Yesterday, when A. asked me what I wanted to do for Christmas, I jokingly replied, “Go for a walk on the beach.” (Remember, we are in southern Germany… a pretty long way from a beach.) “OK,” he said. “Get bundled up. We’re going to Tegernsee!” I had actually been thinking a nice warm beach somewhere in the Caribbean, but beggars can’t be choosers, right?
So, we hopped into the car and made our way down to Tegernsee. I have written about Tegernsee before because it is one of our favorite places to go in the area. It is the most gorgeous lake complete with a beautiful background of mountains. Of course, it is nicest in spring and summer, but even in the fall and winter the place has its charm.
We visited Tegernsee on Christmas last year and there was ice on the edges of the lake and quite a bit of snow. This year, however, the lake has no ice yet and while it was wet and muddy, there was very little snow. It didn’t seem to me that there were a lot of people hanging out at the lake on Christmas Day last year, but not so this year! The place wasn’t nearly as packed as it is in the spring or summer, but there were still a lot of people.
In fact, there were so many vehicles that we had a bit of an adventure finding a parking place.
There is a parking area near our favorite spot with a row of angle parking, a “car pass-through” of about 1 meter (a little over three feet), and directly behind the angle spots, a row of parallel parking. The parallel spaces are supposed to be for buses and motor homes and while the situation is tight, we can usually manage to squeeze through.
It just so happened that yesterday there was also a little bit of snow in the parking area. A small car had badly parked in an angle space that was about half full of snow. Directly behind it, a motor home had parked. This left less than the normal one meter drive through area. As we approached, A. didn’t think we would make it through. However, the spot was so tight that turning around wasn’t an option either. So I jumped out of the car and navigated him through the area with no more than 5cm (about 2″) between our car, the small car, and the motor home! I swear I will never get used to traffic and parking here in Europe! Amazingly we made it through without a scratch and then directly found a parking space.
While walking along the lake, I tried once again (mostly unsuccessfully) to be an amateur photographer. A few shots turned out OK before the batteries in my digital camera died. One was this photo, which I have so aptly titled “Lamp Post at Tegernsee.”
Duncan says:
Well, I hope you enjoyed Christmas and best wishes for a Happy New Year!
27 December 2004 at 09:07