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German Roots Trip 2003 - Contents

SEEKING OUR GERMAN ROOTS

Chapter VII

May 28-30, 2003

BAVARIAN ALPS
Mittenwald--St. Anton

Friday, May 30

Our second full day in Mittenwald and after another good breakfast, Herr Seidler drove us up to the base of a chair lift that took us high up above Mittenwald on the west side of the valley. We had a beautiful fifteen-minute ride on these single-chair lifts, gliding almost silently over the trees, past flowery meadows with little alpine huts where the herdsmen will spend their summer tending the cows and goats. Neither have been brought up to the mountain pastures yet--hence the flowery meadows, no doubt! The higher we went, the more we could see of the distant peaks on the horizon.

Once off the lift, we had another short hike (all uphill) to a little restaurant at "Sankt Anton" where they were happy to serve us lunch or dessert, and most certainly beer. It was a slow hike to the restaurant, partly because of the pitch of the path and the altitude, but also because there were so many flower-photo stops. Herr Seidler had offered to drive us to some meadows down in the valley where he had seen gentians blooming a week or so ago, but this morning he reported that they were already gone.

We know where they went! These higher-elevation meadows must have been at the peak of their bloom today. Flowers in the meadows, flowers under the trees--and so many different varieties.

Glenn would have found the genealogy portion of our trip pretty much hard work, but oh, how he would have reveled in all these pretty posies! BIG blue Gentians, Buttercups, pink Polygonums, Forget-Me-Nots, Silenes, both pink and red, Orchids and oh yes, we mustn't forget the Dandelions!

There was a little side-path, leading out to an overlook and what we looked over was very similar to what I saw at the opening of the "Sound of Music" movie, when Julie Andrews was standing on a similar plateau, looking down into lovely Austrian valleys, studded with lakes. The lake we could see a few thousand feet below us was "Wildensee" and it was ringed with dark forest. Above us puffy white clouds and warm sunshine, while right at our feet were all those alpine flowers.

With just the least bit of encouragement, I would have started twirling around, singing....."The Hills are Alive....." but such encouragement was not forthcoming from Karen, and it's probably just as well. But ah, what a wonderful scene to have stored in my memory bank. So many good things to remember about this trip, but these Bavarian alpine meadows will be right up there at the top of the list. It's an overused phrase, but I said it anyway, "It doesn't get much better than this."

After allowing plenty of time for scenery appreciation, we hiked on up a pretty steep pitch that finally brought us to the little restaurant. We skipped the beer, opting instead for a glass of cold milk and a huge slice of cherry kuchen.

Coming back down the steep and slippery graveled trail, it seemed prudent to join hands and make good use of our walking sticks. As Karen pointed out, this gave us six points of contact with the ground and made us almost as stable as bugs!

Apparently our strategy worked, there was no slipping or tripping, and the ride back down the chair lift was maybe even more enjoyable because this time we had a birds' eye view of Mittenwald, far, far down below us, and the mighty Karwendel range across from us.

We heard our first rumble of thunder just after we got off the chair lift and both said, "Uh oh! is the laundry going to get wet--again?" We had done the last laundry of the trip yesterday morning, and hung them outside on the Alpenhof's clothes lines. But, yesterday afternoon's thundershowers came before we could bring them back inside, so we said, "well, they can just go through an extra rinse cycle now, and stay out overnight. When we left the pension this morning, they were flapping briskly in the sun and breeze. But now, we weren't sure we could out-run (well, out-walk) this afternoon's thundershower. Sure enough, the first big drops were falling just as we walked in the Alpenhof's gate. But, the clothesline was bare of laundry. We didn't find the clothes in our room, but later Karen found them in the laundry room, carefully folded up and in a clothes basket. So, thanks to the kindness of someone at the pension, we had fresh-air dried clothes to wear on the few remaining days of our trip.

After resting up from all the hiking we headed back into town--it was time to purchase trip souvenirs. What better place than Mittenwald? You would think two people who have been dragging heavy suitcases all over Germany would opt for small, light gifts. But no, all but one of our gifts were......rocks! Our first afternoon here, we had found an interesting jewelry/rock shop and were intrigued by some of the beautiful fossils displayed, as well as their extensive collection of amber. (The fact that the shop owner spends some time collecting specimens in Utah added to the ambience.) Way back last winter, while reading guidebooks on Germany, I learned that one of the major sources of amber is the north Baltic coast of this country. I made up my mind then that a piece of amber jewelry would be my own trip souvenir. We have seen amber jewelry in every city and town, but waited until Mittenwald to make any purchases.

Since we had made an earlier survey of Mittenwald's gift shops, we were able to make some quick decisions this afternoon: for Mark (belated birthday gift) a mail-holder carved from a big piece of fossilized Ammonites from Morocco; for Glenn a slab of fossilized Ammonite with holder; for Karen, an amber "spider" pin; and for Barbara, an amber pendant.

While the jewelry didn't add a significant amount of weight to our bags, those Ammonite fossils sure did! But Karen padded them carefully with socks and they made the trip unscathed.

One more gourmet dinner from Herr Seidler, a repacking of the suitcases and nice hot baths pretty much filled up our last evening in Mittenwald.

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Sights of Mittenwald

The St. Peter and Paul Church, built from 1738 to 1749,
with its Bavarian-style Frescoes

Frescoes at the base of the church bell tower

Saturday, May 31

After breakfast we settled up our bill for the three nights at Alpenhof pension, plus those tasty breakfasts and elegant dinners, including beer or wine. The grand total was E242.20 which we thought very reasonable. Certainly one of the nicest places we stayed during our trip.

We gave Herr Seidler the obligatory "dog and pony show" with our snapshots of our homes and Western scenic spots, then he drove us to the Mittenwald train station and we departed this beautiful part of Bavaria about 10:30 a.m.

This is the end of the chapter on our vist to Mittenwald in the Bavarian Alps.

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