Oberammergau for a week

After two weeks on the road, we finally reached our final destination, Oberammergau.  It is a sleepy, traditional German village nestled in a beautiful valley and surrounded by forested mountains.  It is famous for its passion play it performs every 10 years.  During the 1600s, when the bubonic plague was flaring up again in Europe, the villagers vowed to perform a play about the passion every ten years if they village was spared.  The death rate plummeted and they have kept their end of the bargain ever since. 

We rented a nice two bedroom flat in the center of town that had a lovely view from its third floor balcony over the church bell tower. 

Each day, Tyler walked about a mile to work while Laura and the kids wandered around the region looking for fun things to do.  This was a farmer's field along his route to the NATO base for his course.  

One day, Laura and the kids went exploring Garmisch which held many fond memories for us since we visited about 9 years earlier while living at Aviano.  They braved the misty Partenach Gorge and checked out the Olympic facilities from long ago. 

Laura accidentally took the chair lift and ended up committed to a very long multi-hour hike back down the mountain!  Luckily, Callum and Claire were in good spirits and enjoyed the pleasant walk back down.  

One afternoon, the family decided to have a picnic down by the pleasant river that skirted the town.  The water was cold, but that didn't stop us from getting in and hunting around for interesting rocks.  The current was pretty strong and the kids needed to hold onto Dad to keep from washing away.

  

We did a fair bit of shopping in the area with a new set of lederhosen for Cal and a new dirndl for Claire while Mom and Dad committed on a cucoo clock!

We drove one afternoon to the nearby city of Reutte, which was across the border in Austria.  We explored a castle complex and enjoyed the adjacent museum as well.  We even tried our hand at fishing for trout. 

After a week in Oberammergau, we began the long journey back to England and stopped off in the town of Linz to visit our German friends the Lachers.  They graciously hosted us at their home and showed us around their very pleasant old town that sat on the banks of the Rhine.  We even saw a wedding couple emerge from the city hall and cut a heart out of a bed sheet.  The groom then carried the bride through.  Claire made sure she had a front row seat :).

The next day we made the 10 hour trip back home via the Channel Tunnel train and found our home just as we had left it.  A perfect end to an epic road trip.