August 9th
Landberg am Lech
We explored Landsberg am Lech during the morning. The market had finished the day before but there was still plenty to see. The river (Lech) was still way higher than normal due to the recent rain, and when it hit the weir (just after the main bridge into the town) it was turned from a powerful, but orderly body of water into a seething, angry mass.
Now Landsberg am Lech has a very interesting reputation as one of two places in Germany which offers the highest quality of life, according to "Stern Magazine" - so the tourist leaflet proudly claims (I'm not making this up!). Avoiding the obvious jokes about what constitutes the high life for our Bavarian friends, Landsberg does have a very interesting (and in part notorious) history. It was here that Adolf Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf" whilst in prison, Hitler Youth groups staged mass demonstrations, and it was also part of the route of the death marches of prisoners from the nearby Dachau concentration camp, and it's subsidiaries, towards the end of the war. Advertising quality of life, given it's murky past, has an unfortunate irony to it. There is a somewhat discreet memorial to the death march (by the main road heading out of town), but "there is nothing to see" as I was told by the young chap in the tourist office of the rest of the war connections. The prison is still a working prison so access is not an option. We did find a bunker (what I think is a bunker anyway) hidden away in the woods during a walk around the city walls.
The town centre is wonderful mix of colourful buildings, angular roofs, and cobbled roads. To get to it you go through a nice archway which is part of an old gateway tower and it has a rather nice clock. On the other side of the tower, nestled in amongst the townhouses is the old town hall, which boasts a stucco facade. Elsewhere in the town you can find the Maiden's Jump tower (Jungfernsprungturm) which got it's name during during the 30 years war. Also I liked the Lutherun Chrisus Church which was where the market was held the day before and is on the other side of the river from the town. It is very Disney, although dates from 1913. The highlight for me though was the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, a former Jesuit college church built around 1753 with a modest exterior and the most explosively decorative interior I had seen. Trying to take a good picture of the frescoes, by Christoph Thomas Scheffler, was pretty much impossible.
Kloster Andechs
For the afternoon we headed to Kloster Andechs, which is a monestary between Landsberg and Munich where they brew Andechs beer. We had heard that this was the beer to drink and so headed there at full speed to try and sample the wares. We had a look around the church, which was neatly painted on the outside, including the clock faces. I was astonished to see another such a lavishly decorated place of worship just after we had left Lansdberg. It really is hard to take a good picture of these places with a standard digital camera! On to the main attraction, and in the beer hall we found the first of what would be regular sight in Bavaria, a whole bank of personal tankards locked up ready for their owners to allow them to fulfill their destiny. It was a beautifully sunny afternoon so we sat back in the beergarten and sipped "doppelldunkles" before having a walk round the area to "freshen up".
Starnberg
A good while later that day we found ourselves in the town of Starnberg where this view of the Starnbergersee greeted us. The area had been hit by widespread flooding, notably by the Wasserpark (yep, the waterpark) and the railway Station which was only crossable by using the scaffolding set up to keep pedestrians out of the water, however you had to duck as there was only about 4 foot clearance from the ceiling! As we had arrived late the town was winding down for the day, and we satisfied ourselves with a walk by the lake before winding down ourselves.
Click here for our photostream (flickr)
Click here for our route (google maps)
Landberg am Lech
We explored Landsberg am Lech during the morning. The market had finished the day before but there was still plenty to see. The river (Lech) was still way higher than normal due to the recent rain, and when it hit the weir (just after the main bridge into the town) it was turned from a powerful, but orderly body of water into a seething, angry mass.
Now Landsberg am Lech has a very interesting reputation as one of two places in Germany which offers the highest quality of life, according to "Stern Magazine" - so the tourist leaflet proudly claims (I'm not making this up!). Avoiding the obvious jokes about what constitutes the high life for our Bavarian friends, Landsberg does have a very interesting (and in part notorious) history. It was here that Adolf Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf" whilst in prison, Hitler Youth groups staged mass demonstrations, and it was also part of the route of the death marches of prisoners from the nearby Dachau concentration camp, and it's subsidiaries, towards the end of the war. Advertising quality of life, given it's murky past, has an unfortunate irony to it. There is a somewhat discreet memorial to the death march (by the main road heading out of town), but "there is nothing to see" as I was told by the young chap in the tourist office of the rest of the war connections. The prison is still a working prison so access is not an option. We did find a bunker (what I think is a bunker anyway) hidden away in the woods during a walk around the city walls.
The town centre is wonderful mix of colourful buildings, angular roofs, and cobbled roads. To get to it you go through a nice archway which is part of an old gateway tower and it has a rather nice clock. On the other side of the tower, nestled in amongst the townhouses is the old town hall, which boasts a stucco facade. Elsewhere in the town you can find the Maiden's Jump tower (Jungfernsprungturm) which got it's name during during the 30 years war. Also I liked the Lutherun Chrisus Church which was where the market was held the day before and is on the other side of the river from the town. It is very Disney, although dates from 1913. The highlight for me though was the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, a former Jesuit college church built around 1753 with a modest exterior and the most explosively decorative interior I had seen. Trying to take a good picture of the frescoes, by Christoph Thomas Scheffler, was pretty much impossible.
Kloster Andechs
For the afternoon we headed to Kloster Andechs, which is a monestary between Landsberg and Munich where they brew Andechs beer. We had heard that this was the beer to drink and so headed there at full speed to try and sample the wares. We had a look around the church, which was neatly painted on the outside, including the clock faces. I was astonished to see another such a lavishly decorated place of worship just after we had left Lansdberg. It really is hard to take a good picture of these places with a standard digital camera! On to the main attraction, and in the beer hall we found the first of what would be regular sight in Bavaria, a whole bank of personal tankards locked up ready for their owners to allow them to fulfill their destiny. It was a beautifully sunny afternoon so we sat back in the beergarten and sipped "doppelldunkles" before having a walk round the area to "freshen up".
Starnberg
A good while later that day we found ourselves in the town of Starnberg where this view of the Starnbergersee greeted us. The area had been hit by widespread flooding, notably by the Wasserpark (yep, the waterpark) and the railway Station which was only crossable by using the scaffolding set up to keep pedestrians out of the water, however you had to duck as there was only about 4 foot clearance from the ceiling! As we had arrived late the town was winding down for the day, and we satisfied ourselves with a walk by the lake before winding down ourselves.
Click here for our photostream (flickr)
Click here for our route (google maps)
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