More of a lot of pictures (and a Blazing Saddles reference). Day 4

Last night, as with the night before, we both woke up at 1:00 and just decided to embrace a couple hours of awakeness before trying again and sleeping until around 6:30. We were hungry so we got up and readied ourselves for breakfast.  I took a picture of this little fruit that Andrew calls a ground cherry.  It starts off like a slightly sweet grape and then turns into a tomato.  Interesting.

After breakfast we walked back to old town to see a rococo church which we attempted yesterday but weren't allowed in.  On the way we stopped by the Catholic Cathedral which was very impressive.

There is a lot going on in this little shrine!

I should mention that while we were waiting to get in yesterday, Jonas Kaufman walked by us.  I was going to speak to him but didn't.  Anyway, I'm so glad we made the effort to go back because it is spectacular and rather strange.

Here it is from the outside.  It really sticks out among the rest of the architecture.



Altar. The columns were modeled after the Bernini columns in St. Peter's in Rome.

This was a private church built by two brothers - one a painter and one a sculptor.

I don't suppose I've ever seen a more tired Jesus.

Music coming right out of the horn!

This cherub has a gold bra.

A bit disturbing.

We couldn't interpret this one.

Another cherub barfing gold.

S&M Cherub.

Since we still had a little time we walked back to the Viktualienmarkt to have second and third breakfast.  It's hard to describe just how spectacular this market is.  We could have stayed and grazed all day.

Strawberries, white asparagus and/or cherries anyone?

Now that's meat.

This was second breakfast - curry wurst and a roll.

You can almost hear it.

Have you ever seen food presented more beautifully then these next two pictures?

Truffles

A quiche perhaps?

Then it was back to the hotel to pack, check out and pick up our car for the next 7 days.  On the way we passed a few things worth noticing.

For the sexy Bavarians about town.

Or maybe you want to be more modern!

Don't know anything about it but we were sad to miss the show.

We liked how the four dudes are holding up the building.

Here is our chariot - and she's a beaut!

We drove to the train station to say goodbye to Andrew and then worked our way out of town.  Fortunately, this car has the world's greatest GPS system so we never once got lost though the route was confusing.  I only got up to 100 mph on the Autobahn once.

We stopped in a little town to have some lunch and had our daily schnitzel and ham and cheese sandwich.

We can't remember the name of the town where we stopped.  I don't imagine they get many visitors but we did pass this fashion icon on our walk back to the car.

The rest of the drive wasn't bad though we got caught in a 25 minute stand still on the autobahn which made the driving day feel longer than it was.

The place where we're staying is up a very long windy road and in the middle of nowhere.  We were greeted by a little old lady who, though the website said she did, spoke no english.  We caught a lot of what she said and she didn't seem to mind at all.  We have a corner room so the balcony wraps around.  This is the view.

Here is a picture of the top of the stairway.  Taxidermy anyone?


We were pretty exhausted and decided to just hang out in our little room but were soon restless and decided to go for a walk.  We found what we thought were trail heads but we think they were for cyclists so we took a walk up a logging road which was steep and a nice walk in the woods.  Then we drove to another place and did find some trails.  Ultimately we walked a couple of miles and even experimented with one trail which we abandoned because it was crazy steep and didn't seem to ever let up.  Here are a few pictures.

"Somebody's gotta go back and get a shitload o' dimes!"  We think this is actually to keep sheep from getting out.

The alps seems to be made mostly of the wimpiest limestone imaginable.  If there is exposed rock you can break it off with your fingers.  I'm pretty sure they're going to fall down.  All of the streams we've seen are white.

After we worked up a good sweat we drove into the town of Berchtesgaden to get some grub.  We chose a Greek restaurant because these were the views from our table.

After dinner we had a look around to take in the scene and find some gelato.  We ran across this.  Notice how the bathroom fixtures are still on the side of the house on the left.

And that was our very long but eventful and lovely day.  Tomorrow should be sunny-ish and so we're going cruising on and hiking around Schönau am Königsee which was what drew us here in the first place.  Pray my legs and lungs hold up.