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German Roots Trip 2003 - Contents

SEEKING OUR GERMAN ROOTS

Chapter VII

May 28-30, 2003

BAVARIAN ALPS
Mainz to Mittenwald

Wednesday, May 28

We woke to another bright, sunny day. Stoked with the hotel's surprisingly good breakfast, we arrived at the right train track with time to spare. Today we rode on a different category of German train, called the "IC" (InterCity). It didn't make as many stops as the more local trains we've used, and we expected it to be a notch up in comfort. The only place to stash our heavy suitcases was in the overhead rack--not an easy maneuver. When we made our reservation, Karen requested a totally non-smoking car. But what we got with our assigned, reserved seats was a railroad car that is half smoking and half non-smoking, and the two sections are only separated by a partial glass partition. We certainly got to share the smoky air with the smoking half. Couldn't open the windows, either. The "IC" did have a dining car, and we walked through the train to it, hoping it would be totally non-smoking. Ha! We didn't even bother to open the door to the dining car--we could see that the air was literally blue with cigarette smoke.

Our train was running a little late by 11 a.m. and we had some concern about making our connection for Mittenwald at the Munich station. According to the schedule, we only had fifteen minutes--and with our late arrival, we would have even less. When the train pulled in at the station, a few minutes outside of city center, we didn't waste time trying to find an elevator or escalator--just hauled our bags down and then up the station stairs as fast as we could. We actually had six or seven minutes to spare!

The train from Munich to Mittenwald was the "local" type, with handy places to stash our bags. We now definitely prefer the local to the IC train! The train car was almost full as we left Munich, but they gradually dropped off as we ascended up into the Bavarian Alps. Again, lots of chattering school kids started the ride with us but departed after about 15 miles. Perhaps they use the train to commute to school in Munich?

There was no gradual ascent into the Alps. The flat plain that extended south from Munich ended abruptly as we reached the mountains which go boom! straight up. The houses began to look more alpine with wooden balconies, red tile roofs and piles and piles of firewood around the houses. Karen spotted the first of the fresco paintings on houses. She said we would see a lot more of that decoration in Mittenwald which is famous for its centuries-old tradition of proclaiming their Catholic faith with religious paintings on their buildings.

We entered a long valley, narrow enough that the railroad and the highway have to share the available space. The mountains went pretty much straight up, on each side. Probably a glacier once ground through the valley. The last train stop before Mittenwald was at Garmisch Partenkirchen--one of Germany's most famous ski resorts and site of the 1936 Olympic Games. Chancellor Adolf Hitler opened the games, and among other highlights, Sonja Henie earned her third gold medal for figure skating here. Today, most of the remainder of our fellow train travelers departed at Garmisch.

The last few miles to Mittenwald were tougher ones for the train's engine but for us, the scenery just got better and better as we passed small alpine villages.

Herr Bernd Seidler had read Karen's e-mail, and was right at the little train station to meet us and take us back to his "Alpenhof" pension in an almost brand-new BMW. Karen had stayed at the Alpenhof on her 2001 trip to Germany and was sure I would enjoy both the pension and Mittenwald. She was absolutely right!

After arriving at the Alpenhof and depositing our luggage in our third-floor room, Herr Seidler gave us a welcome cup of tea, served in beautiful china, decorated with blue Gentians. We had asked for "half board" while at the pension, i.e. both breakfast and dinner. Herr Seidler is a professional chef, who has worked at prestigious hotels in Berlin and other German cities and Karen said his dinners were wunderbar. Right again, Karen!

The Alpenhof also had the traditional fresco painting above its entrance.

The town has a dramatic setting, nestled between rugged Alps on both sides of its glacier-carved valley. To the east, the huge "Karwendel" range of alps rear straight up to the clouds. To the west, some of the peaks above Garmisch, including the "Wetterstein" peek over the horizon, but slightly lower mountains fill the space just above Mittenwald.

Refreshed, we decided to walk the few blocks into the town to look around before dinner. The weather in Mittenwald behaved exactly as it would in May in the Wasatch Mountains behind Salt Lake City. Wake to a clear, sunny sky, see a few puffy white clouds appear about noon, watch them grow in size, turn dark and glowering, and crackety boom! have a lightning and thunder storm by late afternoon.

We could hear the rumbles from somewhere behind the Karwendel peak as we walked into town. We checked out a few stores, and then suddenly, at 5 p.m. we were surrounded by noise, as all the church bells in Mittenwald clanged the hour while really BIG thunderclaps were booming. Then, very large hailstones and Texas-size rain drops started pelting down. We took shelter under a covered arcade, along with a lot of other surprised tourists and were pretty much trapped there until the hail and rain stopped as suddenly as they had started.

As Karen had said, Mittenwald is a town of fresco art. Hardly a building was without a colorful decoration. Walking through the town meant strolling past an outdoor fine art exhibit. I was astounded to learn that many of the frescoes were done hundreds of years ago. Apparently the process of painting the wet stucco walls ensures that the colors will remain vivid almost forever. Some research on the Internet about Mittenwald's outdoor frescoes told me that the paintings have long been the focus of many people's visit to this little village. Goethe visited in 1786 and described the village as "a living picture book." The frescoes are known as luftlmalerei (literally, "paintings in the air") and have their roots in the works of the Italian Renaissance masters, but in Mittenwald and the nearby Bavarian villages of Oberammergau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the style is patterned after the Baroque frescoes inside the churches of southern Germany.

Mittenwald is another place with a history that goes way, way back. Mittenwald was on a trade route through the Alps long before the Romans and archaeological finds nearby have revealed traces of Stone Age camps.The heyday of Mittenwald came in the Middle Ages when the village was the site of a big market, held to sell the wares of Venetian traders. When Venice's business importance faded two centuries later, Mittenwald also declined.

The village is famous for its tradition of violinmaking, which goes back to the 17th century and a local inhabitant named Matthias Klotz. He founded the first violin making business in 1683 and before long the trade was bringing more money to the village than anything else. The decline of this trade came with the mass-production of violins, but there is still a functioning school of violinmaking in the village and a museum which can be visited, (but we chose Mittenwald's mountains over its museums).

For our first dinner at the Alpenhof, the main entree was wiener schnitzel with potatoes, preceded by a soup with a big meatball in it, and for dessert wonderful, sweet fresh pineapple. Yes indeed, Herr Seidler is an excellent chef!

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