Round About Germany

The past few days I spent using up the rest of my train pass in Germany. My pass expires on July 11th, and I thought I should at least check out a couple of sights while I can still get around the country for free.

My trip started on Wednesday. I wanted to photograph at a beer garden fans watching the semi-final between France and Portugal. A couple of people had told me about the beer gardens in the English Garden in Munich and thought it would be a good place to check out. I made it down there and although it was a fun place to watch the game there were not a lot of fans there. I ended up talking most of the game with two Americans I sat next to and some Mexican-Americans who were there to support Mexico.

After the game I said my goodbyes and wandered around the city until the morning when I was going to take a train to see the Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s retreat high in the German Alps. I was trying to save some cash on my trip around Germany so I didn’t want to buy a hotel room.

So finally in the morning after wandering around and hanging out in a bar next to the train station I finally made it on an early train to the town of Berctesgaden, sleeping almost the whole way.

The town was back in the time of Hitler where the Nazi’s had their summer retreat and also was supposed to be their command center of last resort at the end of World War II. However it didn’t end up that way. When I got there I took a tour of the Eagle’s Nest and also the bunkers under where the Germans were going to stay at the end of the War.

But the tour happened in the afternoon, so I went on a nice hike in the morning along a crystal-clear river to see the Konigssee that is a beautiful emerald-green lake in the mountains. It was a nice hike and the day was really warm and exceptionally humid. I even ended up soaking my feet in the river on the way back.

The tour was informative and fun and it was interesting to see the bunkers and especially the Eagle’s Nest that was built high atop a mountain to impress visiting dignities of the Reich.

On the way down the mountain when we made it back into the town as the skies started to turn rather ominous, with dark, grey skies looming over the ridge. I got on a train back to Munich and the rain started to come down in buckets. We seemed to keep running right along with the start of the storm on the rain, cause when I had to transfer at the town of Freilassing the storm hit hard. It was literally a wall of rain everywhere and it was pounding. Most people hid in the underground tunnels waiting for the connecting train as pea-sized hail pelted down on the train platform. The train arrive on time and everyone rushed aboard to be dry and out of the downpour.

Back in Munich I then took an overnight train to get to the Middle-Rhine valley, which I had been told was a must see of Germany sights.

I got there early in the morning and traveled along the Rhine to several small towns. They were all really cool, but my favorite stop was in the town of Boppard where you could take a ski-lift type ride up a hill to get an amazing view of the river and the small towns beneath. I rode the lift early in the morning before any other tourist was there and it was amazing how when you rode up the hill all the sounds of the towns slowly melted away into the distance. Soon you were just among the trees and the silence of nature, with the occasional train rumbling in the distance. It was kind of a Zen-like experience. Definitely one of my touristing highlights for sure.

There were also some cool castle remains to wander through in St. Goar and a pretty town in Bacarach, but I still enjoyed the ride the most.

After that I took an express train back to Berlin, and crashed, getting the first decent night’s sleep in three days.