Blomberg

The kids claim that our last day in Upper Bavaria was the best.

The sun was out, not one rain drop hit our heads and the "Blomberg" was calling us. The Blomberg is one of my favorite mountains...not too high, not too steep and with a little cabin on top to buy some drinks or ice-cream. The view on top is out of this world and on the half way mark back down, instead of walking you can take a slide.

Afterwards we drove to Bad Toelz, had a huge amount of ice-cream and even bigger amounts of cheese at the cheese festival. I am quite sure the kids took every single sample of cheese that was offered...goat cheese, fire cheese, cream cheese with wild flowers, they tried it all...

One last walk around the farmhouse, one more time petting the rabbits...

I am looking forward to coming back!

Gabriele Muenter Haus and Ludwig II

When artist Gabriele Muenter died in 1962 she left her house with all her funiture and paintings to the public, so it could be enjoyed as a museum. She had lived in Murnau from 1909 till 1914 with her partner Wassily Kandinsky. And she stayed in her beloved littled house even after Kandinsky moved back to Moskau because of the impending WWI and even after he had gotten married to somebody else (idiot!).

She kept all of his paintings and lived with the portrait she had painted of him in her living room.

Of course nowadays, Kandinsky's paintings are worth millions and Muenter's art is finally recognized, too. Can you imagine how fascinating it is to walk around her house and her garden and touch the table she ate from and look at the banisters Kandinsky decorated?

A very different place we also visited was Schloss Linderhof, built by Ludwig II, the king that also owned Schloss Neuschwanstein and clearly was a bit out of his mind...at least that is what I think, daughter felt like a princess walking around all that gold and mirrows and heavy taffeta.

Ludwig II had his own grotto where he listened to Richard Wagner's operas and where, if he felt like it, a butler paddled him around in a little swan boat, decorated with roses and cubby little puttos.

After all that pomp only lots of good Bavarian food could help us collect our strength...

friend, her son and a bunch of dumplings and sauerkraut.

Bavaria III

There is a saying that there is no such thing as bad weather there is just bad clothing but after a few days into our vacation we were starting to wonder how long the Mini would make it through the flooded roads and if we should start looking into renting a boat.

But whenever the rain did stop, we were out and about, visiting the "Open Air Museum Glentleiten" with its perfectly preserved Bavarian houses and huts...

trying to follow Franz Marc's lead and draw horses...

and enjoying the view from our balcony...

Franz Marc in the Rain

Franz Marc, founder of the group of artists called "the Blue Rider" lived in Kochel am See. There is a museum dedicated to him and throughout the village, there are signs with information about him and his paintings. We knew the kids would be interested since we had done a similar "artist search" through a town a few months ago in the Black Forest, learning about August Macke, another "Blue Rider" member.

Except this time, it was raining cats and dogs...

...and you would think they would refuse to run around in the rain...but no, look how happy they are...

...so eager to learn...

...their little faces full of enthusiasm...

...not doubting the judgement of their mothers at all...

...and all of that before even stepping into the museum...

They only had to be bribed with hot soup, strawberry cake and hot chocolate at the museum's restaurant.

Before driving back to our apartment on the farm we searched and found the actual house where Franz Marc lived but by then the kids pretended to be asleep in the cars.

Bavarian Vacation

If I can't be on Captiva Island, which is my favorite island, or in London, which is my favorite city, I like to be in the Bavarian Alps, in the mountains south of Munich.

The kids and I, my friend and son's buddy decided to defy the steady rain in Germany and spent a week at a farm on a little mountain. We fed the cows, played board games, ate delicious Bavarian food, climbed mountains and almost didn't mind getting soaking wet over and over again.