Bavarian Quick Hitters

As we are at the peak of our travels and visitors season, I realized we often find time to just write about our ‘big’ trips – those that are at least overnight, often in other countries.  This means we have skipped over a few of our Bavarian daytrips and daily happenings for the last month or so.  So I will try to hit upon some highlights of our time in Bavaria these last 30ish days.

Freilichtmuseum Glentleiten

Last month we had yet another public holiday, and this one we spent with Aunt Ellen.  She took us to a  Freilichtmuseum (‘Free Air Museum’ = outdoor museum) that showcased the daily lives of the rural people in Upper Bavaria.  They have over 60 historical buildings that have been moved from their original location somewhere in Upper Bavaria to a condensed location.  It was really interesting to walk through these small farmhouses where people worked and lived back in the day.  It’s always surprising to see how people lived through our modern viewpoint.  But when that is all you know, and things like televisions or modern plumbing haven’t been invented yet, you don’t know what you are missing out on.

Oberammergau 

Our next stop after the museum was to spend a little time in Oberammergau since we were so close.  Oberammergau is a town known for ‘Lüftlmalerei’ -  frescoes painted on their buildings.  For example, some have fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel painted on them, while others have scenes from the crucifixion.  One of the painted buildings we visited was where Noah’s Uncle Dave and Aunt Jennifer were married.  

Noah’s birthday

June 23^rd marked the day Noah hit the big 2-7!  He is getting old, luckily he has his much younger (by 30 days) wife to keep him youthful.  While the actual birthday was spent in Annecy, France, we returned to Munich to a delicious cake from Aunt Ellen!  It even had soccer candles for him to blow out.  Here he is posing after blowing all the candles out in one try (and Sadie looks very impressed in the background).

A quick visit from a Longhorn

We had our first visit from a non-family member when a college buddy of ours – Rohan – came for a short visit (2 nights) before a conference.  Unfortunately this was the hottest weekend we have had – hitting 90 degrees!  It might not seem like much to those friends in Texas/Arizona, but remember…. no air conditioning!!!  We thought we could escape the heat by venturing into the Alps for the day, but no – it was just as hot there. 

We went to Herzogstandbahn (same place as this post, but obviously no snow), and took the train to the top.  We ate lunch and set out to hike down the ‘Alp’.  Noah assured us that it was only 6 kilometers, so it should be easy, right?  Sure, but not when it is 90+ degrees and an elevation change of 1,000+ meters!  Us girls (me and the dogs) were pretty worn down by the end of it, but it was a beautiful hike.  We even came across a few small waterfalls that helped cool us all down.  And at the bottom we were rewarded with the cold waters of Walchensee to dip our feet/paws in.

  Noah's model shot after dipping his head in the waterfall, and the path of the water:

 Our reward at the end, though it felt like forever to get there:

Auf wiedersehen from the Weiss family until the next post about our next big adventure!