O Tannenbaum - A tour of German Christmas Markets and other spots

[OZDUCK]

We stayed at a small hotel - Hotel Neuthor at the edge of the old town and about a 10 minute walk from the train station.



It had been recently refurbished.

You can see the important features - two packets of Gummi Bears.





The outside view. Not a car park in site. In fact in this part of town they are mostly underground and hidden.



Two nights later the view had changed - giving us a warning of what was to come.




The surrounds. The wall on the left is part of the remnants of the old town wall

 

[OZDUCK]

That afternoon we started off with a wander through the "Fishermans Quarter - -where the River Blau flows into the Danube". It is full of old half timbered houses and little waterways.



The sparrow is a symbol of Ulm.









The most famous building in this area is the Schiefes Haus - also known as the Leaning House. It is currently operating as a hotel. "The original half-timbered house from the 14th century acquired its current appearance of a five-story house in 1443 after several additions and renovations. It was used by the shipmasters of Ulm."

 

[OZDUCK]

Some more wandering around Ulm.

The Metzgerturm - built around 1349. It has a slight lean





Sunset over the Donau (Danube) - one of the very few sunsets we saw during our time in Germany.





The Rathaus dating from the 14th Century with the Minster behind. Much of central Ulm was destroyed in WW2 and and has been restored.

The side of the Rathaus



And at night



There was even a bit of Art Nouveau around



We wandered into the courtyard of this building before we realised that it was actually the local Police Headquarters

 

[OZDUCK]

Wandering along the riverside ramparts.



A little different to how they looked in the summer of 2011



The next day we had to do one of the normal chores on a long holiday visiting the Laundromat. But it was made a bit easier as we could sit there watching the snow beginning to fall.



We had seen the bright red sunset on this stretch of river the night before





Again the battlements looked a bit different in 2011



You know that you are in Germany when you see these sort of monuments





Schwörhaus (Oath House) - constructed and re-constructed since 1618. Now the city museum

 

[OZDUCK]

The laundromat about 3/4 of an hour before the picture of the snow covered car. The prices are still pretty reasonable.



Even a smallish German supermarket stocks plenty of beer



My wife is continuously amazed/horrified by these cigarette machines in the open. No wonder Germany has an adult smoking rate something close to three times that of WA. The stench of stale smoke followed us everywhere and became oppressive at times..



Apparently you can go punting in the summer



And in case you thought that you had escaped at least a few more photos of a Christmas Market - think again!! The snow fell fairly consistently for hours.



For the kids



A bowl of soup didn't really warm me up all that much in these conditions.



There was an ice rink set up by the Minster



That night we went out for a meal but the town was packed and we were turned away from a couple of places. We eventually ended up at a 'South American' steakhouse. You could choose from various cuts of meat from Argentina, Uruguay and the US. Plus lamb from NZ. I had some
rump from Uruguay and it was pretty good. You cook it on the hot stone. The chips however were very poor and seemed like cheap frozen ones.

https://www.abaccos-steakhouse.de/content/pdf/ABACCOS-STEAKHOUSE-Menu.pdf?v=24-01-01-A

 

[OZDUCK]

To finish off Ulm

My wifes meal from the steakhouse



Even the petting zoo animals were out in the cold



Our walk back to the station was a bit more difficult than on arrival.



The train was, as usual, about 30 minutes late. The tracks had plenty of snow on them heralding our problems in a couple of days time.

 

[OZDUCK]

Our next stop was at Prien am Chiemsee which is about halfway between Munich and Salzburg. The EC train only stops here for 2 minutes so you have to be waiting by the door with your baggage.



Our plan was to stay by the lake and visit the Christmas Markets on Frauenchiemsee Island in the lake on the first afternoon. They are only open for 2 weekends during Advent. On the next day we were planning to see another of King Ludwig II (of Neuschwanstein notoriety) grandiose unfinished palaces - Neu Schloss Herrenchiemsee. It is on another island.



Christmas Markets - Prien am Chiemsee

Bavarian Palace Administration | Herrenchiemsee Palace and Park | New Palace | Overview

Official website of Herrenchiemsee Palace and Park

www.herrenchiemsee.de

This EC train was one of the older trains we used



By the time we boarded in Ulm there was no room left in the luggage racks. There were some spare seats so we used up 3 seats.



We had to go via Munich HBF to get to Prien. As you can see it was getting snowier outside



We were staying by the harbour which is about 1.8 km from the train station. You can walk, catch a taxi or bus or, the best option, travel on the little local railway - the Chiemsee Bahn. It only runs between the harbour and the train station. It is partnered with the ferry company and you can buy a joint ticket. The train fare by itself is €3 one way. It use both diesel and steam engines. We had a diesel on the way there and the steam engine on the way back.







It runs on a 1 metre gauge and goes right through the town.



Basic carriages but it is only a 10 minute trip

 

[OZDUCK]

We stayed at the King Ludwig Stubn an old fashioned restaurant/hotel. That flat snow is basically where the train tracks run. It didn't run at night so it was no bother



Lots of wood but comfortable and warm - excuse the jackets, scarves, beanies etc. It seemed to take about 5 minutes to disrobe whenever we came inside.





There was a common verandah which I gather can be a nuisance in summer with everyone outside. It did not cause us any problems. This is the snow level when we arrived.



And this was the snow level the next morning





We were only about 150 metres from the ferry landing. So we dumped our stuff and caught a ferry to the market.

Looking back at the 'harbour'.



Frauenwörth Abbey on the island houses a convent Benedictine nuns. The Christmas Markets are wrapped around it. Outside of the nuns there are another 300 permanent residents.



The ferry jetty. By this time drizzle had set in.



The Abbey tower

 

[OZDUCK]

I tried to warm myself up with a bowl of fish soup





Another attempt to warm up was some Dampfnudel - steamed sweet dumpling. It was served with hot vanilla sauce



It quickly became pretty damp and miserable.





Then the drizzle turned to snow which made it better - but only for a while.

In fact it became downright Christmassy for a while. With a small brass band playing in the falling snow

We visited the small abbey church





The graveyard became suitably atmospheric in the snow.

 

[OZDUCK]

Continuing at the market

I bought 1 each for my son and my daughters partner. I am not normally fond of liqueurs but this was lovely. Around €20 and locally made.






Eventually the conditions became so bad, as you can see from these photos, that we made an early exit.





On the way back the skies cleared for a minute



Back onshore we walked past the railway sheds and this beauty was outside having a bit of work done. Manufactured in 1887. It would haul us back to the station in 2 days time.

 

[OZDUCK]

Being winter our meal choices were fairly limited - the restaurant in our hotel was closed.

We headed up the street for some ok Italian food at the Roma. If PortPower reads this be assured that it was nothing like The Roma on High Street in Fremantle.

Scaloppini



Spaghetti Marinara



It continued to snow all evening. This is what the roads looked like on our walk back from the restaurant. Luckily it was only a 5 minute walk.



The next moment we awoke to a perfect example of a winter wonderland. Of course if you have to put up for it for weeks at a time your description might vary.





Looking out from the breakfast room. This car had arrived the night before without any snow on top.



We walked to the harbour



My wife fell into the, luckily soft, snow on this corner. She tripped on a curb hidden under a mound of snow.





The Chiemsee Bahn did not run that day and the Christmas Markets were closed.



The harbour looked very scenic, if perhaps a little grey.

 

[Seat0B]

I love the snowy scenery. Glad Mrs Ozduck wasn’t hurt - pretty as it is the snow and ice can be a bit treacherous underfoot.

 

[OZDUCK]

One of our initial reasons for our stay here was to visit King Ludwig's palace. We had visited it in 1976 but we had both retained little memory of it. We mainly remember catching a ferry to the island in cold, grey weather in late September. Then there was a long walk through drab autumn woods and the palace itself was already partly shuttered up. Photographs are not allowed inside it so we had little visual reminders. This time we planned to make a more intensive tour of the palace and surrounds.

However this was not to be. Once we got the island there were signs - only in German, that due to the hazardous conditions the palace was geschlossen (closed). But instead of being a disappointment this day instead turned out be quite magical.

The ferry across was covered in snow.





That is a chapel on the right and there is an old monastery in the trees on the hill



The ferry jetty gave an idea of the conditions ahead.



There was this neat little snowplough on the jetty.





We took a photo of the departure times having no wish to be marooned.



Looking back to the jetty



The main ticket office and café is to the right. These were all tightly shut with just the sign informing us that it was too dangerous for staff to attend and if that we walked around the island that was at our own risk. We decided that we were going to have a look around and see how far we could safely go. About another 12 people landed. There were a couple of paths that we didn't follow as they looked a bit dicey.



My wife couldn't resist taking this photo of an environment completely different to our normal one

 

[OZDUCK]

I love the snowy scenery. Glad Mrs Ozduck wasn’t hurt - pretty as it is the snow and ice can be a bit treacherous underfoot.

The snowy scenery gets even better from now on. Only her pride was hurt. Normally I am the one to trip over things. It was a nice deep soft snow bank she fell into.

 

[OZDUCK]

We have seen snow before but nothing like these sort of scenes. However, we were dressed pretty well for the weather and never really felt cold. I had waterproofed leather shoes, a long sleeve shirt, a vest, a long sleeve jumper, my cold weather jacket and a rain jacket. My wife had 'fur' lined leather boots several layers of thermals - top and bottom plus a jumper, cold weather jacket, rain hood and a scarf.





I really love this photo of my wife walking between the snow laden trees. I am going to get my son, who runs a signage company, to make a large canvas print for our wall.



There are plenty of information signs but not all were easy to read.












Our first views of the palace. It is just under 1 km from the jetty to the palace. The cone shaped structures are covering the fountains

 

[OZDUCK]

Neues Schloss Herrenchiemsee was intended to be a sort of homage to Versailles but built to his design. Like Neuschwanstein Palace it was never completed. These are a couple of internet photos of it - in better weather.





Now continuing on with the reality of what we saw.

Looking away from the palace towards the Grosser Kanal. On a fine day you can see Prien across the lake. The next day I took a photo from Prien and you could just see the palace.





There were occasional moments when the gloom lifted - but not for long.







We asked our German friends later on and the slanted poles are to warn of possible snow/ice falls from above. They were all through Salzburg as well.

 

[Pushka]

One of our initial reasons for our stay here was to visit King Ludwig's palace. We had visited it in 1976 but we had both retained little memory of it. We mainly remember catching a ferry to the island in cold, grey weather in late September. Then there was a long walk through drab autumn woods and the palace itself was already partly shuttered up. Photographs are not allowed inside it so we had little visual reminders. This time we planned to make a more intensive tour of the palace and surrounds.

However this was not to be. Once we got the island there were signs - only in German, that due to the hazardous conditions the palace was geschlossen (closed). But instead of being a disappointment this day instead turned out be quite magical.

The ferry across was covered in snow.

View attachment 365387

View attachment 365369

That is a chapel on the right and there is an old monastery in the trees on the hill

View attachment 365370

The ferry jetty gave an idea of the conditions ahead.

View attachment 365371

There was this neat little snowplough on the jetty.

View attachment 365372

View attachment 365373

We took a photo of the departure times having no wish to be marooned.

View attachment 365374

Looking back to the jetty

View attachment 365376

The main ticket office and café is to the right. These were all tightly shut with just the sign informing us that it was too dangerous for staff to attend and if that we walked around the island that was at our own risk. We decided that we were going to have a look around and see how far we could safely go. About another 12 people landed. There were a couple of paths that we didn't follow as they looked a bit dicey.

View attachment 365375

My wife couldn't resist taking this photo of an environment completely different to our normal one

View attachment 365388

When was all this snowfall? I've lost track of time. Likely it was this snowfall then warmer days that created the havoc on the Rhine in December I think.

It looks amazing but I'd hate to live with it.

 

[OZDUCK]

When was all this snowfall? I've lost track of time. Likely it was this snowfall then warmer days that created the havoc on the Rhine in December I think.

It looks amazing but I'd hate to live with it.

We arrived in Prien on 1st December and visited this island on the 2nd. I am pretty sure that it is part of the snowfall that caused the flooding that mucked up your river cruise.

 

[Pushka]

We arrived in Prien on 1st December and visited this island on the 2nd. I am pretty sure that it is part of the snowfall that caused the flooding that mucked up your river cruise.

Well, the snow looks wonderful anyway.

 

[Seat0B]

warn of possible snow/ice falls from above.

I love the German word for this Dachlawine - roof avalanche- very descriptive I think.