More snow for us in Munich

We have a soft spot for Munich as we have been there many times and love visiting our friend Renate who used to teach at Timbertop in Victoria. She now lives south west of the city of Munich very close to the train station so travelling to the city is a breeze.

We flew out of London's Gatwick Airport which, from Earl's Court, is a bit tricky to get to as the London Underground doesn't go there. Laurie had researched this problem and found the EasyBus company which pick up from West Brompton about 20 minute walk from home. We subsequently discovered we could take the bus from right outside our house to within a five minute walk so that's what we did this time. EasyBus is an off shoot of the company EasyJet which provides low cost fares all over Europe. The bus trip was a journey of an hour at the very reasonable fare of 17 pounds return for the two of us which converts to about $A27. Imagine Mansfield Mt Buller BusLines providing two people a return journey from Mansfield to Mt Buller for $27!!

Back in Munich Renate met us at the airport which was fantastic as we didn't have to think about trains to catch etc. Her fabulous house at Ebenhausen, is the top storey and superbly located for easy access everywhere pretty well.

Renate's lovely home during our stay - before and after snow

We'd forgotten how fantastic German breakfasts can be. Our stay at Renate's was punctuated by fantastic meals. Our breakfasts consisted of wonderful breads, croissants, variety of cheeses, different meats and brewed coffee. With this great start to the day we headed for Munich on the Sbahn to wander through the Marienplatz, various beautiful churches, the open air market and of course the Munich Hofbrauhaus.

Laurie & Renate bonding :-) over a fabulous Bavarian breakfast and then the market

The Munich market and then a visit to the famous Hofbrauhaus

The marienettes in Marienplatz

One of the amazing towers at Frauen Kirche and the beautiful interior

The Devil's Footprint

The story of the devil's footprint says the architect of the church, J

ö

rg von Halsbach, told the devil that he would not be able to see a window from inside the church. Because of this promise the devil said he would help build it. When the church was completed the architect reportedly took the devil to a section of the church where no windows could be seen. The churchgoers would sit in a different area where there was light from a window. When the devil found out he stamped his foot with such force itleft an imprint in the stone floor which is still there today!

On returning home from our day in Munich Renate suggested dinner in a nearby restaurant which is about a 10 minute walk from her house. On the way it started snowing and in the few street lights it looked beautiful. While we were eating the snow kept on bucketing down and the landscape looked so different from our walk up to the restaurant.

One of the things we'd hoped to do while in Bavaria was to return to the Zugspitze, at 2962 metres, is Germany's highest mountain. We hadn't been able to make the ascent in 2007 due to cloudy weather. The weather forecast this trip wasn't too flash either although early afternoon in the mountains was reported to expect sunny periods. We headed off anyway hoping it would clear a little. And it did.

Pictured from the cable car the frozen Eibsee at the base of the Zugspitze

The views were magnificent. The mountain straddles the German/Austrian border so at one point in the building at the top, you walk from Germany into Austria. There are no border controls these days.

On top of the Zugspitze. There's a pattern emerging here! Ah my turn for a hug :-)

Through to the Brenner Pass and Sydney 16,504 kms away

One of the amazing ski runs on the mountain and one of the craggy outlooks from the lookout on top.

Climbers queue for their short abseil down the rocky cliff of the Zugspitze

We couldn't believe our luck with the weather. We headed back down the mountain in the cablecar and then opted for a walk along the Eibsee which was just gorgeous. Surprisingly there were several people walking on the frozen lake. The ice really didn't seem thick enough for our liking so we didn't venture very far. It was a lovely walk along the edge of the lake and although we were going to walk around it, the hour of the day was a bit late so we turned back.

The path winds its way around the lake - about two hour walk.

Ehrwald and the Zugspiste from Ehrwald

After our walk we returned to the car and headed for Ehrwald, just over the Austrian border, to fill up with fuel which is substantially cheaper than in Germany.

Linderhof Castle

After such a great day on the Zugspitze we could only hope for decent weather to visit mad King Ludwig’s smallest castle, Linderhof Palace about an hour south of Munich, in a similar location to yesterday’s excursion.

Linderhof Castle and Renate sitting on the wall in front of the Temple of Venus

This castle was created to emulate the great palaces of France as Ludwig idolised King Louis XIV of France, the sun King!

The interior of the palace was in stark contrast to the weather on the day. Gray and dank outside, the interior has incredibly opulent decor, full of Meissen candleabras, over 100 beautiful vases, gold leaf gilt everywhere. Superbly rich colours, royal blues (of course), deep reds and gold everywhere. I cannot adequately describe the ornateness of this palace. Incredibly beautiful tapestries and paintings everywhere. Themed on France of course. No photographs allowed inside though. There are a few at this website to give you an idea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linderhof_Palace

The particularly amazing thing about the palace apart from its opulence is a room called the Hall of Mirrors. Mirrors have been installed on opposite sides of the room and if you stand in the middle between them it appears there is a hall way leading into the distance. Of course reflecting the chandelier and gilt frames ate. Quite spectacular. The King’s bedroom is, as expected, incredibly extravagant. A huge bed, quite high, as he was quite tall.

We were fortunate to be the only group in the English speaking tour guided by a very knowledgeable young lady.

Outside the gardens are also modelled on the French idea of sweeping space from the front. Ludwig described it as his Verseille. Although covered in snow the lines of the design were clear. Unfortunately the gold statues decorating the garden were enclosed in wooden boxes to protect them from the harsh winters’ experienced here.

The terrace up to the Temple of Venus, located on the opposite side if the little valley to the castle

With a beautiful lake, complete with swans, walks through the forest the garden is lovely even though we couldn’t see it properly because of the snow. St Ann’s Chapel perched majestically on a little hill is just lovely. Opposite the castle high on another hill is the Temple of Venus.

St Anne's Chapel and a little further down, the little ornamental lake complete with swans

All in all a worthwhile visit if ever you get the chance.

Andechs Monastery

Next day we headed for Andechs Monastery for lunch. This is an amazing place perched on a hill not too far from Munich. It is a mecca for the locals and visitors alike and we were happy to slot in to the pattern and visit for the third time. This visit showed us they have done a lot of work on the building and eating area. The food however is still the same which is OK because it is fantastic. There’s nothing like a roasted pork knuckle and sauerkraut.

Andechs Monestery and Laurie and Renate being cheeky

The alter at the chapel

The detail - just beautiful

Last day in Munich

Renate's car, house and street on the last morning after snowing most of the night

We went for a long walk along the Isar Canel south of Munich.

A little path took us through the snowy forest to beautiful Lake Stausee

The Isar Canal where it runs into the Isar River

Next day we returned to England and a side trip to Andover in Hampshire to visit friends and on to New Milton to visit another family friend then Cornwall to Doc Martin country, Port Isaac (alias Port Wenn).

Snowy Sweden

We hadn’t been to Sweden for four years and were really keen to get back to this beautiful country. We weren’t disappointed. With snow overnight on our first night it was like stepping outside into a Swedish calendar.

The beautiful little church in Karlsborg A 'forest piccy' they're everywhere after a snowfall!

A wonderful thing about Sweden is ‘today’s lunch’ which is a ‘special’ offer at various restaurants where you can enjoy a hot lunch for as little as $A10. That includes an entree, main course, dessert and coffee and as it is a buffet meal you can of course go back again if you are still hungry. Highly unlikely as the food is delicious and very satisfying. Wherever possible we took advantage of this tradition.

The other tradition though is the odd hours of eating. Mind you when you get up late things tend to be a bit behind!!!

As in previous trips, we like to re-visit places we’ve enjoyed and this trip was no different. First stop was the little town of Karlsborg with its beautiful little church and lakeside location. A visit to the fresh fish caravan on the lake shore (Lake Vättern) was a freezing experience.

The lake by the fresh fish caravan - partly frozen. One of the gorgeous little houses in the forest

The lake, the second largest in Sweden, with an area of nearly 1900 square kilometres, is 129 kms long and 28 kms wide. Lake Vättern is in the lower third of this huge country, lying north east of Gothenburg on the west coast where we landed and south west of Stockholm, the country’s capital, on the east coast.

As an aside Sweden has 97,500 lakes of more than two acres in area! The largest lake, which happens to be next to Lake Vättern, is Lake Vänern - it’s 5648 square kilometres, 140 kms long and 80 kms wide. The country is an amazing store house for water. The country itself covers almost 450,000 square kilometres.

Down at the fresh fish caravan we could see the lake freezing around the edges. The lake looked like a sea with small white- capped waves forming in the wind. It looked really strange with the ice a significant distance into the water from the shore.

A funny experience we had on exploring the country side was walking on a completely frozen lake. After the snowfall the night before there was about six inches of very dry powder snow on top of the ice. If you happened to step through the powder you had to watch out as it was very slippery underneath. Although the ice was 70 cms thick we could hear it cracking under us so I didn’t hang around for the thrill of walking on water!

Good fishing? I don't think so... The ice cracked with a loud creaking even though it was about 70 cms thick!

While the snow is beautiful and fine for us as it is a novelty, for the locals the novelty wears off quite quickly when the winter starts as it creates a lot of work. Everyday life becomes an effort. Before you can drive to the supermarket you have to shovel the snow away from your parking space on your property and to the driveway to the road. If you don’t keep up with this task the snow gets deeper and deeper and you can’t get out! There’s a fine line between access and not. And then you find in the morning the snow plough has been through during the night and left a great wall of snow across your driveway!

Whilst the roads are kept as clear as possible by the use of salt, grit and ploughing sometimes it’s hard to keep up. We were lucky in that there wasn’t any huge dumps of snow which interfered with our travel plans. The second night it was -18 degrees and clear skies so no worry about snow blocking roads. We went for some lovely walks in the forest.

Walking through a Swedish calendar!

One of the lift bridges over the frozen canal near Karlsborg. Not a lot of traffic expected!

Our next trip was to a city on the north east end of Lake Vättern called Örebro. We visited an Ikea store - compulsory in Sweden - you'd swear we were in Victoria Gardens in Richmond, Melbourne! Later on we had a late lunch in a restaurant on top of a very tall mushroom water tower which overlooks Örebro. The views on such a stunning day were incredible. We were able to see for miles including a very clear view of Sweden’s third largest lake, Hjalmanen, just nearby.

From the top of the Mushroom Water Tower

Örebro from the top of the tower

Örebro Castle

More driving through more snow to visit a friend in the countryside near Örebro and a beautiful Swedish supper watching a lovely sunset across the snow in front of the house. It was great being included in a family situation and appreciated the warm welcome and sincere hospitality.

The early morning drive to Gothenburg Airport was in temperatures as low as -18 degrees.

The trees were frozen right to the top.

Our morning flight out showed the frozen lakes around Gothenburg at their clearest

Heading north

The day of our long awaited trip to Derbyshire had arrived and it was an early start with the alarm disturbing our slumber at 6 a.m! A bit of a shock as we have finally happily become accustomed to sleeping till 8 or 9 a.m! The train from Kings Cross St Pancras departed at 9.55 and after what seemed like a very quick trip to Matlock we arrived at about 12 noon to be greeted by our friend Richard Bunting. It was great catching up with Penny and the girls, Izzy and Millie after four years. The girls have grown up such a lot. Their home is in an elevated position overlooking the valley in the distance and on the opposite side of the valley, little villages which at night are lit up like fairyland.

Izzy in Whitworth Park on the way to the river. Millie enjoying the climbing frame at Whitworth Park.

Rich and Penny at Ashover

There is a pattern emerging with our arrival in a place and the weather in Matlock was no different to our previous arrivals at a new destination. It was freezing cold and incredibly windy. So windy, one of Penny and Rich's doors nearly blew in. The next day saw us tripping off to one of our favourite places, the Chatsworth House farm shop. We've been to Chatsworth before so enjoyed the drive through the beautiful park-like property - no fences of course - where you slow to allow the sheep to cross the road and their leisure! The farm shop is full of produce sourced from the property. Home made preserves, bread, meat grown on the property etc.

We also took a lovely walk through some little rural lanes and down to the Derwent River. It's quite a large river (which was running quite fast,) with a very deep river bed, that is quite a drop to the water from the river bank. The sheep grazing in this area seemed totally at ease with people wandering through their paddock. We also found the steam train line which we thought might be a good idea for a ride on another day.

The lovely view across the valley from the family's cottage before and after rain during the night

The second night the wind flared again and the rain set in. Next morning Laurie led me blind folded to the huge glass window in the lounge room. I opened my eyes to see the river we had walked along the day before in total flood. It hasn't happened for many years so eastern Australia isn't the only place to endure flooding. We were to take the steam train but thought the line was probably flooded and may not be able to. However as the line is raised up so much from the farm land it was just out of the water so off we went. Penny, Rich and the girls came part of the way too which was a delight. The river was really flying particularly at Matlock at Riverside Station where the river bed narrows a lot between banks.

The historic Darley Dale Railway Station where enthusiastic volunteers keep the train working

Laurie, Louise, Izzy and Millie ready to roll on a chilly day

After our train ride Laurie and I decided to walk back to our weekend home from Matlock which is only a few kilometres but up a very long hill. You can't have views like they have without going up first. We were very pleased to see the cottage as we rounded the final corner. Next morning 'moi' had a case of shin splints!

The quaint little village of Ashover

Our final day dawned quite fine and it was time we headed off to Chesterfield via Rich's home town of Ashover which is nearby. It's a lovely old village with beautiful buildings, a very old church with graveyard next to it and the Crispin Inn. After this quick visit we continued on to Chesterfield and reluctantly farewelled Penny and Rich then caught the train back to London which again went very quickly . We had a ripper time with the Buntings. Returning to Kensington is like coming home really. It's so lovely here.

On the train to Oxford

We couldn't believe how reasonably priced the train tickets to Oxford were. We booked them on line for eight pounds each return. The trip took about two hours on a very comfortable train through some boring country and closer to Oxford some really pretty farmland where the Thames wanders through. The farmland seemed really fertile with a lot of new crops planted which is surprising as it has been such a wet winter it's a wonder the tractors didn't get bogged.

Being long term fans of Morse, the BBC crime series starring John Thaw and set in Oxford, it was amazing stepping into the town where the movies were filmed. The university town abounds with historic stone buildings, colleges and churches.

St Aldates, Oxford

It was absolutely freezing in Oxford. The wind was chilling. Straight off the Arctic for sure. The sun was out, not a cloud in the sky, but freezing - as cold as a blizzard on Mt Buller in winter. Because we had limited time to explore, we took one of the open topped double-decker bus tours which have a recorded commentary full of historical information including an outline of the very complicated relationships between the colleges and the university. We sat inside!

With two rivers and a canal running through Oxford there are lots of beautiful scenery

Wandering round the streets we came across an indoor market which was amazing. It was so cold the butcher had all the meat on display on tables in the walkways! We estimated it was way colder outside than in any fridge.

Who needs a fridge in Oxford?

The first observation we made was the incredible number of double decker buses in Oxford - hundreds of them. Plus hundreds, probably thousands of bicycles. They're everywhere. If not parked, piled up or stacked they are being ridden by students racing to get from one place to another. Oxford is a vibrant, lively city full of young people and loads of character.

Bikes, bikes everywhere

Beautiful historic buildings everywhere

An interesting selection of decorated cakes!

Some side planning complete!

During our time in London we had planned to visit friends in this part of the world - some of them we have known since our first excursion here in 1975! So we started our plans which include a weekend with Penny and Rich in Matlock in Derbyshire. As we happily decided not to have a car in London we purchased train tickets on line which in some cases were really well priced. For instance a day trip to Oxford last Friday cost each of us eight pounds return. That’s about $A12.80, a bargain as a short trip - say one or two stations - on the London underground without an Oyster card could cost two pounds 20 pence.

Anyway we’re off to Chesterfield by train to visit Penny, Rich, Izzy and Milly this Friday.
Then to Gothenburg in Sweden to visit a family friend. During the next few weeks we’ll also be visiting another friend, a former Timbertop teacher in Munich, where we hope to sneak in a day’s skiing. Woohoo! Another little trip will be to Andover to visit Ken and Wendy and down to New Milton to visit a family friend of my Dad’s.

These trips are now all organised which took some effort but well worth it. We’ll be hiring a car to head south as the train fares are way too expensive.