*pinches self* Do I really actually truly live HERE???
This waking up in the middle of the night really needs to stop. But since I'm awake, I'll tell you all about our walk.
Yesterday, being Sunday, everything is closed in Germany. This was not a problem, as I had done all our shopping on Saturday. So, we went native and did what many Germans do on a Sunday afternoon: we went for a 5.4 km walk. And, my god, what a walk it was. A number of times along the way, I exclaimed things like: "Do we actually live here?" and "Oh my god, I'm in heaven".
We walked exactly this route:
View Larger Map
(Hooray for Google maps!)
Edelhof and Sankt Johannisrain are teeny tiny little farming villages; if you zoom in on either of the little towns, those red roofs you see are barns. As you can also see from the map, there's quite a lot of forest and it is in fact a protected nature area.
This area is rural and made up of lots of little towns. The booming metropolis of Penzberg has about 16,000 inhabitants; many of whom have ties to sourtrout's work at Roche. So imagine our surprise when we were walking along and ran into our banker who helped us with our accounts on Friday. Small world! It was a good thing, too, because it turns out he gave us his paperwork and kept ours. I was planning on bringing everything to my appointment with him on Monday, but still.
And now, to the pictures from our walk.
This one is along the Bichlstraße, so named because it goes to the town of Bichl. (Straße is the German word for street). Whenever we met other people walking the path (and there were many), we greeted them with the traditional Bavarian greeting of "Grüß Gott". It's still a bit strange for me to be saying that, because I'm used to the northern German greeting of "Guten Tag". Perhaps the difference is similar to when I say "Hi" but someone from Texas might say "Howdy".
After turning off the road, we went over a bridge where we ooohed and aaaahed the mountain scenerey:
It was a bit chilly and windy at this point. I was wearing Ronni in our carrier and she had fallen asleep, so she was pretty snuggly warm. We originally had no idea where we were going, and I didn't have the diaperbag with me. Since she was asleep, though, we decided to continue on the walk as we were lured by the mountain scenery behind us.
Here's the side of one of the barns in Edelhof:
This picture features a little chapel in Edelhof, no longer in use, with the characteristic "Zwiebelturm" - onion dome. I believe this architectural feature is unique to Bavaria. I'm not sure what the story is behind these domes, so I will have to ask a native to find out.
After we went through Sankt Johannesrain, we greeted an elderly couple, perhaps in their seventies. I wish now I had taken a picture of them. Anyway, the grandmother was so excited to meet Miss Rosebud! She also liked my baby carrier and said she had wished she had had something like that. It was a heartwarming moment for all of us, and Veronica liked the attention. She even got a little rhyme with her name: "Veronika, der Lenz ist da".
Der Lenz is an old, poetic word for Springtime, so basically that means, "Veronica, springtime has arrived" - but of course, it rhymes and sounds so beautiful in German. Very sweet!
We hope to take this walk often, and I have my fingers crossed that I meet this elderly couple again, because they were just wonderful.
Finally, here's sourtrout as we headed back to Penzberg:
Isn't it amazingly gorgeous?? I'm still in awe.
In other news, Rosebud FINALLY has a tooth!
*this is more for myself than anything, but I want to document an expression using Lenz:
sich einen faulen Lenz machen = to take it easy
(literally, to make a lazy springtime for oneself)
Yesterday, being Sunday, everything is closed in Germany. This was not a problem, as I had done all our shopping on Saturday. So, we went native and did what many Germans do on a Sunday afternoon: we went for a 5.4 km walk. And, my god, what a walk it was. A number of times along the way, I exclaimed things like: "Do we actually live here?" and "Oh my god, I'm in heaven".
We walked exactly this route:
View Larger Map
(Hooray for Google maps!)
Edelhof and Sankt Johannisrain are teeny tiny little farming villages; if you zoom in on either of the little towns, those red roofs you see are barns. As you can also see from the map, there's quite a lot of forest and it is in fact a protected nature area.
This area is rural and made up of lots of little towns. The booming metropolis of Penzberg has about 16,000 inhabitants; many of whom have ties to sourtrout's work at Roche. So imagine our surprise when we were walking along and ran into our banker who helped us with our accounts on Friday. Small world! It was a good thing, too, because it turns out he gave us his paperwork and kept ours. I was planning on bringing everything to my appointment with him on Monday, but still.
And now, to the pictures from our walk.
This one is along the Bichlstraße, so named because it goes to the town of Bichl. (Straße is the German word for street). Whenever we met other people walking the path (and there were many), we greeted them with the traditional Bavarian greeting of "Grüß Gott". It's still a bit strange for me to be saying that, because I'm used to the northern German greeting of "Guten Tag". Perhaps the difference is similar to when I say "Hi" but someone from Texas might say "Howdy".
After turning off the road, we went over a bridge where we ooohed and aaaahed the mountain scenerey:
It was a bit chilly and windy at this point. I was wearing Ronni in our carrier and she had fallen asleep, so she was pretty snuggly warm. We originally had no idea where we were going, and I didn't have the diaperbag with me. Since she was asleep, though, we decided to continue on the walk as we were lured by the mountain scenery behind us.
Here's the side of one of the barns in Edelhof:
This picture features a little chapel in Edelhof, no longer in use, with the characteristic "Zwiebelturm" - onion dome. I believe this architectural feature is unique to Bavaria. I'm not sure what the story is behind these domes, so I will have to ask a native to find out.
After we went through Sankt Johannesrain, we greeted an elderly couple, perhaps in their seventies. I wish now I had taken a picture of them. Anyway, the grandmother was so excited to meet Miss Rosebud! She also liked my baby carrier and said she had wished she had had something like that. It was a heartwarming moment for all of us, and Veronica liked the attention. She even got a little rhyme with her name: "Veronika, der Lenz ist da".
Der Lenz is an old, poetic word for Springtime, so basically that means, "Veronica, springtime has arrived" - but of course, it rhymes and sounds so beautiful in German. Very sweet!
We hope to take this walk often, and I have my fingers crossed that I meet this elderly couple again, because they were just wonderful.
Finally, here's sourtrout as we headed back to Penzberg:
Isn't it amazingly gorgeous?? I'm still in awe.
In other news, Rosebud FINALLY has a tooth!
*this is more for myself than anything, but I want to document an expression using Lenz:
sich einen faulen Lenz machen = to take it easy
(literally, to make a lazy springtime for oneself)