The Weather Underground website's prediction was right on. During Sunday night, weather moved in. When we arose, the streets were wet and the clouds were on the housetops. So we took our time getting packed up, left Munich about 10am, and spent the next few hours driving in the rain through what was probably awfully pretty countryside.
The trip was enlivened briefly when, going through Landsberg, we spotted a shopping mall, the first we'd seen in Germany. We went into a huge market, sort of a cross between Safeway and K-Mart, and patrolled all the aisles. We picked up a few things we'd been wanting to buy for travel in the car, plus some fruit and rolls for lunch. The fruit/veggie department was great, which seems to be a German thing—we've been noticing really beautiful salad ingredients in restaurant salads, too—and one of the fruits Marian found was a mini-pineapple, about the size of a hand-grenade but just ripe. We ate buttoned up in the car, parked by a river a few k's on. Here's our route.
Weiskirche
So we joked about it being a one-picture day, but Marian started looking up the towns we were approaching in the guidebook, and noticed Steingaden and the nearby Weiskirche. This pilgrimage church was actually listed in the Purple Binder, as something to do on the way out on Wednesday. But, why not now?
The place is quite remarkable: the church sits alone on a tiny road in farming country a couple of k's from the nearest village, but there's a constant stream of tour coaches and cars in and out.
The interior just explodes with decoration.
The ceiling is an immense portrayal of heaven and such.
There are four remarkable figures of saints around the sides, and a dazzling organ loft.
We also stopped at the church in Steingaden where for the second time, we noted that the graves in German cemeteries seem to be gardened rather than just decorated, a rather charming custom.
Something that puzzles us, though, is that every single grave in this cemetery had a little chalice or vial affixed to the curbing. They were in all different styles, plain or fancy, with lids or without. Each had a little brush like a pastry brush, or sometimes a green sprig of herb. What are these about?
Heading on the last few k's into Füssen we looked up through the rain at tomorrow's destination, the fabled Neuschwanstein castle. Marian shot this while the car was moving, from the passenger seat, through the driver-side window (David politely rolled his window down and leaned back).
Remember, you can click any of these pictures to open a bigger version in a new window. Sometimes they have a lot of detail that isn't visible in the small version.
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