Hotel Bürgerbräu
Bad Reichenhall, Germany
June 24, 2024
73F
Dear Readers, please keep in mind that this
writer is operating on no sleep at all for the last 29 hours, and the blog may
get a little shaky!
We had a great 8 hour flight from Charlotte on
Sunday, very very little turbulence and a soft landing. We only had 35 minutes to
get to the gate in Charlotte to catch the flight to Munich when we arrived from Erie and it was at least 30 minutes
away from our arrival gate, but we did it!
I read and finished a Dean Koontz novel (Velocity), worked on several
crossword puzzles, and then watched an animal show on the flight TV without
sound (that was OK, I just could not sleep). TK did not really sleep either. Fortunately,
we are young and can still do all-nighters!
I will mention that there are 8 of us in this
group, I’m the oldest, then TK, a couple 60+ year olds, a 4o+, and a 17 year
old. Derek G, German teacher at Collegiate Academy, met us a baggage claim. He is our tour guide and he planned the whole trip.
It was actually 1:30 a.m. EDST on Monday when
we arrived in Munich, and then there was a fast learning curve as we shlepped our
bags up 2 flights of stairs to Customs because the escalator was not working. I
thought we packed light, only 22 pounds in one bag, about 15 # for me in the
other, and TK was about the same. And we knew we needed to be in charge of our
bags, but why were we not expecting this problem? After easily passing through Customs,
we were ready to begin “trekking.” No
time for bahnhofen! (restrooms—why use
free rest rooms (WC) in the airport when one can pay one euro for one on down
the road?)
Somehow, we took a bus to a train station, for
a 45 minute ride on a slow train to somewhere to catch another train to Bad
Reichenhall, a 2 hour ride. Most
important, we were able to purchase a Munich Starbucks cup at the train station
and grab a croissant. Even though I wrote all this down, I am still fuzzy about
the details. Enough about all that, the
bottom line is that we walked a lot, with our luggage! I am registering 11,242 steps and TK has
11,327.
Along the way, on the smooth rail passage, we
saw beautiful Germany, looking a lot like Pennsylvania, with gentle hills,
forests, city scapes, farms, cows, sheep, greenhouses, solar panels on rooftops
(barns and homes), clothes drying outdoors on the line, and flower boxes on sweet
German homes.
After we checked into a quaint Hotel Bürgerbräu,
we rested (no sleeping) for about 15 minutes and off we all went with Derek to
see the Bad Reichenhall.
Derek
told us that Bad was a good thing and means baths or spas in German. Bad
Reichenhall, located in central Bavaria, is a spa town, located quite close to Salzburg in a basin encircled by the Chiemgau Alps (including
Mount Staufen (5800 ft) and Mount Zwiesel (5850 ft.). I forgot to note that the Alps do not
resemble sites in our Pennsylvania!
Bad
Reichenhall, with a population of 19,000, is a traditional center of salt production, obtained by evaporating water
saturated with salt from brine ponds.
In
2001 Bad Reichenhall was named Alpine Town of the Year and a few years later became a member of Alpine
Pearls.
What
a neat little town—petunias, lavender, roses, daisies in colorful gardens
greeted us everywhere we walked. We were just too tired to do much shopping,
but thankfully we will be staying here
tomorrow too.
One of the highlights
was the Koniglicher
Kurgarten, peaceful gardens and a large structure, and I am going to try to describe
it—designed in the 1800s, freshly cut blackthorn bush limbs are pushed into the
entire structure and salt water flows over the limbs. This creates a cooling
effect. When we entered the garden area, the temperature was cooler. There are
also fresh water “baths” to wade in or another to hold your hands in—the water
is ice cold and one should walk three times around the bath/pool to improve
circulation. Hold your hands in the ice water smaller bath for 3 minutes. I
lasted ½ lap in the wading pool and 20 seconds in the hand bath, but I have to
say that my feet were very grateful! TK
lasted longer than I did.
Finally, we were ready for dinner about 3 p.m. German time, 6 hours ahead
of Erie time. Most of us were finished
with marathon walking today so we returned to the hotel and its delightful restaurant/brewerie.
TK enjoyed shweinhaxe (roast pig knuckle), just as he planned and I had Wiener
Schnitzel (pork) with spaetzle, just as I dreamed of. Delicious!
TK’s takes: He saw deer stands in
fields and forest and noted that the corn was “knee high by the 4th
of July! There were lots of bikes and trails and Germany has a great rail
system.
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