Berchtesgaden & Konigsee Lake in the SUN!

We started our day looking at this:

The weather was awesome! We all had a great night's sleep so we were eager to get out and soak up the sun. We had our huge breakfast, as usual, and drove to Kognisee Lake. We boarded an electric boat for a 40 minute ride to St. Bartholoma Church. The church is known for its scenic location and distinct red domes.

One of the neatest things on the boat was when the guide stopped to play a tune on his horn. The sound bounced off the cliffs and you could hear the echo very clearly. The kids thought there was another trumpet player somewhere copying!

We decided to hike to the Eiskapelle (ice cave). The hike was strenuous and the girls had their ups and downs. DD#2 had one good fall and scraped her knee. We saw ice but I'm still unsure about where the cave was supposed to be. It was still a gorgeous walk. We were next to the 2nd largest mountain in Germany - Waltzmann.

After the hike (2 1/2 hours), we were hungry and thirsty. Naturally there was a nice beer garden/restaurant near the church and boat landing. The specialty was smoked trout. Mmmmmmm!

The kids lucked out with another scenic playground.

The ride back was just as peaceful. We were pretty exhausted by the sun and exercise.

We made a pit-stop at the store for picnic supplies, more milk, and much-deserved ice cream. We were ready to head back to the pension. We promised DD#1 that she could swim in the pension's pool when the temperature hit 70. This afternoon was her big chance. The pool was a "natural" pool without chemicals. It was very deep, rocky, slippery, and FREEZING cold. It wasn't quite the experience we were after but we made the best of it.

It was already 6pm by that point so we decided to head back into town. Berchtesgaden is a 5 minute STEEP drive down a very narrow road. I think DH is starting to like the curvy narrow road. There are mirrors posted at the turns to spot oncoming traffic. We ate dinner at a nice beer garden and lucked out with another playground. After all this, the kids crashed hard and we called it a day!

The view at dusk. Did I mention that this is a working farm as well? The farmer has been haying (same as my family back home) and the barn is right outside our balcony. The smell of fresh hay is making me a little homesick. I took lots of pictures of the farm equipment to show my family. What a nice day!

We're off to Steingaden tomorrow. We will be near the big castles (Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, etc.) We may or may not have wi-fi so blog entries could be intermittent. Thanks for reading!