Post 68: The Sänngerausflug to Königsee

Today was the Sängerausflug to Königsee.  We started the day bright and early at 6am boarding the bus.  We left and got stuck in traffic, but eventually made it to our breakfast destination.  For breakfast, I had Weißwurst, Weißbier, and a pretzel.  It was a good breakfast with a gorgeous view of the valley.  There was a castle off in the distance, a small town with a tall church spire and tall alps in the background.  They had a name, and it ended in "wand", but I can't recall exactly what it was.  On the way to the Gasthof, we had to drive down a road where there was about 2-3cm space between either mirror on the bus and the trees on either side of the road.  And of course, we had to take this same road back out of the Gasthof.  it was quite impressive.  While on the bus, Michael Mayr told us a joke in German.  It was about a vampire who had just attacked two bikers (auf deutsch "Radler".  "Radler" can also refer to a mixture of bier and sprite).  The vampire got pulled over by a police officer for suspected drunk driving.  The officer asked "What have you had to drink?" and the Vampire responded "Zwei Radler".  It is funnier in German.  

Along the way we drove past Chiemsee which was quite nice.  We arrived just in time to catch our boat across the lake to St. Bartholomä.  It took about 20 minutes to get there, and along the way, we had stopped so that the boat driver could play his flugelhorn across the lake at the mountains so we could hear the echo.  It was quite nice.  Then Helga Ortner tried yodeling across the lake, but we couldn't hear an echo. 

After arriving at the church, we went inside and sang a little bit.  We started with "Heilige Berge", went on to a part of the Bavarian Mass, and then ended with the "Dona Nobis Pacem" round by somebody.  The last two were from memory, so that was interesting.   All in all, it was quite a nice church and it sounded really good. 

After the church, we went to the lake.  A few people had brought swim suits and went swimming in Königsee.  I took off my shoes and rolled up my shorts so I could step in.  It felt wonderful.  The water was still quite light thanks to the rain, and wasn't too cold thanks to the several days of very warm weather.  It was quite a beautiful lake.  After the lake we went on to the Biergarten.  While we were there, a butterfly flew in and landed on my watch.  It then stayed there for about 5 minutes before flying off, around and landing on my thumb.  It then stayed there for the next 15 minutes, despite everything that we tried to convince it to go away.  After the Biergarten we went on to wandering around a bit.  We walked up to the Eisenbach (Ice stream).  It was a nice area and there was even a small chapel there.  We then hurried back because we were pushing our time limit to catch the boat back.  We made it on there and made it back to the bus.  We took a slightly different route back home through the Alps which were quite nice.  We arrived at the Gasthof Wagner near Thierhaupten near Meitingen where we had dinner.  It was a very nice Gasthof.  I had schweinebraten and it was very good.  We then hurried home because the bus driver had to be back before 9pm so that he didn't get into trouble with the police.  For the rest of the evening, I relaxed a little.  It was a fun trip.  I'll try to get some pictures up.