Day 3 - Germany (19 June 2019)

We decided that we wanted to go to Oberammergau today. Laura likes to say it’s name, and I have heard about the Passion Play since I lived in Germany as a kid. We both thought it would be fun to visit the quaint town, so we loaded up the car, and drove the half hour to the town!

The first stop was the Passion Play theater, where you could pay 3,50€ and learn about the history of the play.

I learned a lot about why the play was started. In 1633, the townspeople made a vow that if they would be saved from the plague, they would perform a play honoring Christ’s life every 10 years. So, here we are 385 years later, and they’ve kept their vow. 

It’s a pretty small area, but it’s packed with all sorts of interesting information about the play. There’s also a small area where you can watch videos about the play, which gave me a good understanding of what it would be like. 

While watching one of the videos, I learned that the theater holds 5,000 people., which is the same number as the population of the town. 

While we were meandering through the streets, it felt like we were some of the only ones there. 

Oberammergau is known for a few things besides the Passion Play.  They have beautiful frescoes on some of their buildings and they have fabulous woodcarvings. We found a shop off the beaten path, and the owner was carving wood while we were looking through his shop. I bought a tiny crèche and a carving of the last supper that fits in my hand. 

We made our way toward the church, which was towards the center of town. The church was beautiful!  

It had a beautiful cemetery on the grounds too. So, we walked around the church, seeing several of the family plots. 

It was a delightful surprise to see the frescoes on the houses. Simply put, they are all works of art!

It was so pleasant to walk around the small town (until a few tour busses rolled in on our way out, but it was all good).  

 We knew there was an alpine coaster outside of town, so we went in search of it. There are 73 turns on it, and it’s evidently the ‘World’s longest weatherproof tobaggan run with a magnetic system.’  

Before we got on the chair lift, we saw the mountain bikers being pulled up the mountain!

We took a 20 minute chair lift ride up to the top, and the views were stunning!  I rode it with Jake, who had never been on one before. 

We couldn’t have planned for better weather if we had tried. It was sure glorious!

We made our way back to the hotel to eat a snack and collect Tyler before heading out again. We went to Partnachklamm, which is a beautiful gorge that has a path carved into the mountain next to it.  We had to park the van at the one of the 1936 Olympic venues, and then walk about a mile to get to the gorge. 

It really felt like we were transported to a different world when we walked down the pathway. Wow!  

Sometimes, the ceiling would drip water on us.  It felt like the gorge was giving us little kisses to thank us for coming to visit. 

The best part?  Once you got to the top of the pathway, you could turn around and go back down after enjoying a fabulous view at the top!

It was interesting that some of the views seemed so different on the way down!  Still as gorgeous though!  (See what I did there?!?) 

It was a little bit of a walk to get back to the van. Good thing we are in Bavaria, and just about everywhere you look has an amazing view!

I am so grateful I was able to come visit this part of Germany with Laura and her family. I remember some things with my family, but was pleasantly surprised by learning a lot of others.  I think one corner of heaven might look just like Bavaria. 💕