day trips

Hey all! Brenda and I are in Frankfurt once again and are loving being back in our apartment. Not that our place in Munich wasn't great, it's just that it didn't have any tables, which can make the simplest things (like eating) more difficult. Anyway, Brenda started rehearsals yesterday for one opera and will begin rehearsals for a second opera next week, so she's quite busy at the moment. I'm going to begin an on-line German language course tomorrow, and I don't really know what to expect. Hopefully, my German will improve!

During our last week in Munich, we were able to squeeze in two day trips to some beautiful nearby towns. Our first trip took us to the town of Herrsching, which is next to Lake Ammer (or, in German, Ammersee). We enjoyed walking partway around the lake before making our way to a local abbey, Andechs Abbey (German: Kloster Andechs), which in addition to having a beautiful church, also has a brewery.

 The towns around Lake Ammer must get quite busy during peak tourist times.

Luckily, we went a few days after Oktoberfest ended, and it wasn't very busy it all.

 Walking to Andechs Abbey took around an hour.

 The path took us through a beautiful wooded area that Brenda loved.

As we got closer to the abbey we could see the Alps in the distance. (You may have to squint to see them in this picture.)

 The abbey was in sight!

 Our reward. 

The cuisine was very reminiscent of our meal at Oktoberfest.

 Feel free to ignore me in this picture and just read the sign. It translates to "Singing and making noise are not allowed." Call me crazy, but if you don't want people to sing or make noise, maybe you shouldn't serve them giant beers.

Our second day trip took us to Mühldorf to visit our friend Karin. Karin was kind enough to take the afternoon off of work to hang out with us and to show us around the area. One of the highlights was visiting Burghausen Castle.

 Karin and Brenda posing for a picture by the castle wall.

From the castle we had a great view of the town of Burghausen.

After Karin finished showing us around the area, she took us to her parents' house for dinner. They served us a delicious dinner that included pumpkin soup and Dampfnudeln, a traditional dish in that area of Germany. We had a lot of fun getting to know Karin's parents.

We all posed for a picture after dinner.

So that's what we've been up to. I hope you're all having a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!