Bavarian Road Trip

When a couple of friends came to Munich for a few days, I was lucky enough to be able to tag along on one of their adventures. On their last full day here, we rented a little Fiat for a day trip across Bavaria. First stop: Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany. It was a gorgeous 70 or so degrees at the base of the mountain, where we loaded onto the cable car and were swiftly hoisted up to the top of the mountain in less than 10 minutes; when we got off it was about 35 degrees. The short trip on the cable car was pretty awe-inspiring; at some points we were basically going completely vertical. It was one of those moments where you just have to stop and think about how beautiful this world is that we live in.

Also at the base of the mountain is the Eibsee, a lake whose piercing aqua blue waters prompted another moment of sincere appreciation.

We had a typical Bavarian lunch of sausage and beer, and I suppose it's pretty cool to say that we've eaten at the highest restaurant in Germany.

Here was the actual highest point, for those daring enough to climb up a ladder and then guide themselves up a snowy slope while being led only by a rope.

After we made our descent back down the mountain we wanted to at least quickly check out the lake, where we found the paddle boat rental place--and of course they had an offer we couldn't resist, of only eight euros for an hour! We took turns paddling (although somehow I ended up paddling much slower and shorter distances than the others...) and enjoyed the amazing view.

I know for a fact that I didn't go swimming at all last summer (shock and horror!), and I can't remember the last time I was out on open water like this. It felt so peaceful and calm and reminded me why I love being on the water.

We ended the day with a super quick trip to Hohenschwangau to catch a glimpse of the Neuschwahnstein castle. Unfortunately we got there late enough in the day that we weren't able to go inside the castle or even make time for the hike up to it, but we had a lovely dinner right on the Alpsee, another picturesque glass-like lake. It was the perfect tribute to Bavaria just as I'm getting ready to say goodbye to my year in Germany.

Schloss Nymphenburg

I reached the big number 21 this past week, and was so excited to have my parents be able to come visit me for my birthday week! We spent most of the week in Zurich, Switzerland but for their short time in Munich, I thought we'd check out Schloss Nymphenburg. Our program went to Nymphenburg at the beginning of our academic year here, but I didn't bring my camera and I knew I would be back in the summer months to revisit the grounds and get a few good pictures. We were really lucky and got some beautiful weather in between the bouts of rainy, gloomy days that Munich has been having recently, so we spent a few hours exploring the grounds and checking out some of the Baroque architecture.

The Badenburg house, one of the several smaller houses within the Nymphenburg grounds, was very obviously influenced by oriental art. I fell in love with some of the wall paintings.

The Pagodenburg.

The Amalienburg, the hunting cabin, is my personal favorite. Something about all those shades of blue, the dreamy wall paintings....I just love it all.