Notes from recent trip to visit family in Bavaria, Germany (near Austria). This is mostly for family/friends that plan on visiting and for future visits.
Castle on Lake Chiemsee – Herrenchiemsee New Palace
- Boat ride to two islands (Men’s island and Women’s island). Need to figure out boat schedules. However, they ran enough boats regularly that it wasn’t a problem.
- Didn’t take credit cards and ATM was down so make sure to have enough Euros with you.
- Had a tour option with an English speaking tour guide- he was cute and gave great eye contact.
- Don’t be like Aunt Betty, make it all the way to the castle (on Men’s island) then not pay the 10 extra euros for the castle tour. This castle tour was my 14 year old’s favorite part of the trip.
- Women’s island was a nice place to walk around. There are artists that live on the island and sell their work.
- Rude staff at the Klosterwirt Chiemsee restaurant. This is the first place you see to eat when getting off the boat to Woman’s island. Even though it’s a tourist area they clearly don’t like tourists. There are other places on the island that serve food and looked like there were several huts that served fish.
- Some English translations on signs for getting around (mostly Men’s Island) but not all are translated.
- If you don’t have someone that speaks German with you I would do some planning before the trip.
Castle in Austria – Hohenwerfen Castle
- Able to buy tickets online before arriving, which is when we realized there was a bird show.
- Bird show was impressive so try to make it. It is presented in German but you still get the gist of what is going on.
- Ticket price included – Ride up the hill to castle, tour of castle, bird show, and museum exhibit
- Tour for English speakers was a hand held pre-recorded device. There was a child’s version of the tour and adult. The child’s version had music and sound effects. The hand held devices worked well.
- I don’t think navigating the castle will be a problem without having someone that speaks German. It’s a pretty simple set up.
- Ate food at the castle restaurant which was very good and reasonably priced.
Alpine Slide in Austria – (Sommerrodelbahn “Keltenblitz”)
- Easy enough to just show up and navigate even though signs are not translated into English.
- Buy ticket, take ski lift, walk up to building – then through the building down to the slide. Ride an Alpine slide actually in the Alps.
- It is just a short walk after taking the ski lift to the peak of the mountain. So be sure to check that out.
Munich
- Took a tour with an English tour group that specialized in the history about Hitler. My only problem with the tour is that it had too many people in the group which made it hard to hear the tour guide.
- Should have brought my Rick Steve’s book to fill in the gaps of things that wasn’t Hitler related.
- Lots of bike riders and pedestrians to dodge when driving.
- Easy to walk around and see the sights.
- The Glockenspiel Clock Tower only plays a couple of times a day so if that’s something you want to see, you will need to plan ahead.
Waging Am See
- Check out the shop that sells the cheese from the local cheese factory.
- The park in town is a great place for the kids to play and has a fun putt putt course.
- There are bathrooms at the park, Yay!
- Ice cream shop in town is a nice place to grab a treat
- Camping ground (Strandcamping Waging am See) on the lake has a soccer golf field. It was closed the day we were there but is on our to-do list for next time.
- There are electric boats available to rent (Strandcamping Waging am See). They make for a nice way to cruise along the lake, enjoy the sunshine and listen to the Cuckoo birds.
- There is a Croatian restaurant in town which has great food. We really enjoyed the hamburger meat stuffed with feta.