Road Trip Germany · 2020
Garmisch-Partenkirchen · Neuschwanstein Castle · Partnach Gorge · Eibsee Lake · Zugspitze · Kuhflucht Waterfalls · Berchtesgaden · Koenigssee · Schellenberger Ice Cave · Almbach Gorge · Fairytale Forest · Salt Mine · Elbe Sandstone Mountains · Dresden · Moritzburg · Ore Moutains · Rügen Island
July 24, 2020
How I simply went to the Seaside and slept on the Beach - Rügen.
I hear rumors on the
media that the Pope is dancing polkas on crowded beaches and that everything is fully booked because all Germans have to go on vacation in their own country this year. I search online
anyway and within five minutes I find an affordable apartment on Rügen, a beautiful island off the coast of Northern Germany in the Baltic Sea. I throw my gear into the car and thunder down the
highway, heading north. As I cross over the bridge and enter the island of Rügen, I begin to sing loudly and moving to the beat of "Perfect Wave," a sea-related song by the German group, Juli.
Then I feel as old as a rock for a moment, as I remember that the song was popular in 2004 and yet it seems as if it were just yesterday. No matter. I'm at the sea now! Just because. And I am
going to sleep on the beach.
July 10, 2020
Elbe Sandstones, Film Nights in Dresden and a Family Reunion.
The highway on the drive from Bavaria to Saxony in East Germany is so empty that I could stop in the middle of the road and orchestrate Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Clearly it is not a hot tourist route. But I am on a mission: I want to scratch the Bastei Bridge off of my Bucket list; I want to visit my pen pal in Dresden who I have not seen in five years; and I want to reunite with a part of my family living in the Ore Mountains that I have only met when I was a baby.
June 28, 2020
Fairytale Forests, Ice Caves and Green Lakes - Berchtesgaden.
It’s over. Life. My lungs are on fire, my legs are breaking off and my rain jacket is wet – inside and out. 3,300 foot of altitude gain in the pouring rain while the temperature hovers around 50 degrees. I’m on my way back from the Schellenberger Ice Cave in the Untersberg mountain in Bavaria. While the excursion into the ice world of death becomes the ultimate challenge, along the trip I also find a fantastic forest where trees grow on boulders as big as houses. There is a gorge with steep sides where mists of spray shoots from the top and in the middle of a greenish-turquoise lake stands a tiny house where the path of wooden planks leading to the door lies underwater. I will take you to Berchtesgaden where I find magical places I would never have suspected belong in Germany, or anywhere else.
June 19, 2020
The Castle in the Clouds and Tibet in the Alps - Garmisch.
My boyfriend and I should be in the United States now. Together. But Corona seems to think it is more fun to keep us apart. But if I don't do one thing it is hiding at home crying. So I decided to do a solo trip through the south and east of Germany.
As soon as I arrive, it turns out that my aching butt is the least of the problems. "Greetings!" says my host in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. "Higgelty Piggelty Miggelty!"
I look like a wet donkey. "Good evening," I reply, due to a lack of profound Bavarian language skills. I follow as he leads me through the apartment, points to cupboards and counters and says: "Miggelty Wiggelty?" Luckily, the rental agreement is in standard German and when I signed, I can finally throw a frozen dinner in the oven and put my feet up. And that was just the beginning.