Beieren

Bavaria 

May 30, 2002 - 8:30 a.m. Ready to leave for Bavaria to take my mother and her BFF to their spa resort, and taking the opportunity of spending a few days there ourselves. :D 

From earlier vacations - quite some time ago - we remembered that driving on the German Autobahns is always a pleasure because there is no speed limit. The drive was 735 km which I had calculated to do in about 7 hours, stops included … I had not counted with long traffic jams and road works all over Germany though! Plus the fact that they do have speed limits on many sections. 

Our first stop was at 11.30 am when we had just crossed the Belgian/German border. That was only 200 km from home! My mum had packed a pick-nick, just like she used to do when we went on holiday with the family in my childhood. The weather was gorgeous and my mother was totally happy. 

To make a 'long ride short', we finally arrived in Bad-Wörishofen at 6:30 p.m. Bad-Wörishofen is a spa resort. Not for beauty treatments though, but for health treatments based on the methods of the Bavarian priest Sebastian Kneipp who, being of weak health himself, discovered the wellness of water in combination with a healthy life. Bad-Wörishofen was the first city to start with the treatments, around 1890, under Kneipp's motto: "Für Körper, Geist und Seele" (For body, spirit and soul).

If you read German, www.kneipp.de gives more information on the treatment, www.newadvent.org/cathen/08669b.htm gives background information on Sebastian Kneipp. 

After checking in at our pension (Kurpension Kaiser), we went into the city centre - which was only a 10 min. walk - to find something to eat, which was no problem at all. Moreover the food was good and healthy! Most of the restaurants and tea-rooms close at 9:30 p.m. after which the city is completely dead. 

A health treatment involves early rising! That was what we experienced the next morning. Therapy starts at 5:30 a.m. with hot water wrappings and although my husband and myself didn't have any treatment at all we still were woken up by the noises in the neighbouring rooms. And breakfast wasn't on until 8 a.m.! 

On our first morning we rented bikes in our hotel to discover the city and the surrounding area which is rather flat. Bad-Wörishofen itself is a very pretty city, very quiet and relaxing. Everything is done to make the - mostly elderly to really old - guests feel comfortable and easy. No traffic in the streets, it is not even allowed to ride a bike in the city centre or in the park. Which we didn't know and for which we have been rapped over the knuckles very severely by the park guard. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the dozens of very nice and expensive boutiques. And the stylish ladies and gentlemen attending the concerts (3 times a day, mostly for free) in the Kurhaus' park. If you are in the area, be sure to nose about. 

After a quick and early lunch we decided to visit the Wieskirche (a small pilgrimage church in the middle of nowhere, very baroque with paintings and decorations on every millimetre) and the castles of King Ludwig. We thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful scenery, the woods, the lakes, the mountains, and further south the snow on the peaks, the alpine meadows with buttercups, poppy's, white and red clover. So much flowers in the fields, we used to see them here in Belgium as well, way back when I was a kid. 

With all the stopping on the way to absorb this beauty it was about 3 p.m. when we arrived at the ticket shop of the castles. Asking for a combi-ticket for Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, much to our surprise we got the reply that it was too late to visit the 2 castles as the next tour (which you have to take if you want to visit the castles inside) was only going at 5 p.m.!!! It seemed that there were so little tourists that they organised only a few tours each day. Well, we couldn't wait that long because we also wanted to see Linderhof which was about an hours drive from there. Having seen many pictures of Neuschwanstein and only very few of Hohenschwangau, we decided to do the short hike to the parental house of King Ludwig where we walked around for a while and from where we had a beautiful view on Neuschwanstein.

Thanks to an itinerary I found on the www we easily found our way through Austria back to Germany, to Ettal, where Schloss Linderhof is located. I'm almost ashamed to continue ... again we were too late to visit the castle. The ticket shop was closed. But again we enjoyed walking around in the park, looking at the huge fountain and the golden statues. Too bad the castle itself was under renovation and, except for the façade, completely in scaffolding. 

Had dinner on the way back to the hotel, watched a talkshow on a Swiss channel (SF1) and went to bed early. After a night with very little sleep - those German duvets are much too short and too warm - our daytrip would go to Oberstdorf and then further on to Lindau at the Bodensee (Lake of Constance) where Germany, Austria and Switzerland meet. 

Again the scenery was breathtaking. Oberstdorf in itself was a pretty little town where we walked around for a while and had lunch. Further on to Lindau at the Bodensee. It's a very big lake from where you can take a ferry to both Switzerland and Austria or make just a boat trip on the lake. Along the lakeside there are small 'beaches'. 

The city of Lindau - on an island in fact - was very pretty as well. We really enjoyed the atmosphere at the marina in the evening where we had an excellent dinner of fresh caught fish (don't remember the name but it was fish from the Bodensee) and a bottle of excellent German white wine. We missed the sunset as we had to be 'home' on a decent hour in order not to disturb all the elderly people in the hotel. We were in a health resort after all … 

Because of me sleeping so bad, not only there but in every strange bed, my mum decided that we should do some 'Wassertreten' before going to bed. That is part of the Kneipp therapy and consists in hopping around in icecold water: hop until you can't stand the cold anymore. Everywhere in Bad Wörishofen there are so-called 'Wassertretbeckens' (basins) and you see people pulling their pants/skirts high above the knees to go into the water. Also every hotel has its own basin. Ours was only a small pension and thus the basin was small as well. We had fun indeed … Too bad the therapy didn't work, neither for me, nor for my husband! 

On Sunday - our last day and no therapy for my mum and Yvonne (the girlfriend) - we took them to Oberammergau and Mittenwald. When planning this trip I had no intention of going to Oberammergau 'cause I thought there was nothing to see when the Passion Play wasn't on. Wrong!!! Oberammergau was a small and quiet city with beautifully painted houses. Especially the ones painted with scenes from Grimm's fairy tales were beautiful. And so was the church of St. Peter & Paul. It looked very much like the Wieskirche with lots of decorations in gold and fresco's all over. In a niche in the back of the church there is a model of the Passion Play. It is beautifully portrayed. 

After lunch we drove further to Mittenwald. The mountains here are very close and the city itself is very quaint. The weather was, again, very warm and sunny and we spent part of the afternoon drinking coffee and eating and watching the people go by. 

On our way back to the hotel we missed a road sign and found ourselves in a totally wrong direction leading to the Walchensee. Another beautiful spot to make some more pictures. We spent our last evening in Landhaus Alfons, a very good restaurant in Bad Wörishofen. We didn't sleep too bad. Don't know if this was thanks to the Wassertreten or the red wine … 

The next morning we ate our last extensive breakfast, said goodbye to my mum and Yvonne, who will stay there for another three weeks, and hit the road again, back to Belgium. Again traffic jams and road works and bad weather on top of that! Well, at least we had lots of sunshine and warm temperatures during our stay. We really enjoyed it and will offer to do the journey again next year. Then we'll make sure to buy tickets for the castles in advance and visit some more places.