Friday, July 2, 2010
It’s In The bag - Friday July 2, 2010
It’s In The bag - Friday July 2, 2010
Last night after supper, we headed west from the Heiss farm on the bikes. The ragweg we wanted to take proved too steep for this grey-haired duo so we came back to the farm and headed north . It was a very relaxing ride except that we had to climb a hill - steps up and switch back - carried the bikes up there but some great views from the top. All along we saw little log barns mostly with tile roofs. At a cross roads we sat and soaked in the countryside views - farmers cutting hay - some raking hay - some cutting wood - some seemingly just driving the back road trails. Ended up in Wallgau, 2 km north at a new grocery store - the little town of Krun has 2 new grocery stores - they must be figuring on expansion in the housing market. Maybe that’s why we can not find the trail with the little log barns where we walked in ’02 - seems it has become a row of new homes we figure.
Then today we decided to drive to Oberammergau but this time to ride our bikes out into the countryside. Our destination was Unterammergau about 4 km away. First we had to stop at Information for a map of the town. Throughout the town, crowds were beginning to gather even at 9:30 a.m. as we rode along the cobbled streets. At the north end of town the road forks into 4 directions. The first one we took looked like the road most traveled - one lane but paved. Soon it turned onto a gravel road and again we had to decide which of 2 farm trails to take. One led slightly uphill but ended at a building construction site - looked like a new home foundation. The other trail - 2 tracks with grass between led slightly downhill and ended up at a small horse barn. Just before the barn we had nodded to a gentleman who was walking toward us with a fork over his shoulder - a common sight. At the barn we turned around but first noticed a little girl still with a soother in mouth come out of the barn. Seeing no trail beyond we began to retrace out steps when we saw dad was coming back toward the barn with a fork full of loose hay. We stopped and talked a bit - his English was better than our German. He explained that in order to get to Unterammergau we would have to go back into the town of Oberammergau and cross the bridge over the Ammer River and take the other side path. But before we said good-bye I asked him about the little log barns all over the countryside. He explained that 50 years ago farmers would store the hay from the fields locally in the little barns where the hay was made then in the winter they would take it into the town house/barn combinations by horse and I presume sleigh. Many town barns have small horse sleighs hanging under their wide overhangs as they do other antiques. So that explained the little log barns that tourists flock to the area to see.
When we finally did find the town of Unterammergau, we found a very pleasant peaceful village - many zimmers, barns and homes existing side by side - manure pile beside zimmer and tractors coming and going with various equipment disappearing up into them there hills. We stopped at the town square and ate lunch beside the water trough.
On our way home we stopped in at Ettal a buzzing town mostly attracting busloads of tourists to the Kloisterkirche (Kloister church) famous for its wine and spirits production. No sign of the monks or the nuns who make it but it was a walled medieval type building with lots of people coming and going from the central courtyard. We chose instead to go next door to the Schaukaserei Ettal where the Kloister still produces the famous Ettal Alpen cheese. On the way in the driveway we commented about the clever placement of a large herd of Brown Swiss cows congregated at the fence gate just across the road. So we went in and since they were finished making cheese for the day, they showed us a video of the process and of coarse we had to sample their cheese cake and a coffee. On the way out we were treated to a parade of 30 some Brown Swiss cows - udders loaded - eagerly heading up the driveway past the cheese factory on their way to the barn for milking.
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