Ellingen

In our continuing quest to fill our “Castles of Bavaria” poster with little blue dots, we travelled north to the relatively unknown small town of Ellingen. It boasts a rather magnificent Late Baroque Residenz, with associated brewery, and not much else.

From 1216 to 1789 it was the seat of the Commanders of the Teutonic Order in Franconia, hence the proliferation of Maltese crosses and nasty looking armaments.

The highlight of our visit was the guided tour given by a young year 12 student. On finding that we were the only ones booked in for the tour, he offered to proceed in what he very modestly described as his limited English. The tour was thoroughly enjoyable as he appeared to enjoy himself as well. We were given access to all areas, including (shock, horror !!) being allowed to walk outside the defined pedestrian areas. We felt rather anarchic.

After the tour, we retired to the (ubiquitous) attached biergarten for a pleasant combination of local Franconian wines and a relatively light lunch.

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Blindheim and Eichstatt

When in England recently we went to the amazing Blenheim Palace. This was awarded to the Duke of Marlborough (Churchill's family) for his winning of the Battle of Blenheim. When we came home to Munich we discovered that this battle took place at Blindheim (Blenheim is the English derivative of this) only an hour away. So we downloaded a podcast about this famous battle and headed off to the castle at Hochstadt near Blindheim which would give us a blue dot for our Castle poster as well as it having a special exhibition for this battle. Being off the tourist trail we were not expecting too much so we were very pleasantly surprised when the exhibition was very thorough and in English as well - there were even drawings of the palace (Blenheim) that Duke Marlborough was to get after his great battle. We drove along the battlefields nearby and then headed to Eichstatt.

Eichstatt turned out to be another lovely surprise. Malcolm thought by being in the castle grounds there we earned its' blue dot but I had heard the museum inside was worth it so went in. Thankfully we did as it was incredible. The hill-top castle housed the Jura-Museum with amazing fossils found nearby. There was also a 6000 year old mammoth skeleton.

If the museum was not interesting enough Malcolm was thrilled when Ferrari after Ferrari drove through the tunnel up to the car park for a meet.

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To Autumn

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness...." riding our bikes to school this morning with the muffled sounds of corn harvesters in the background. Amazing.

Oberstdorf and Kempton

After being back at work for 3 weeks we decided we needed a break. At Kempton there is a Residence we needed to see for another blue dot, so we decided to go first to Oberstdorf where we had read about a couple of good walks. We headed off early Saturday morning and headed straight to Breitachklamm which is a spectacularly picturesque gorge.

We climbed up to the top of the gorge and crossed a (very) small bridge 80 metres above the torrent to get a birds eye view.

We then headed towards a gasthaus in the mountains for lunch before heading back to the car. The scenery from the gasthaus was breathtaking and almost as enjoyable as the well earned beer.

After checking into our hotel we drove part way and then walked through woods up to Freiberg lake and then around it. With Malcolm being most impressed with a cantilever built ski jump that is used for competitions. That night we wandered through the town and had possibly the worst pizza in Europe.

The next morning we awoke to glorious sunshine and a cacophany of town hall and church bells.  Someone thought it was 128 o'clock! Our hotel offered a special discount on cable car passes so we then headed up to the Nebelhorn peak (2224 m). The views to the north over the Allgau and south over the alps were spectacular. We were near to where the paragliders take off (Malcolm was very keen) and we walked down part of the way to one of the transfer cable car stations. 

We then took a cable car down the middle section before getting out and walking the final section down and into town. Just in time as it started to get grey. After lunch we headed to Kempton to see the Residence and although amazing and very beautiful, the mountains stole the limelight for this weekend.

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