2010-10-06

Our Chiemsee Experience

Today we have just got home from our day trip to Chiemsee, a large lake about an hour by bus from Bad Aibling. After arriving at school at normal time, approx. 8 a.m. we boarded our coach to Chiemsee.

After what was a very short trip in comparison to others i've done whilst in Germany we arrived to a sunny and reasonably warm day in Chiemsee. The lake itself has a surface area of around 80² km. The lake has three islands: Herreninsel (gentleman's island) which is the largest and houses a monastery and Castle Herrenchiemsee, Fraueninsel (lady' island) which is much smaller, but is populated by a small village and a nunnery and the last is Krautinsel (herb island), which is uninhabited.

We went by ferry to Herreninsel first, where we walked from the dock near the monastery to the Schloss Herrenchiemsee. Why King Ludwig II wanted a third castle for himself on an island in a lake beats me. But they did say he was mad...... Anyway, we first caught sight of the castle from a side entrance. It is a beautiful castle, but not as i expected it. It is not your typical castle with parapets and towers, but rather a grand building which makes you stop and look. King Ludwig II wanted the castle to replicate Louis XIV's Palace of Versailles. As we found out on our tour, Ludwig was quite a fan of the French King.

We embarked on our separate journeys through the castle in our language groups, which we were very lucky to have because I can imagine that having the tour in another langauge wouldn't help improve the experience. Unfortunately photography isn't allowed inside the castle, so sorry to all parents. But that didn't stop one sly figure in our group taking the old sneaky pic while the tour hostess wasn't around. Oh, how we dislike him........
The tour was amazing though, the castle really is something to behold, even if it is unfinished. The construction of the castle was halted mid-process because of the King's financial woes, so only the central third of the complex was complete. It was planned to have two wings either side of the central part, but even that is still being finished and refurbished.

We all made sure we had some good photos from outside the spectacular castle before we left to board our next boat to Fraueninsel. 10 minutes by boat and we were arriving at one of the numerous docks on the small island. Fraueninsel is an inhabited island, with many, if not all, landowners having their own private jetty and sea vessels. It is only a short walk around the island, but there is plenty to marvel at. The houses themselves aren't anything special, but the views of the lake and the surrounding flora are simply astounding.
We spent an hour or so on Fraueninsel before we disembarked back to the mainland at around 4 p.m. Although some aspects of the trip weren't great eg. (walking everywhere, the sneaky photographer) the positives heavily outweigh the negatives.

So, after a great day blessed with beautiful weather, this is Max Carter, signing off.


(Sorry for the sideways images everyone)


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Heute stand der CHIEMSEE auf dem Programm.
Wir fuhren heute um 8.00 Uhr mit Frau Stürzelmayer und Herrn Kramer mit dem Bus zuerst ins Bauernhofmuseum im Amerang und danach ging es weiter nach Prien am Chiemsee, wo wir mit dem Schiff zuerst auf Herrenchiemsee übersetzten.
Dort hatten wir eine Führung im Schloss Herrenchiemsee und wanderten durch den Park zurück zur Anlegestelle.
Von dort aus ging es weiter zur Fraueninsel, wo wir eine Stunde Zeit hatten uns auf der Insel umzusehen.
Müde und voll von neuen Eindrücken fuhren wir zurück nach Bad Aibling.
Es war ein schöner Tag.


Peter Haidacher

1 Kommentar:

  1. Very well written Max, most entertaining. I must clarify one thing though, it almost sounds as if it was one of our group was the sly photographer. Let's just say this person was not as well behaved as the kids from Australia, who listened intently to our hostess. And showed great interested in the tour, unlike our little sneaky photographer!!!
    Michelle Kusch

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