germany takes the time to read your trip reports. It's a welcome change from the Germany question and answer posts that have gotten a bit testy lately, and have been a bit off-putting to new posters planning a first trip. Your trip reports are a perfect example of how much fun (and, yes, educational) a first trip can be even if it follows a typical 'touristy' itinerary. Of course I have to say that your writing style has much to do with how enjoyable they are to read, and your wonderful attitude comes through loud and clear. That's an important lesson for inexperienced travelers to learn - a good attitude and a willingness to be flexible and still enjoy things will go a long way to make their trips enjoyable. Thank you for posting them.

Posted by
3961 posts

Hey Jude!

I think Nancy's posting is spot on. Your "trip reports are a perfect example of how much fun (and yes, educational) a first trip can be even if it follows a typical 'touristy' itinerary, etc."

Even though I have not been to Germany, I feel that I am living vicariously through your descriptive travel log. It has inspired me to think about a future trip to this region.

It is also rewarding to read all the supportive postings for your efforts.

Thank you for sharing your "Excellent Adventure."