Rachel and Jeremy -- Tegernsee and Innsbruck

Mark has brought you all a recounting, thus far, of the time we spent with Rachel and Jeremy during their visit to Munich. He has had lots of fun doing this and I have slowly gotten into the swing of it by helping with the editing and making some additions of my own. I have relied mostly on email to keep in touch and I had planned to send an email with all the details of our fourth day with the kids. However, I soon realized that this would not be an expedient way of sending all the photos I wished to include. Thus, it is time for me to try my hand at blogging. Mark will add some details, as well.

Vacationing, for young adults, means sleeping late whenever possible. This worked just fine for the first couple of days. Allowing the kids to sleep in gave them plenty of time to recover from the rigors of airline travel. But today, Thursday, was our day to rent a car and show them a little of the countryside. Once breakfast was made, we woke the kids and headed out of town. 

Rachel and Jeremy were very excited to drive on the Autobahn. As you may know, this is the name for the highway system, not, as I once thought, a single road. I remember having this picture in my mind growing up of a single, very straight road with every car rocketing along at a very high rate of speed. I used to wonder how cars coming onto the highway would be able to merge quickly enough with the other cars already on the road.

Our first destination was Tegernsee which had been recommended by our landlord, Ares, as being a nice destination for an afternoon drive. A 45-minute drive south out of Munich brought us to this lovely lake, or see, nestled in the foothills of the Alps. The beer, especially the Tegernsee Spezial, is said to be especially fine and is brewed right there at the Herzoglich Bayerisches Brauhaus. The weather was warm for the first time in a couple of weeks and the tables were full of people soaking up the sun and, of course, drinking beer and eating the local Bavarian food. This means sausages, schweinbraten (roast pork), weiner schnitzel, sauteed potatoes or a tart potato salad, maybe a salad, pretzels, etc. We ordered our food and beer, thinking we had ordered four of the Spezials, but the waitress misunderstood us and brought two helles (lagers) and two Spezials. The Spezial was, indeed, the better brew, so Mark and Rachel ordered a second beer so as to savor the real thing. Jeremy lamented the thought of returning home after this experience because he can't drink beer in the U.S. and, even if he could, the beer wouldn't taste as good. Now, how would he know that, I wonder. 

If you want to see any of these pictures in a bigger format, just click on them individually.




















After lunch, we took some time to walk by the lake. As you will see from the next pictures, mountains surround the lake, making it very picturesque. While it is not in the    high Alps, it is still a charming location and very much sought after as a resort community, being so close to Munich. In the next picture, you can see one of the mountains covered in snow. There are, indeed ski slopes up there. But on this day, Rachel's 20/20 vision spotted a number of para-gliders flying around. The wind was just right and when we looked closely, we realized there were quite a few of them taking advantage of this beautiful day. Click on the first photo, zoom in on the peak, and you will see them, too.

Jeremy captured these close-up pictures of a para-glider as we drove out of town.

From Tegernsee, we headed south through a pass in the Alps that leads into the major valley where Innsbruck, Austria is located. Coming over the pass, we stopped at a cute little restaurant with a large terrace that allowed for a great view of the valley floor below. Jeremy was in need of the facilities, so I went inside to purchase something. The owner was onto us. I offered to buy a coffee since this was a cafe, not a convenience store. He looked at me and noted that there were four of us. Four people and only one coffee? Obviously not. He did not get our business since we wanted to continue driving, but we did manage a few good pictures. Jeremy just had to wait.

Upon arriving in Innsbruck, we thought we may have made a mistake coming here as it looked a little run down, but we persevered and followed our instincts into the Altstadt, Old Town. I say "followed our instincts" because when we left Munich that morning we hadn't entirely planned our day. Tegernsee, we knew for sure, but after that, it was up to our whim.


The streets of the Altstadt were narrow, cobblestoned pedestrian ways and very inviting -- many shops selling local wares, antiques much less expensive than in Munich, and gelato. Everywhere there is gelato.

After wandering through these twisty, narrow streets for a bit, we came across a beautiful wide open plaza with restaurants and shops all around. We decided to find a spot in the sun and get ourselves a drink. We lucked out. The spot we picked had a friendly waiter who could speak English and who vacations in the U.S. every year. His next trip will include New York, Chicago, and Las Vegas. He was very nice, and made up for the grumpy old guy we met up on the hill. Mark took a few photos of the plaza, including the last one of a couple who looked very European.

This town goes back a long way; the Romans were here in the fourth century. Its name means bridge over the Inn, the Inn being the river that flows through the town. And that was where the surprise lay. Walking up one of the wider pedestrian streets, we noticed that the vista seemed to open up ahead of us and, sure enough, there was the river Inn with the Alps on the other side. What a beautiful sight coming out of the confinement of the Altstadt. You could smell and feel the brisk, clean air coming down from the mountains and up from the river, as if the river itself was churning up the purity of the mountains. A very invigorating feeling. 

From here, we went back into the Altstadt to do a little sightseeing and antique shopping. Jeremy scored a bayonet from WWI that was originally mounted on the end of a rifle. He was very happy with this. We urged him not to bring this to school, but as he went directly form the airport to Salem State, I doubt he heeded our advice. We'll have to follow up on that one.


The Austrians, like the Bavarians, are serious about their religion. There is usually more than one Catholic church in every town you enter. Since it is Lent, people are preparing for Easter. We came across this shop devoted entirely to Easter eggs. Mark commented on the 

Both of these cultures are also serious about their beer and their beer steins. As we continued our wanderings, we came across this window display that Mark just had to capture.

We were now in a very old section of town where the streets were more like footpaths. As we rounded a corner, the street opened up once more, and Mark noticed a balcony that looked familiar. It is called the Golden Roof; Mark had read about it in Wikipedia. It is a major landmark in Innsbruck. Emperor Maximilian I had the balcony erected and covered with copper so that he could watch the tournaments unfolding on the square below. 

This Maximilian was a Hapsburg from Austria, not a Bavarian Wittelsbach. He reigned from 1493 to 1519, whereas Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, ruled most notably during the Thirty Years' War, 1618 - 1648. Maximilian I of Austria was also Holy Roman Emperor during his reign, a title he inherited from his father. (Our heads swim a bit with all these Maximilians et al flying around, but we are slowly piecing together the history of the region.)


Our sightseeing was done for the day. We headed back to the car and Rachel asked to drive home. This meant driving on the Autobahn. With just a tad bit of apprehension, we agreed. (There had been a significant interval of time since we'd had our beer at Tegernsee.) Rachel drove the entire way back to Munich and did a tremendous job. While everyone does drive fast, the average speed is probably 85mph or so. The rules of the road require that you stay in the travelling lane unless passing. Of course the really fast cars are always passing. People are very good about switching back into the travel lane. And so, they have become very good at switching lanes. It's a good skill to have. 

Back in Munich, I had to remind Rachel to yield to pedestrians when they have a walk light. This is a hard and fast rule in the city. If the pedestrian has a walk light, the cars simply wait for them. They don't seem to be impatient at all. Likewise, when the pedestrians have a red light, they wait patiently for it to turn green before they walk across the street. You wait your turn; it's that simple. Mark and I have talked repeatedly about this. There seems to be a spirit of cooperation at work here. When everyone follows the rules, trust is built up over time.  If I know that cars never run a red light, I am confident about walking on the green light. Mothers don't have to warn their children to look first. There is no fear that people will behave irresponsibly; they just don't. This simple act of following the rules has led to a culture of trust. It's almost as if this trust has made people more caring. It could be that they are no more caring than any other group of people, but I am not being totally honest here. I really do think this makes for a more cooperative society. 

This last photo is here just because the car is so damn cute. It was parked across the street one morning and the two women you see also had fun checking it out.


Bye for now. Please let us know if you are enjoying our postings.