30th Anniversary-Part 2

After leaving Salzburg on April 30th, we headed to the Chiemsee. "See" means lake in German. The Chiemsee is often called the Bavarian Sea. It would have been about an hour away from Burghausen if we hadn't diverted through Salzburg.

 We stayed at a place called the Chiemsee Fischer. It was a beautiful place where their biergarten was in full bloom. The owner was a young Hungarian man. He said his parents had come with him to the Chiemsee and the three of them had worked together to refurbish this place as a hotel and restaurant. He said his parents had gone back to Hungary and he was now running it with a valued staff. I thought it was so amazing that his parents had done that for him. ...a very sweet story.  And the authentic Hungarian goulash I had that night was delicious!

 The weather was in the mid sixties and was too cool and breezy to sit in the biergarten for dinner. But it was perfect for taking pictures!

The next morning, taking a boat ride to the main islands on the lake was something that wasn't to be missed. We caught the ferry in the town of Prien.

The largest island called the Herreninsel (Man Island), has a spectacular palace on it that was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. (He's the one who created the "Cinderella" castle that is so famous). This one was patterned after Versailles in France. Ludwig didn't live to see this one finished and it is still largely incomplete...which in some ways makes it more interesting to me. You are able to see its "bones" and see how it was constructed. The craftsmanship is beautiful. 

We spent the majority of our time on the Fraueninsel (Lady Island)

Every turn was a perfect picture and we strolled the whole island leisurely. It has a Benedictine convent there where the nuns produce a liquor that is sold in all the stores in our home area.

Eating torten and kuchen is a favorite pastime in the early afternoons, but we avoided the crowded terraces and biergartens and ate ice cream bars and drank sparkling water. Everything was just starting to bud out nicely and the temperature hit 70 degrees.

In spite of the sunshine peeking through, there were no views of the Alps ...except an occasional vague impression or an outline of the towering peaks beyond the lake.