Snowy Southern German: Königssee & Salzburg

Never expect that today would be so wonderful. My plan was like this: Go Königssee this morning, catch the train on 12:20 and go Munich for a half day city tour. So this morning, unwillingly woke up from the warm bed, had a breakfast buffet and then hit the road to the lake.

Today is Sunday so that there were not so many buses on the road, on the other hand, it’s off-season so there were almost nobody heading for the lake. It’s a good sign that I don’t have to wait in the lines of tourists. Early bird got he’s own advantage.

The lake is extremely clean, you can see the bottom of the lake through the pure water. And the trees were all covered by snow, it’s a heavenly place.

Known the world over for its emerald green water and unique mountain landscape. Cruise silently across the lake on electric-powered boats and hear the famed Königssee echo. Continue on to the peninsula of St. Bartholomew with the unmistakable red onion domes atop its ancient pilgrimage church.

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I’ve been to so many places but I think Konigssee is one of the most beautiful lakes I’ve ever seen. Especially in this season. I hopped on the ship at 9:55, the ship drove so slow in order to make us enjoy the spetacular view.

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There was a slice of cloud lay in the hill (photo up), just like heaven. The lake reflects the wonderful mountains.

There is a place named “Echo”, and as usual, the ship crew would play horn everytime they shipped throught the place.

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Then the ship went through the most famous spot of Konigssee, the Red Onion Top Church.

The church was so unique that almost every tourist would like to take a lot of photos. In this season, the roofs would covered with snow, made is more fairy tale.

A Christmas tree stood by the lake silently with small sparkle lights. I would believe Santa will come here for take a rest on the 6 of December.

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I stayed on the island of Red Onion Church for 10 minutes, and planed to catch the retour bus back, but since I came from French and the Germans are very punctual people, so I miss the ship. I was devastating.

Something magic happened. The crew saw me standing bt the shore and returened the ship to pick me up! It was amazing! I have to give a good thumb to them!

Then I have to catch the train to Munich. On my transfer train, I started to wonder if I should go Salzburg or not. Since the famous city in Austria is so close to me, it’s must be worth to pay a visit.

So I asked somebody randomly on the train. The dude sat next to me became my target. Interestingly he wore in military uniform! The fact is, boys in Germany are obligatory to pay the military duty, but they got the chance to decide whether he wants to go or do a social service as substitude. Guys in le Galion choose to do social service, so they knew nothing about Deutsch army. And here’s my chance to learn more about the army here.

I began the conversation with “Have you ever been to Salzburg?” I assumed local people took the connection train must had been to Salzburg. (They even sold Mozart’s chocolate in Konigssee) But the answer was “No!” I was really curious about where he’s come from and where he’s going to, so I asked him right after.

Then I knew there’s an army base in the mountains of Berchtesgaden and they trained the soilders by putting them in the cold cold mountains learn to survive. He talked a lot about how the army trained them and his future plan is stay in the military. It was nice so that I shared my experience in ROC army with him.

20 yrs old.

I’ve decided to go Salzburg so I change my train. I asked people on the train if the train is going to Salzburg, and they replied me with friendly eye-contact. They are from Munich and made jokes all the time. So I made up my mind to ask the if they could recommend some places to visit in Salzburg.

Markus, the “tour guide” said to me: Just follow us, we’re going to the Christmas market! I was very excited that somebody willing to take me to the group and they speak local language! Without any thought, I said yes and join the little group.

The guys were friends stay in the same region, but work in different places. They are friends of friends and spend time together to Salzburg for Christmas market. It’s so nice that they would take me with them during the visit. Making friends during the trip was the most interesting part.

Salzburg is a beautiful city with Salzach River and the famous Mozart was born in the town. So you can see there are so many Mozart on the street (with sissy gesture).

And Christmas market in Salzburg was astonishingly beautiful. And that’s the reason why the Munich guys would like to take a little trip here.

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There are so many things in Christmas market! And the lights decorates the night with so strong xmas atmosphere! The best thing was that it started to snow, I felt like the santa is hiding somewhere in the crowd.

And also these bad guys.

I took my chance to play a jackpot of the Christmas, it turned out to be an exciting present.

Redbull

Everyone said that I can fly tonight. I liked snow, but when you carried with 15KG of backpack and the weather were frozen, the snow flake on your cloth became water and sank in your body and the lens of camera became blurred coz the water dropped on it. It became a disaster.

But the thing turned good when we decided to have dinner. A Salzburg traditional dinner.

We went to a restaurant opened from 15XX. I ordered the beef with beer sause and the special cheese dampling soup as my dinner. I like the dampling and the meat a lot. But I love the heater more.

We took the train home, back to Munich, and during the riding, there were some druken german guys asked me to take photos with them. I found the ways that all the druken german guy are the same.

Just came back from the station. I will go the Swan castle tomorrow.