So we are in München with Lorenz and Petra. Comfortable night at their apartment, I wake up early, feeling great, and by 8:00 we are bustling around. Lorenz and I walk to the bakery while Petra makes her home made müslei and Gail showers. We enjoy a relaxed breakfast, then about 10:00 set out to drive 50KM south to Tegernsee.
We have never seen this part of Bayern (Bavaria) and so it is interesting, even though we get stuck in some traffic here and there. But the time passes fast, we are all talking and having fun, Lorenz and Petra showing us the sights.
When we near the lake it is drizzling out, the clouds low, but we decide to head up Wallberg (mountain) on the Wallbergbahn (lift) anyway. If nothing else we can sit at the cafe and have a drink.
The lift tickets are €20 each, round trip, and we ride in a little four person gondola. The first half, as we rise up to the clouds, we can see the lake and village of Rottach-Egern spread out below us. It soon disappears as we rise into the clouds.
At the lift station - hut - Panoramarestaurant Wallberg we grab a table with a view of the clouds, and order pretzels and beer. Gail has been dying for a good warm bretze, and do they deliver. We end up ordering a third one.
The rain lets up a little, so Petra, Lorenz and I decide to take the short walk up to the “summit” cross on Wallberg. The top is at 1722 meters (5650 feet). We suit up against the rain and walk up the slick rocks and mud. About half way up the rain stops, and we run across a film crew making some TV movie series with a famous actress that none of us recognize.
On top we take a summit photo, and Petra pulls out her cell phone to show me the wonderful view we would have but for the fog.
Going down I slip on the smooth rocks, and we walk through a herd of cows and about two inches of wet, slippery cow shit. We pick up Gail who is warm, dry and reading, and walk to the chapel before heading down the Wallbergbahn.
Once down we move the car down near the lake and take a walk along the shore path. The lake is high from the rains, as in flooding high, which is really interesting to me. There is a nice yellow church in one of the villages, and a memorial from 1544 when a boat carrying a wedding party sunk and 12 people drowned. The lake is about 2KM by 6KM big; Gail and I talk about how it would make a nice day to just walk around the entire lake. We walked for about a half hour and the skies cleared. We could see the summit of Wallberg, but by now the lift quit running so it would be worthless to think of going back up for the view. Still...
Meanwhile, Lorenz goes back to get the car and fetch us up for dinner.
We head to the end of the lake to a great view restaurant, the Gut Kaltenbrunn, which was recommended by their friends. It is really a fine view and good food. Gail had a good salmon-trout (yes, and don’t try to give me flack on it) and I had excellent crispy pork, which I just love. Lorenz and Petra had good food, well presented, as well. We all ended up with desserts and coffee. Mine was a fresh raspberry torte that was just amazing.
On the way home, Lorenz summed it up when he said that it really doesn’t matter the weather, if you are with good friends the time goes by fast anyway.
It was a great day. We’ll be sad to leave tomorrow.
The trip is drawing to a close, and the days are speeding up now.