In my attempt to have us do a few things that we had never done before, we decided to take the 25 minute or so drive to Oberammergau for the day!
First up though, breakfast, which was free at the hotel!
Breakfast in Germany varies by the hotel, but there's usually tea and coffee...
...Meats, cheeses, yogurts and jams.
Plenty of meats in fact, including fish, cheeses, cucumbers, tomatoes - you can literally make an amazing sandwich for breakfast!
I don't know who invented this butter, but it's so incredible. They even had almond milk for me to put in my coffee (the same kind I used to buy at Edeka when I lived in Germany!)
Here they had some eggs and plenty of breads! The crusty rolls were the BEST I think I have ever had here. And that's saying something because I have had a million of these rolls over the years.
The morning looked like this, but there wasn't a ton of rain so that was good!
We have always driven by these two churches on our way to Garmisch, and always liked them. The one in the foreground is the Heilandkirche Oberau, or the Church of the Redeemer and it is an evangelical church while St. George up on the hill is a 18th century church.
We made it to Oberammergau in one piece (despite the crazy, winding roads) and went immediately to the Oberammergauer Passionstheater.
They have put on the Passion Play 42 times since 1633, when the residents of Oberammergau promised God that they would perform the play depicting the life, suffering and death of Jesus every 10 years if God would spare the town from the Plague. Since then, no one has died from the Plague, so they continue to make good on their promise.
The costumes are all hand sewn by the locals - and are just INCREDIBLE.
You can pretend you're an angel! This one is about 75% angelic.
Angel number two! More or less the same as angel #1 above.
Not really an angel. More like an angle.
A true saint, also known as Saint Todd.
Once you learn a bit about this history of the Passion Play, you can go visit the actual stage! Over 2,000 actors put on this play every decade - or roughly every decade. I find it really funny (?!) that the 2020 Passion Play was postponed to 2022 due to... a pandemic!
This is the picture of the three of them that I got after I had to ask Grant to put his hands down (he wanted the 0.5 feature on the iPhone to make his hands look insanely long and weird.)
I think one of the most interesting things that I learned here at the Passionstheater is that married women (and unmarried women over the age of 45) were only allowed in the play for the first time in 1990 (!!!) and those living in Oberammergau who were not Christian or German were only allowed to participate in the play in the year 2000!
There was still plenty of snow left on this mountain to the east-northeast of Oberammergau!
Me and my taller-than-me babies in Oberammergau.
The buildings of Oberammergau have beautiful lüftlmalerei - like this one by Sebastian Pfeffer, who did many of these in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen area as well.
This one, of course, also by Sebastian Pfeffer, depicts the people of Oberammergau making their promise to hold the Passion Play if the people of the town were spared from the plague.
These weirdos kept trying to make weird hands with the iPhone 0.5x feature in front of the Hotel Alte Post, which interestingly dates back to 1612!
Just about everyone in this small town of about 5,400 people participates in the Passion Play. The owners of this hotel since the late 1800s, the Preisinger family even have a history with the play - their website says, "In the Oberammergau Passion Plays put on in 1950 and 1960, Grandfather Preisinger played Christ, the father Pilatus, and the son Judas!"
I always love the fake painted window frames on these buildings. This building was built after a fire destroyed it in 1774, but the lüftlmalerei have been here since 1778! They were renovated in 1991, however.
If you look closely, you can see a bronze statue of a guy swinging a golf club. Which doesn't really make sense because the building it stands next to is a woodcarving shop! Woodcarving is a VERY big deal in this town, as you will see later.
In fact, this is currently ANOTHER woodcarving company! This building is home to the Georg Lang selig Erben - (that translates to George Lang Blessed Inheritance) wood company which has been around since 1775. (More on him in a bit!) Life in Bavaria in the 1800s is depicted in this Lüftlmalerei which basically shows people woodcarving, eating and celebrating.
Our tickets to the Passion Play Theater also allowed us "free" entry to the Oberammergau Museum which features many INCREDIBLE wood carvings, most of them depicting religious scenes like this one, which shows the Wedding Feast at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine.
The detail on these carvings is exquisite!
I can't imagine how long it took to make these.
There is also a really beautiful scene depicting the Census of the Kings. The dolls/figures were made from linden and spruce wood in the latter half of the 1700s through the late 1800s.
The same large scene also depicts the birth of Jesus, which of course, coincided with the census and is why he was born in Bethlehem instead of Nazareth!
These are the oldest existing costumes from the Passion Play which date back to the mid 18th century! They are the costumes of the High Priest Caiaphas and the High Priest Annas.
And this Dromedary was used as a prop in the play until about 1890! The kids found this one really fascinating.
There is a small but really cool little section of the museum dedicated to the discoveries from the time the Romans occupied the Oberammergau area too. Here we have four spear heads (one is a copy but the rest are authentic) and two spear butts from the Döttenbichl archaeological site of Oberammergau. Although these weapons date back to the Roman times (they were here around 15 BC at the time of Emperor Augustus), people had actually already been here for around 10,000 years. It's believed that these weapons were left here after a conflict between the Romans and the Celts (who also lived here at the time).
One of my favorite things in this museum is a wooden depiction of the very first Oktoberfest! This celebrated the marriage of Ludwig I to his bride Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. And here they are!
Once again, Todd did not fit in this old building in Germany. I also LOVE the green ceramic woodstove/fireplace on the left!
In one room, Todd just started sawing away at some wood. I'm like, "Should you be doing that?" I couldn't tell if it was something the guests could play with or an example of how a woodcarvers room might have looked!
After we left the Oberammergau Museum, we were hungry! And if you've been reading closely, this is a VERY small town. Not many restaurants were open, so we spent some time looking cute and looking for a restaurant.
We wandered around, past the buildings with the beautiful Lüftlmalerei.
I had a MAJOR flashback when I saw these flowers. I haven't seen anything like them in Massachusetts but I also haven't really thought about them until I saw them again. So pretty!
We finally found a place that was open and Natalie and I had one of the best meals of the trip at s'Wirtshaus - the mustard horseradish schnitzel!
After lunch, we stopped by the famous church of St. Peter and St. Paul. Going back to our visit to the Passion Play theater - originally, the Passion Play was performed right here in the cemetery of this Catholic church. The church was too small, so they played it here, near the graves of those who had actually died of the plague. There is a small registry of those who died in the plague which was thought to have been brought down to this part of Bavaria by soldiers in the Swedish (!!!) Army when they invaded during the Thirty Years War.
The play was held here until about 1815 (!!!) when they simply outgrew it and they moved to a nearby field where they continued to hold the play every 10 years. In 1890, they finally moved to the current location several blocks north of this church.
And THIS is a church that should NOT be missed! SWOON! First of all... the PINK! Second of all.. the GOLD!
Full stop on this. Are there are SUNFLOWERS up there!? Well, they're pretty yellow flowers, anyway!
Dare I say this is a top 5 church for me???
It's ridiculous but I just love the colors in here.
This beautiful chandelier is blocking it a bit, but the central dome is showing Peter and Paul being released from their imprisonment to become the martyrs that they are now known to be.
The church is not any less beautiful toward the back where the organ is!
All of the headstones in the church cemetery are so beautiful and well taken care of. Many family members are buried in the same plot.
Hey look! It's the family plot of George Lang and his family! (We saw the building where his woodcarving company is still in business and has been since 1775.)
Finally, it was time to head back to the hotel down in Partenkirchen, but not before stopping to frolic near the base of the hills (which were, of course, alive with the sound of Griswold!)
One day, we will swing in to see the beautiful Ettal Abbey, which was founded in 1330! But we simply didn't have time today. (And I have heard it's spectacular inside! Gimme all the Rococo churches!)
These three continued to frolic at the base of the mountains. While we were currently at about 860 meters, the tops of these mountains (which you can't see very well) are around 1,700 meters. Compare that to the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany which is 2,962 meters! Meanwhile, Mont Blanc in Switzerland stands at a gigantic 4,807 meters! That is the highest mountain in Europe outside of Russia and the Caucasus.
The mountains didn't look so huge to me until Grant sprinted off for several minutes and was only a speck in the distance!
Back in Partenkirchen that bright ball in the sky was lighting up the town! Whaaat???
The kids didn't want to explore and Todd and I were looking for a restaurant for dinner, so we headed out for another lovely couple of child-free hours. But first, I had to take a picture of the AMAZING wardrobe. If I could have put this in my suitcase and taken it with me, I would have!
He didn't seem thrilled that I wanted to take his picture at the sign!
What time of year is it? OH YES! It's Spargel season!
We were able to find a restaurant and make a reservation before walking back down Ludwigstraße where we spotted another Lebenmittelautomat! This one was looking a bit empty.
But you could still get some Leberkäse! There was also still some Pressack Rot, some Lamb Bolognese, some more traditional sausages, some butter, some Apfelschorle, some Red Bull and Ritter Sport chocolates!
This bakery had THE cutest sign!
But we were still kind of chilly and looking for a beverage so we stopped at this cute little cafe called Das Ludwig I Kaffee Bar.
Time to warm up!
But then of course, we had to grab a local beer.
Oh THERE I am.
HALT! It's time for dinner! We ran back to the hotel, grabbed the kids and headed off to THE busiest restaurant I think I've ever been in. We had reservations and we STILL had to wait! That's almost unheard of in Germany (or at least this part of Germany.)
I had a nice carbonara at Pizzeria Renzo (which was a nice change from the literal pounds of schnitzel that I've eaten on this trip!)
Until next time, Oberammergau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen! You'll always be one of our favorite parts of the world!
