Happy birthday Jessica!!
After a delicious breakfast at our accommodation, we climbed on the bus and headed for the cheese factory. Our tour guide only spoke German, which was interesting, but the significance of the shelves of hundreds of massive cheeses, the rooms full of equipment for making cheese, and most importantly the lingering smell of slightly off milk were not lost on us. In short, we learnt that it takes a lot of time (up to 9 months) and effort to make cheese. There was also a short tasting after the tour, which went down with varying degrees of success with different people. (And that was only mild cheese!)
Then it was back to the bus for a long(ish) drive to our lunch stop in a village called Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which hosted the Winter Olympics a while ago (anyone know how long?) The trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen took us through Austria briefly, much to everyone's excitement. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that Austria is very much the same as Germany, so our excitement was rather unfounded. Garmisch-Partenkirchen was very pretty, though, and made very good pretzels, as some of us discovered!
After lunch we headed for the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany. We took a 4km gondola to the top, where we got completely spectacular views of Germany and Austria- mostly alps- for about 140km around. We left the mountain via a cog railway through the hillside, which was a lot less exciting than the gondola, but a lot nicer for those not comfortable with heights.
After that we went stright back to the holiday camp, where we relaxed and had dinner- including a birthday cake for Jessica.
An unforgetable day was had by all, and the weather was very kind to us. I won't forget those wonderful views in a hurry!
After a delicious breakfast at our accommodation, we climbed on the bus and headed for the cheese factory. Our tour guide only spoke German, which was interesting, but the significance of the shelves of hundreds of massive cheeses, the rooms full of equipment for making cheese, and most importantly the lingering smell of slightly off milk were not lost on us. In short, we learnt that it takes a lot of time (up to 9 months) and effort to make cheese. There was also a short tasting after the tour, which went down with varying degrees of success with different people. (And that was only mild cheese!)
Then it was back to the bus for a long(ish) drive to our lunch stop in a village called Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which hosted the Winter Olympics a while ago (anyone know how long?) The trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen took us through Austria briefly, much to everyone's excitement. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that Austria is very much the same as Germany, so our excitement was rather unfounded. Garmisch-Partenkirchen was very pretty, though, and made very good pretzels, as some of us discovered!
After lunch we headed for the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany. We took a 4km gondola to the top, where we got completely spectacular views of Germany and Austria- mostly alps- for about 140km around. We left the mountain via a cog railway through the hillside, which was a lot less exciting than the gondola, but a lot nicer for those not comfortable with heights.
After that we went stright back to the holiday camp, where we relaxed and had dinner- including a birthday cake for Jessica.
An unforgetable day was had by all, and the weather was very kind to us. I won't forget those wonderful views in a hurry!
IV Winter Olympics in 1936. The Summer Olympics were held in Berlin the same year - all part of Hitler's scheme for Germany to assert herself on the world stage in the most public and positive way. Pics on the web show a beautiful alpine town but no doubt do not do it justice.
ReplyDeleteYummmm, cheeses sound interesting!
Look forward to hearing about Munich and Oktoberfest.
What a place to celebrate a birthday, Jessica!
Yes to that comment! Adolf Hitler's scheme for Germany.
ReplyDeleteIn August 1936, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship scored a huge propaganda success as host of the Summer Olympics in Berlin. The Games were a brief, two-week interlude in Germany’s escalating campaign against its Jewish population and the country’s march towards war.
Hans von Tschammer,as Reichssportführer,head of the Deutscher Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (DRL),(Reich sport office). He promoted an idea that if Germany were to take part in the sports it would 'harden' up their spirit.
'Jesse Owners'was a runner and of different race. He had sparked off a whole controversial thing because, discrimination was a 'norm'
Hitler said with a shrug;
"Their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games".
=(