Mittenwald

A train ride from Stuttgart brought us to Munich, which was definitely the transportation hub. At first, it seemed as though it would be perfect timing to make our side trip to the Dachau concentration camp, which was about an hour from Munich, but we were thwarted at every turn.

It turns out that because of some construction work on the train line, and because it was a Sunday, the trains were running on different schedules, were on different platofrms, and there required more transfers…or something. All that to say is that we got turned around, and by the time we had kind of figured it out, it didn’t seem likely that we would make it to the once daily 1:30pm English guided tour.

So instead, we picked somewhere nearby the train station for lunch, eating horrifically bad Vietnamese food, and then just took an earlier train to Mittenwald, where we would be spending the next few nights.

The train ride towards the Alps, now that we were doing it during the daylight, was gorgeous. Just beyond words to see mountains rolling towards you. Needless the say, the time passed by without us even noticing.

We were staying at a bed and breakfast, and interestingly, when we showed up at the indicated address, there was no one there, and the door was locked! Stumped and worried, we sat down at the back patio, hoping that the owners, who we presumed was out for a walk, since it was a Sunday in Germany after all, would hopefully come back soon.

We tried making a phone call but, kept getting a busy signal.

I was anxious to say the least, and thinking of the worst case scenario proposed that we head back to the main train station and leave our luggage there in the lockers and then come back at a later hour in the evening when it would be almost guaranteed that the owners would be back. But, we sat for a while longer, just in case.

We eventually left, and just as we were heading down the road, another couple came up the road from a different direction and seemed to turn into the bed and breakfast. Hopeful, we called out, asking if they were the owners (in broken German). They were not. But apparently, they were old friends of the owner, and stayed there regularly. The husband called the owner (apparently we didn’t know how to dial German numbers) and fixed us up. They let us into the house, showed us around (here’s the closet of towels, here’s where you set the temperatures if you’re feeling cold…) and we were so very grateful towards them. The craziest thing is that they didn’t speak English all that well and we didn’t speak German all that well, so it was a lot of smiling and nodding and hand gesturing but regardless, we felt the warmth of their kindness.

After all that was settled, we walked through town. This city is so blessed with good scenery it’s ridiculous.

We meandered over to the first short trail we could find, which happened to be a trail to Lake Lautersee. It was definitely uphill so after a while, we had some good views of the town as well.

Seeing Lake Lautersee was like seeing a breath of fresh air. Surrounded by deep green forests and shining mountains (at the time, the mountains were backlit by the sun), it had the calmness and serenity that one would expect after doing some hiking to reach it. There is a hotel and restaurant that is built right by it though, so residents can enjoy it without the hike.

The lighting was all wrong, so we debated coming back near sunset hour to get some better photos and views. We  made our way around the lake to the restaurant, but unfortunately, they were closing – they only served lunch and drinks, and we were hungry. So back to town we went.

On the way back, we passed by a few German locals who paused when they saw us debating between two trails that both ended up in Mittenwald, but went in different directions. “This one”, they pointed. “Mehr schon!”

So we went with their suggestion, and returned to town on a completely different route than the one we had taken. And it indeed was more beautiful!

It was so beautiful it looks like I applied an Instagram filter to this photo, but nope. This is the unaltered reality. Just sunlight hitting all the right notes.

We wandered through the main pedestrian streets of Mittenwald, passing by the numerous restaurants, before settling on a place. It advertised a plate of BBQ ribs and fries for a reasonable price, and we were hooked. When we actually looked at the food that was on display in a cafeteria style, behind a glass window though, what we thought were BBQ ribs didn’t actually look that appetizing. There was something else that looked really good though, so we pointed at that instead and ended up super satisfied.

This was in fact, authentic German schweinebraten or roast pork. I had had it in Munich at a famous restaurant that the hostel had recommended, but that beer hall had nothing on this place. This unpretentious village restaurant simply had the best schweinebraten I could ever imagine. To put it in context, it was like nicely done Chinese roast pig with crispy skin and soft meat, drizzled with a salty gravy sauce. If I had it with hoisin sauce, I would swear that I were back in Canada, eating Chinese fare. Needless to say, this meal convinced me that German food could taste good.

Interestingly, their version of ketchup is quite a bit different from the kind we have in North America….more thin, more sour, but whatever. Fries (or pommes in German) were always welcome.

We spent the evening sitting out on our balcony, just staring up at the mountains that stared right back at us, until it was too dark to make them out.