Germany Day 2

Today started out late by Tom standards and I might continue that for the remainder of the trip. I am not sure. Breakfast starts at 8am which is late for me, but since they have good coffee I may as well aim for it each day. After getting cleaned up I found the computer for the internet. Fortunately I had made a text file of my writing before I even got to the computer so though I was having a difficult time with the QWERTZ keyboard I really only had to worry about it a few times. The real challenge was in also trying to figure out what meant what in German. I can figure out Kopiern, but there are many choices that one takes for granted on a computer. I think if it was Windows I'd not even have to worry about what it says because I know where things are in Windows. Heck I even turned on showing file extensions on my Ukrainian student's computer and it wasn't even in our lettering scheme let alone English.  

In any event I was able to past in my post and get on to breakfast which was continental in style as I expected and had a ham and swiss cheese sandwich along with yogurt, fruit cocktail and a peach to go with the coffee. I told the waitress whom I suspect is one of the owners along with Erich the chef that I didn't need the milk and sugar for my coffee because I drink it black. She said to me, "In Germany we have a saying that you drink your coffee like your the color of your soul." I agreed mine was probably black.  She joked she drinks hers very white. After breakfast Erich found me and gave me all sorts of maps and detailed information about the area. It was very nice of him to spend time to explain things and I used his advice as soon as I was off on my way.

I had decided I would just stay around the Oberammergau region for the day and not bother to drive anywhere. He had told me some good ideas for walks and I started with what seemed the simplest. Apparently King Ludwig had given the town a statue of the crucifix after seeing their passion play here and that was just up the hill from the hotel about a 5 minute walk. At the time it was the largest single piece sculpture in the known world and was made of a German soft marble. The statue of the crucifx stands over 12 meters tall. There are statues on either side as well each done from single pieces of rock.  It is in very good shape and you can see it from some areas of the town as well I found out later on in the day.  After the statue I decided to follow the nature trails that he had pointed out for me and walked along to the mountains near the hotel and away from it. I managed to find enough solitude to relieve my bladder along the trail and then around towards a stream or river (not really sure what to call it, too small to be a river I think) along its course for about 4km until found a bridge to cross over and could walk the trail on the other side. I didn't walk my normal full speed because there was a lot to see and there was no real rush for it. I wanted it to be a fun day but also partially a lazy day though my idea of lazy is still more active than most people I think. Anyway, I made my way into Oberammergau proper and strolled around the town for a while and found the building where they hold their passion play. Apparently they do this every so many years and it is a very big deal when it happens. Obviously being past Easter it was not something going to happen right now. It was obviously closed when I got there though I think a tour may have had access to get inside. During the amble about town I visited a few gift shops to get ideas for later in the trip though of course I didn't feel it urgent to buy right now since I have many days around here.  At around noon, 3 hours into the day of walking, I stopped at cafe to have lunch. They had a limited English language menu but I was happy with what I chose which was a cream of potato soup and grilled trout with parsleyed potatoes and salad.  I accompanied with 2 beers that were a bit watery in flavor for my taste but might have had a better alcohol content than I was expecting. The beer, named Hacker-Pschor, was from Munich and was very pale.  After eating I found a place to get a small ice cream cone, having caramel ice cream then wandered around town for a bit longer.

Eventually I decided I would go up to Laber which is a mountain that has a cable car, gebahn, to the top. I figured it would be another good test of my fear of heights and I was hoping there would be some nice views up there.The walk to the gebahn was not long but it was all uphill and was fairly enjoyable. I kid you not when I say that the second I stepped inside the building it started to pour out. I was totally not expecting it though it had been getting cloudier as the day went on. Honestly the morning was perfect sunny and warm weather. So by the time it was my turn to ride the car I thought it would still be raining. It wasn't though. Not sure if that would have added to the effect. I think it would have. I shared the ride with a German couple where the wife spoke some English and an elderly German woman, someone who must have been her grandson and a pointer that was very upset to be stuck still for as much time as he had to endure. He whined a lot during the ride. I felt bad for him.  After we got to the top I set about taking pictures of the views and maybe about 10 minutes into that it started to rain again. Looking at the sky it was apparent it was going to continue to rain on and off and instead of walking down the mountain which I had tentatively thought of beforehand I opted to take my return ride back down in the cable car. Mainly it was getting into real bursts of downpour and I was wearing shorts and unprepared for out and out rain. I didn't want to soak my feet or destroy my camera mostly. So when I rode down I was solo which was something that added to the fear effect concept a bit but was not really all that bad. There were a couple points where some strong gusts of wind pushed the car about a bit and I was mainly glad when the trip was over.

After the cable car rides I walked back into downtown and wandered around a bit more but the rain was finding its way into the town as well as it was in the mountains so I opted to go the drier path and head back to the postage stamp sized room to write out some of this. I opened up the door to the balcony though to let some air in and relaxed after I was done writing before dinner. I had some time to kill and managed to sneak in a short nap.

Around dinner time I ran downstairs and did a quick check of my email then headed into the dining room. I had already agreed that I would have dinner at the hotel and I was going to have the pot roasted oxen with horseradish sauce and boiled potatoes with peas and carrots. The starter was a vegetable soup that had incredibly finely minced vegetables in it and was quite tasty. For beer I had more of the beer, Hacker-Pschorr, I had in the afternoon and was able to read the bottle and find out it was 5% alcohol by volume, so yes it was definitely a stronger beer than I was expecting. I had two of those, they came in Grolsch style bottles with the resealable stopper top though brown glass.  The oxen was very nicely done and the horseradish sauce was creamy and mild and actually went really well on the potatoes as well.  I enjoyed the meal very much and only left behind one wedge of potato and a little bit of the peas and carrots.  I got my second beer a bit late in the meal and rather than rush it I decided to take my time and enjoy it before moving on to dessert. In the meantime a fellow guest came in and we started talking. His name is Sid and he's from Montpelier, Vermont. He has been coming to this region for a very long time and it was interesting to talk to him. He gave me some more good advice on things to see around here. He is friends with Erik as I am sure visiting the same place over many years will definitely help along. We talked about politics and travel and many other things and along the way I had an ice cream dessert and a coffee that were both very good. Some Americans from Alabama came in for dinner in the time frame and things got a bit loud at times but overall it was a very nice night. The rains eventually let off and the sun across the mountain behind the hotel was truly spectacular to look at. I should have opened the door to the veranda and taken some pictures of it but hopefully I will get a similar chance later in the week. In all it was a very enjoyable night and I spent several hours downstairs just hanging out. After I settled up the bill it was on to the room to complete the post and get my pictures downloaded to the laptop and backed up externally.

I can say today was more like I am used to where I took around 240 pictures. The prior days really limited totals had me down a bit. This is more the picture taking Tom I know.  As mentioned before I will have to post them when I get home.