San Sebastian Church. September 2006
On one of my trips to Munich to visit MAP and SFP (before they married), we took a day trip into the Alps. Our goal was Berchtesgaden, famous for the "Eagles Nest" - Hitler's Alpine Chalet. Memory fails if I was more keen on seeing the Führer's getaway or just the lovely mountain scenery in Germany's highest portion of the Alps. The weather was not so cooperative and gray skies prevailed. Berchtesgaden was more or less a bust, but the drive there was actually the best part.
One stop was the Königssee, a natural mountain lake just below Berchtesgaden. There would have been a lot to do on the beautiful mountain lake in the summer season, but we only stopped for a cloudy view up the fjordlike lake in the off season. M & S commented that although most of the lake was in a national park, some people had private homes there and it was some of the most expensive real estate in all of Germany. I could believe it! Even cloudy, the setting was dramatic.
I hadn't been in the Alps since my big trip back home from Japan [see: Beijing to Athens] almost 20 years before, plus I had never visited in the luxury of a private vehicle. As per usual, I was simply happy to be in Germany even if the scenery didn't appear as glorious as I'd hoped. The highlight of the day-trip out of Munich was a photo-op of little San Sebastian church along a clear rushing creek. I had told MAP so many times on earlier trips, "stop, I want to take a photo. This is what Europe is all about!" Even though the photo is grainy and it was cloudy that day, that little church in the Bavarian Alps resonated. That was Germany to me - at least one aspect of it. As much as tourists in Manhattan stop for a moment in Times Square and say "this is New York City" so was my frequent feeling driving around Germany with MAP (and later with SFP). Places often shouted out to me, "Germany"!
I think the irony of it all is that Germany holds only a fraction of the Alps compared to Austria, Switzerland, France, and especially Italy. For some reason mountains and Germany went together for me. The several subsequent trips we made over the years from Munich south toward the mountains were all the stuff of good memories even if we never saw any scenery as outstanding nor as beautiful as other countries' share of those mountains (like Como, Italy) [see: Lake Como]. The Bavarian Alps remained meme-like in my mind - an image of a Germany I loved even if it didn't really exist.
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