The first day we made a day trip to the nearby Bavarian Alps to the picturesque village of Tegerensee. We had spent a long time over breakfast, enjoying those sensational German bread rolls and brazen so it was nearly lunch time before we got going. Matthias had recently sold his car and had not yet got his new one, so we squeezed into a small car hired from a car-pool/car share organisation he had joined and headed south down the Autobahn.
The aim was to walk up to a lookout above the lake and take in a panoramic view out over the lake and snow covered trees all around. It was slow going as the boys had not brought shoes to suit the terrain and found themselves slipping and sliding on the icy ground. We had a lot of fun throwing snow balls and making snow angels on the way up. We stopped at a guest house about three quarters of the way to the top for a nice “Apfelshorle” (Apple juice and soda) - The boys shared a “Kaisershmarn” which had been a specialty that their Opa had made for us. Unfortunately because we had started so late it was getting a little dark when we finished our afternoon tea so we abandoned our climb and headed back down.
It was quite a steep descent and the boys found it very difficult to keep their feet – also cold was starting to bite and Tim’s gloves had soaked through from the snowballs he had been making. We stopped at a hunter’s tower for a look around on the way back. The scenery was the stuff that postcards are made of.
Eventually we got back to the car and then drove the short way to the very famous “Braustubl” at Tegerensee which is a much frequented traditional Bavarian restaurant. The atmosphere was intoxicating even without a drink – the place packed full of jovial, noisy guests prosting, eating and smoking away. We were lucky to find a table that had been reserved for 6:30 giving us an hour to have our dinner.
The boys were again very happy to try a local specialty from the menu – having “Schweinshax’n” – while I opted for a snack of Obazta (a mix of cheeses including Camembert I think, with paprika), a Brezen and of course a Weissbier. Noone was overly hungry because of the afternoon tea but we all enjoyed the special tastes of the local cuisine. We were all tired and happy when we got home, we drank a couple more beers while talking and reminiscing – dropping off to sleep one by one as the jet lag caught us.
