The big thrill today was picking up our rental car, which we will use for the next 19 days. We chose a Sunday for this so as to have quiet streets to get used to the car and the German traffic system. That part didn't exactly work out, as you'll see.
All week, the weather pages have been predicting that today, Sunday, would be fine, and that tomorrow, Monday, would be crappy, with clouds and a 40% chance of rain. The problem was, the Plan in the Purple Binder says to pick up the car Sunday afternoon after a last day enjoying Munich, then on Monday to leave Munich, drive through the steep mountainous valleys of the Bavarian Alps to Füssen, and see Schloss Linderhof on the way. It would be quite depressing to make that drive and see that scenery (or more likely, not see it) under heavy cloud and showers.
So, change of plan: skip the last day in Munich (sorry about that, art museum), pick up the car at 9am and do a day-trip down into the Alps in good weather.
The Car
We'd reserved a VW Golf or equivalent, but Avis gave us instead a much nicer car, a Mercedes B-Class.
Looking for a name.
The Top Gear team liked it, saying "It’s a kind of small-ish front wheel drive hatch with MPV undertones, except with a faint sporting bent." It is quite comfortable, has a firm ride and solid, flat cornering.
Off to the Alps
An important plus is that the car has a GPS. After figuring out how to make it speak English, we gave it the destination of Schloss Linderhof in Ettal, and headed out of Munich following its, or rather her, directions.
We selected British English and the result is a GPS that gives directions in the warm and throaty tones of an upper-class Englishwoman. At first we called her Penelope, after the actress Penelope Keith, but later realized she sounds much more like the mature Julie Andrews. So in coming days if we refer casually to a Julie, it's not some hitch-hiker we've picked up, but Julie the GPS.
We Learn a New Word
We buzzed along, 110kph in the right lane, looking at Bavarian cows...
...when the traffic came to a halt.
The autobahn goes 70k south of Munich and then ends, 10k out of the famous ski resort, Garmish-Partenkirchen. We were not the only people with the idea of a day trip south out of Munich. In fact, about 11am, several thousands of us reached the point where two lanes of autobahn merge to one lane of country road, and stopped.
The new word is stau (rhymes with scow, but pronounced "shtow"); it's German for traffic jam. For an hour we crept along the remaining 3km to the merge point. Periodically, Julie would automatically switch to an official traffic report, reporting "drei kilometers stau" outside this town, "funf kilometers stau" outside of that one.
Here's a map to show where we're going. Drag it around and zoom it.
Schloss Linderhof
Eventually we got past the stau, and the narrow road toward Ettal was clear. Up a twisty pass, where we found out that our black car handles well, and to the palace. Linderhof was Ludwig II's second project (the one on Herreninsel that we saw yesterday was his third and last). The building itself is much more modest, almost petite.
We elected not to buy a ticket to take the guided tour inside, even though the rooms are supposed to be amazing. Partly it was that no photos were allowed, but mostly it was that, as Marian said, "I'm a bit schlossed out." So we just had a good look around the grounds. Here are some highlights.
Looking up at the Neptune group and the cascade.
Looking down from the top of the cascade.
Temple to Venus, seen from top of the cascade.
Putto in fountain beside the house.
Goddess Fortuna with her water off.
Central grounds from hill below Venus temple.
The plantings are exquisite and beautifully maintained.
Upper terrace.
The main fountain comes on and bathes Fotuna.
As per usual, find these and a bunch more pics in the gallery.
Stau Again
Then we headed home. Tired of restaurant suppers, and anyway remembering how hard it was to find an open one in Munich on Sunday night when we arrived, we stopped at a shop in Ettal and bought fruit and rolls to eat in the hotel room.
Near Garmische again, we hit another stau. This one was owing to a demonstration of some sort that clogged the road for half an hour. And coming into Munich, all us tired holiday-makers created another.
Up Next: On the Road
Tomorrow we'll pack up and move across country to Füssen (just 40k or so west of Ettal on the map above). Packing will be easier now we have the car. We can take our time, carry things down in multiple trips.
We've been fortunate in having good wi-fi in both Berlin and Munich. Will this trend continue? What will life be like in a small town, compared to these big burgs?
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