The tail end

Wednesday afternoon was wide open since we couldn't hike, so we drove. We stopped in Ettal and saw a Baroque-style monastery. It was covered in tour buses and we thought it was overrated. We could've gone on to Linderhof, another crazy Ludwig castle, but by this point we were getting sick of all the Baroque-over-the-top decor we kept running into (and the swarms of tourists that went with it), so by the time we cruised into Oberammergau we were done. We drove into the back neighborhoods and found a little cafe and had a little snack outside on the terrace. That was really the highlight of the afternoon. I think we'll hit Linderhof another time; Stefan's mom says that one is especially nice. We could do that the same trip as Neuschwanstein - another castle we just didn't get to or feel like dealing with in the summer season.

Revelling in the fact that our little Fiat Panda not only had a decent stereo, but also AC, we kept cruising, taking the scenic routes back to Kochel. Just before Kochel is the village of Benediktbeuern. This is a town worth spending the night and an afternoon in. Real Bavarian charm at half the price of the towns filled with chartered buses. We checked out the monastery, which was actually really nice, with no crowds and lovely little gardens here and there.
We had a late dinner in it's biergarten - again, quality food at half the price. Here's Stefan with the old Maypole and Kloster in the background.On the way back to the apartment we swung by the little church in Kochel. It's done in the Jugendstil type of architecture and was really lovely in a simple kind of way. Apparently people come from all over Bavaria to get married in this little church by the Alpine lake. Not hard to understand!Even though we felt like all we did this day was ride and eat (ugh) we thought this was a nice way to end our last night in Bavaria. The next morning we cleaned Franks apartment (oh my goodness, there are 6 MORE ways to sort your trash in Bavaria - and you have to drive somewhere to do it!!!) and started the drive back to Marburg. We took part of the Romantic Road for part of the way, but since it was more a truck traffic jam, we decided to just pick up the Autobahn and zip on home. Once again, the GPS was a great help. Nice trip!Things learned:
1) lower expectations during the tourist season,
2) always bring a GPS/navi system,
3) pack knee braces and hiking poles next time, and
4) get a real digital camera.