In the Germany route, we added Rhein Waterfall in Swiss, Colmar and Strasbourg in France to our journey as these cities are close by the German border.
Travel Route:
- Salzburg, Austria> Berchtesgaden: Konigssee, Kehls Teinhaus(x)
- Berchtesgaden: Ramsau-Zauberwald-Hintersee
- Berchtesgaden> Pick Up Rental > Oberammergau, Ettal, Linderhof
- Oberammergau> Fussen> Lindau
- Lindau> Lake Konstanz Area> Stein Am Rhein@Swiss> Triberg
- Triberg> Colmar@France> Feriberg(x)
- Colmar> Strasbourg@France> Baden-Baden> Heidelberg
- Heidelberg> Rothenburg> Wurzburg
- Wurzburg> Frankford
- Frankford> US
Days Spend: 9 days
Day 1: Berchtesgaden, Konigssee
.....continue from Day 6 in Austria Post.....
After check-in, we went back to the bus terminal and took the bus to Konigssee. Before we reached the lake, we has to pass through a shopping village. It was a busy day and the village was packed with tourists and tour groups. We brought our tickets and ride the boat all the way to the last stop at Salet. Since it was a rainy day, many tourist kept the windows closed until the crewman bowed the hon. Everyone want to hear the echo of the music from the valleys.
It is a short walk from Salet to Obersee. You should be able to catch the second next boat if you don't hang around in Obersee. It is a peacefully small pond that you could see the shadow of the mountains from water. We stayed for half hour coz we watched a brave man swam in the cold pond.
After Salet, we took the boat to St Bartholoma. Not far from the pier is an small Catholic pilgrimage church. We spent more time in St Bartholoma and walked along the trees filled lakeside path. If it was not raining, it would be a nice walk from Salet to St Barholoma. Personally I think Konigssee is more beautiful than Wolfgangsee, because the narrow lake and continuous surrounding mountains gave depth to the scenery.
Since there still snow in Eagle's Nest (Kehls Teinhaus), we couldn't play a visit. We ended our day before sunset and went to the town center in Berchtesgaden for dinner.
Day 2: DayTrip - Ramsau, Zauberwald, Hintersee
It was a day dedicated day for hiking. The sun was up and it was not too hot. Again, we went back to the same bus station and traveled to Ramsau. May be Konigssee is more popular than Ramsau/Hintersee, not many tourists came to this direction. The scenery in Ramsau was awesome, it was simple but picture perfect. Everyone can take nice pictures here.
Follow the yellow sign and you will find the path to Magic Forest-Zauberwald. The path from Zauberwald to Hintersee is kinda sloppy versus the path in Ramsau is truly flat. It's harder to walk, but it's worthy coz it is a better angle to see the river and waterfall running toward us. The trees are tall and the trial is narrow. We run around, hiked up and down like kids. We really enjoyed the walk there.
Hintersee has a different scenery. A large lake with paddle boats rental, ice cream shops, couple small shops and a few restaurants. It's like a park. The jogging trail along the lake is undoubtedly beautiful. We ate some ice-cream and walked around the lake to enjoy this peaceful view.
If you start early in the morning, you should finish the walk shortly around lunch time. Roughly around three hours if you don't need many stops.
Afterward, we went up to the town center to attend an unknown festival. This time, the town was full of people. Music, dance, food and drinks. We bought some sandwiches and foud a quiet spot for lunch. Wow! We found a garden filled with blossomed cherry trees. With the mountains as its background and a long fountain in the garden, it was a perfect place to relax. It's better than having a massage after hiking.
Later in the evening, we bought some fried chicken and wine back to the guesthouse for dinner.
Day 3: Prien Am Chiemsee, Oberammergau, Ettal, Linderhof
This morning we took the train to Freilassing to pick up our reserved rental car. It's good to have a car. No need to drag the luggage around and live by train and bus schedules. It's not easy for us as we use to have freedom to go anywhere and anytime we want in US with our own cars. It's fine to use public transportation in other counties, but it will be more convenience to have a care in a big county like Germany.
Our first driving stop is Prien Am Chiemsee. We parked near the pier and ride the 20-min ferry to visit the Herrenchiemsee. This castle is my favorite King Ludwig II's castles. It was settled in an island on a lake. The island itself is beautiful. It's not a well-maintained garden but more like a natural park. There are tall trees, ponds and animals. King Ludwig II was kept in this castle in his later. Both him and his doctor found drowned near the shore. Today still not sure whether it was a murder or suicide.
Our next stop is Oberammegau, but before we reached there we need to hit Ettal and Linderhof. Ettal is a small town, we went there just to see the monastery and to get some of their famous beer. Linderhof is worthy to see. It's a small palace but it's quite special. Among all the sites in the palace, I like the theater the most. How cool it is to have special effect lighting and a small pond in a cave-like theater! It will be awesome if I could see a live performance there.
Afterward, we went to Oberammergau. This is a special town. Everyone from the town will perform a play called "Passion" to portray the life of Christ every ten year. We know 2010 will be the year, but we already set the date for travel. Kelvin said ten years later, we will bring our kids to see the play and go to hiking in Germany and Swiss. This town also known for traditional woodcarving and frescoes of fairy tales, religious scenes, and Bavarian themes on their homes and buildings. We found " The Little Red Cap", "The Three Little Pigs" and many other fairy tales frescoes in the buildings nearby our guesthouse. Sometime one fresco contains couple fairy tales. It will be fun to play a game on who gets the most frescoes in town for a set of time.
Day 4: Fussen, LindauWe started our day early to catch the early admissions in the castles (schloss). No special discount, but it will be good not to wait after the tour groups.
Our first stop is Schloss Hohenschwangau. It's a small castle but the rooms are well decorated and very personal. If I remember correctly, it is the childhood castle for King Ludwig II and it's more like a parental home to him. He has a telescope in one of the rooms to observe the building progress of his own castle across the street.
Our second stop is Schloss Neuschwanstein. The castle that gave Disney inspiration for its Beauty Castle. It's a huge castle compare to the next door Honhenschwangau Castle. The interior is beautifully decorated. It has a big theater inside that has tons of seats, but the King never open his castle to anyone in his time and this theater was never used.
After our visits in Fussen, we drove to Lindau. The beginning journey of Lake Constance. Lindau is a small tourist town. From the shore, you could see Alaska. HA! HA! Austria indeed. This town is more beautiful at night than in the day. We saw a swan laid an egg near the pier and a curious dog tried to take a peek and got into a fight with the swan. It's quite romantic to take a short walk along the pier at night and enjoy the breeze.
Day 5: Konstanz, Island Mainau, Rhein Falls@Swiss, Triberg
After a good night of sleep, we started our drive early as we have multiple locations to hit. If you don't want to go to the North like Rothernburg, Wurzburg, and further up north, you could fly out from Switzerland. Hang around in Black Forest area, then visit Rhein Falls and Stein Am Rhein, before you fly out from Zurich.
Personally all those lake shore cities are quite similar, so I am not going to spent time to write about them. We got on the ferry from Konstanz with our rental car. We drove to the border of Swiss to see Rhein Falls. It's a big waterfall. You could ride a little boat to the mini island in the middle of the waterfall. It was fun just by watching the crewman to park the boat for tourists to get on and off the mini island. The Niagara Fall in Canada is more gigantic, but this little boat ride made this experience special. Well, it's the largest waterfall in Europe, so it may be worthy to take a look if you are nearby.
Our next stop is Island Mainau. The gardens in the park are gorgeous. The whole park was filled with my favorite tulips in different color, size and shape. Although the tulips still in bloom, the gardeners started to replace the tulip with other summer flowers. Therefore, many free tulip bulbs for locals and tourists to take back home. If you love gardening and flowers, you must go to check it out.
The drive in dark forest area is awesome. The road are hilly, curvy and narrow, very good for fun driving. The tall trees shaded the heavy sun but leave decent sunbeams to us. Triberg is located in the middle of black forest. This town houses the first cuckoo clock, the largest cuckoo clocks, the tallest waterfall in Germany, and the first black forest cake. I mean they are the one who made the first black forest cake. We both enjoy the hike up to the Triberg Waterfall. The bottom observation deck is the best place to take pictures, but it was fun to take the steps all the way up to the top and see black forest from afar. If I remember correctly, you don't need to pay for the entrance fee if you stay over-night in Triberg/black forest area.
The shops in Triberg close early around 5, so do your shopping and get a taste of the tasty black forest cake first. The waterfall park still open for couple hours after dark.
Day 6: Colmar, France
We thought Feriberg will be a small town, so we skipped it drove to Colmar. We planned quite a long time in the tourism office to look for a hotel. End up we found a chain motel-Etap 15-min away from the market. We parked our car in the underground garage and headed out to the town. Alot of blogger said it is the Venice in France, are they kidding? The pictures you see from the web are the best shots of the town. It is an interesting town but it would be good just to do a stop-over not over-night or a full day. This town offers many restaurants that specialize in Alsace cuisine. Surely the food is good coz they are France.
Day 7: Strasbourg(World Heritage site by UNESCO), Baden-Baden, HeidelbergWith a long relaxing sleep, we leave Colmar early for Strasbourg. It's the second largest city on the Rhein River after,Duisburg in Germany. Strasbourg is a beautiful city. There are the world class historic city center, the big Trinity Church, St Thomas Hall Church and many interesting architectures.
Since we got quite a disappointment yesterday, we added Baden-Baden on the way back to Germany. We truly glad we did, it was awesome to swim in spa (Caracalla Therme) with all European. There are many massage equipped pools filled with mineral springs. We spent a long afternoon there and got some cakes and ice-cream in the town center for a late lunch.
In our initial research/planning stage, we didn't include Heidelberg. Again, we were glad that we included it. It was a beautiful town. I would like to study here if I am still young and can speak and write German. Hubby said the education is free if you pass the qualify exam and know German. May be I should teach our kids in German in the future. We love the bridge, the canal, the college, the cobble-stone street, the history of the town and new modern shops and restaurants. You could found the perfectly balanced old and new worlds in this town. Amazing!
Day 8: Rothenburg, Wurzburg
We arrived around 1pm at Rothenburg coz it was a long drive from Heidelberg. Rothenburg is a well preserved small medieval town that surrounded by a fortified wall. We walked alng the stadmauer wall, visited the Rathaus City Hall and the St Jacobs Church. In the town center, there are few stores and restaurants. Since ther are not many things to see, we canceled our stay and drove to Wurzburg around 4pm.
Wurzburg is about half hour away. It a alot bigger than Rothenburg and have more shops, restaurants and people. We visited the Alte Mainbrucke bridge and Festung Marienberg, and did some shopping.
Day 9: Wurzburg, Frankford
Since we only need to cover the Dom St Kilian, the Residenz, and the Neumunster in Wurzburg, we added Frankford to our plan. Since it was Sunday, we attend the service in the small chapel next to the Residenz. We though the Residenz is the most worthy place to see if you have time constrain, and you would visit the Neumunster when you pass through the town from the bridge area to the Residenz area via the church side door.
After all the visit, we drove to Frankford. It's a big city but again we didn't find much things to do. May be we were home sick. We parked near Hauptwache shopping area and walked all the way to the Romer Plaza. There are many cafes and small shops at Romer Plaza. We ate some susages and have couple beer. Later on, we walked over the Elserner Steg bridge, seat down at a nice bakery cafe for people watching. In the evening, we have dinner at that area and mingled with the locals.
Day 10: Frankford , USA
Finally our trip came to the end and we fought back home to US in the morning.
Top Picks: Konigssee, Ramsau/Hintersee/Zauberwald, Schloss Neuschwanstein, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden
