Alpine Region - Switzerland - Germany

Brig - Internet Photo

It was Monday the 16th of February and we checked at Transalpino in Milano for train times and fares to Athens and at Post Restaurant for a letter from my dad but nothing there, so we spent the last of our Lire on lunch and caught the train to Brig, Switzerland.

Brig Postcard

We got off at Brig and I charged down to the change office cashed a travellers cheque and bought tickets to Lausanne. As the heater in the train was working we had a warm trip there.

We rang Michelle, who said there was some letters, and after buying a little book for Regis and went out to their place in Lutry. We arrived, and after a swift exchange of news, we read the letters, of which there were nine, from family and friends. We had some replying to do. The next day we checked Student Travels for reductions, it seems we should take a chance and go to Athens.

Danielle and Michelle

We spent a week with Michelle and Jean_Pierre for a bit of R&R and to arrange our return to Australia. I also hoped to fix the wheels on our backpacks which had been really effective, but were beginning to wear out.

My sister Rhonda rang up and told us that she and Elvie had gotten work at a hotel in Ettal, southern Germany about 500km away. She invited us to drop in for a visit, and as it might not mean spending much money we agreed.

We were fattening up in the meantime, sitting on our bums in Lutry. After a couple of days in Switzerland I started getting stomach cramps. We traced it to eating the highly processed food in Switzerland - cheeses, meats, etc. For the last two months we had eaten the local food in France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Italy and never once had a problem!

---

On Monday the 23rd of  February we bought standard tickets to Innsbruck via Bern and Zurich, and met Rhonda at Innsbruck with Elvie who took us to the hotel in Ettal in their little car.

Composite panorama of the church in Ettal or Brig

Statue in Ettal

Monastery Church of
Our Lady, Ettal  - Postcard

Hotel Ludwig der Bayer - Postcard

We spent some nice days at the Hotel Ludwig der Bayer with Elvie and Rhonda where they worked.

We saw the Ettal church with some very well preserved frescoes and paintings with a carved wooden statue covered in gold leaf - a bit overdone I thought.

Ettal is famous for the Kloster (Abbey). The foundation originally consisted of a Benedictine double monastery – a community for men and another for women – and also a house of the Teutonic Knights.

Ettaler Kloster - Postcard

The monastery runs a brewery, a distillery, a bookstore, an art publishing house, a hotel, a cheese factory joint venture, and several smaller companies.

The distillery produces Ettaler Kloster Liqueur, a herbal liqueur which, like that of the Carthusian monks, comes in sweeter yellow and more herbal green varieties.

We went to Oberammergau which is famous for its production of a Passion Play and its woodcarvers.

Painted house, Oberammergau
Postcard

Painted house, Oberammergau
Postcard

Oberammergau is also known for its famous painted houses, some very good, but you have to like the style. These postcard photos, as taken in summer, as are most postcards.

Altar of St. Martins in Garmish - Postcard

That night there was a bit of a party at their hotel and some dancing with the staff – we’d almost forgotten how to dance! The next day I fixed the brakes on Rhonda's car.

We also saw some of Garmisch-Partenkirchen which in the other direction. It was really beautiful, but also tourist rip-off town.

Not so much a snowman,
more a man in the snow

On day we walked from Ettal to Oberammergau which is about 15km away, and then walked back through the woods which tired us out a bit.

That night we went to the house ball at the hotel. Their own Fasching fancy dress party. We went, Rhonda dressed as a pirate, me as a roadworker and Danielle as a Tunisian in a Tunisian hat. We had a dance but the music was exactly our style, so we split around midnight. Rhonda got back at 4:00 AM, she was really in her element.

On Sunday the 29th of  February and after giving Rhonda a contribution for staying at the hotel, we said our goodbyes started hitching from outside the hotel.

Garmish-Partenkirchen - Postcard

Garmish-Partenkirchen - Internet photo

After 15 minutes we got a lift with a very nice guy in a VW Polo to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

We stopped in town for a little while, and then after half an hour there we got another lift with two hoons to Innsbruck where we had lunch. At least the hitchhiking in northern Europe is good.
At the time the area was filled with Winter Olympics fever, as it was being held that year at Innsbruck. There was lots of Olympic paraphenalia around but we just bought some postcards.

The woman at a movie ticket office in Innsbruck changed our German Deutschmarks into Austrian Schillings, kept 8 Schillings for herself in the deal. I only realised later after asking the waitress at the restaurant about exchange rate of the transaction.

We then walked to the beginning of the auto route to Brenner which took us quite a while with Danielle complaining about her wrist and the weight of the backpack - in her own way. After a while we got a lift in a Renault 4 to Bressanone with a really nice teacher, Helmet Hoffman, who planned to go to Australia in about two years. He dropped us at the start of the Autoroute as he thought we get a better lift there.

After an hour we did, with two guys who had been skiing and they took us to Bolzano in their Citroen. There was a train to Verona in half an hour so we had our first cappuccino since we left Italy weeks ago and welcomed ourselves back. The best coffee since then. We arrived at Verona at 9 PM and had a soup each at the Tavola Calda, then settled into the waiting room for the rest of the night.