Last day in the Alps

In continuation from the last post, this occurred almost exactly a week ago.

Etsy started the morning off right.  She was nabbing drips of pancake batter during breakfast.  Clearly she missed a few.

Our last leg of the trip was to head toward the largest Benidictine Monastery in Germany (if not Europe) on our way back home.  If you want some perspective from back in the day, the monk population at the monastery is around 55.

Our Garmin actually took us along a very scenic route, some of it actually on the "Alpine Road."  For some reason, it took us south into Austria.  We were concerned at first, but we went right through the thick of the mountains along a river and eventually went along the Plansee, a beautifully blue and large lake completely surrounded by mountains.  A few people were wind surfing and several more were swimming.  It was surreal because everything was warm, white, blue, and only a little green.

Here we are, going into Austria through the Alps.  Sadly, I was doing the driving through the mountains, and J was trying to get other things done in the car.  We got very few pictures of this stretch.

As we approached the monastery, we saw a ton of signs alongside Ettal (where we were headed) indicating that it was "Gartentagen" (garden days) at the monastery.  Excited about us getting a two for one deal, we eagerly hurried on.  There were quite a few people there.  It was set up almost like a farmer's market/craft day at the monastery.  There were several stands selling each of the following: cheese (more on that later), wood carvings, metal work, plants, herbs, clothing, leather purses, plant bulbs, beer, bread, salad dressings and sauces, liquor, and food.  It did not seem like all of it was produced by the monastery, but the beer, liquor, and most of the plants certainly were.  I wish I knew if the cheese was from the monastery too.

A view of monastery.  The larger green dome is the church within.  The smaller green dome is the church clock tower.

Even the monks have water for dogs.  It was a hot day that day.

After a tour through the wares being sold, J and I shared a huge bretzel (pretzel), J had a beer, we bought some liquor, and I wanted to buy some of the orange cheese I saw near the entrance.  Afterward, we planned on buying some postcards and checking out the monastery church which was supposed to be beautiful inside.

For those interested in the name of the brewery...

Beer anyone?

A view of the monastery from the nearby hill.  You can see some of their greenhouses below.

Here are more of their greenhouses.  They claimed to also have citrus trees among their herbs, veggies, and flowers.  Alas, we saw all but the citrus trees.  :(

This is just a mere fraction of the booths that were around the monastery.

A view of the entrance to the church taken from the interior courtyard.

I sampled some of the cheese I was interested in getting, and it tasted awesome!  Understand that Germans don't make or sell cheddar in their stores, so the fact that I stumbled upon some cheese that was possibly monk-beer cheese with a very cheddar flair to it made me very anxious to get some.  Upon buying the cheese, I asked how much a quarter of a wheel cost.  The vendor misunderstood me and promptly cut a quarter of the wheel and told me it cost 40 euro (around 50 dollars).  I then asked him if I could have half of that, but he then proceeded to tell me that he couldn't give me a smaller portion.  I bought that much because 1.) I wanted it, and 2.) I was afraid of being annoying at a monastery.  When J saw how much I bought, she was admittedly exasperated, but laughed resignedly stating that a vice of cheese is far better than most other vices.

This is the look of a man who has spent more money than he intended on cheese.

Here's a basic idea of the scale of cheese I purchased.  Surprisingly, these pictures make it look smaller than what it really is.

The church was crazy.  The exterior was relatively unassuming, but the interior was quite a different matter.  They had a votive candle area that was so hot from the volume of candles that they had a large ceiling vent to kick out the heat.  The church itself had the most ornate frescoes of any church I have yet visited in Germany.  There was also what appeared to be gold leaf on practically half of the entire wall surface.

I have never seen this before:  votive candles creating so much heat that a dedicated nearby heat vent is required.  I just had to take one step in the room to be convinced of it's necessity.

It was a circular interior, and the entire stretch of wall looked like this.   Sadly, I couldn't get a decent shot of the altar and the artwork in there.

The frescoes were actually redone in the 1700's or 1800's, so it was all way more over-the-top than what is usually seen in Germany and was far better preserved.

We then headed on home.

Next post, what happened this weekend.  Originally planning on going to Brussels to see the flower carpet, we decided that the past nine solid days involved too much running around and we needed to regroup at home.  We took the opportunity to clean the house but then check out the Legend Medieval Festival which was happening in town this weekend.  It is the German Renaissance Festival, but way more legit and (in my opinion) far more appealing in terms of wares being sold.  It was short on entertainment, but was far cheaper and much higher quality.  More next time.