Via Romea Germanica Day 54: Oberammergau - Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Heut' kommt der Hans zu mir, 
freut sich die Lies. 
Ob er aber über Oberammergau, 
oder aber über Unterammergau, 
oder aber überhaupt nicht kommt, 
das ist net g'wiß! 

- Traditional German tongue-twister (untranslatable)

Set off from Oberammergau this morning in company! From here up to the Italian border, we will be a group of four. In Oberammergau we reconstructed the international group that walked the Camino Portugues from Porto to Santiago together in 2019: me (from Canada/Italy), my father (from England/Canada/Chile), Rossana (from Chile) and Annette (from Germany). 

We had planned to hike together in Germany, in the Neckar Valley, in 2020, but because of the pandemic, it never happened. So here we are, all finally together again!

Some company, at last; and a sunny day, too! We set off along the trail out of Oberammergau up the valley and past the Ettal Mühle, an old mill with a waterwheel, to the monastery of Kloster Ettal.

Kloster Ettal was founded in 1330 and rebuilt in Baroque style after it burnt down in 1744, to plans by Enrico Zucalli, a Swiss-Italian architect who had worked with Bernini. One of the most important monasteries in the Alps, it was home to the Ritterakademie, or Knights' Academy. 

We stopped at the information office and souvenir shop by the church to ask for a pilgrim stamp, and were rewarded with free bottles of cold, fizzy mineral water! Much appreciated, as the day was already growing warm. Such a change from the past few days of wind and rain! 

After viewing the church and taking a break at the café, we carried on through the village of Ettal and into the trees. A steep slope on a gravel road, following the Via Crucis in reverse, brought us down into the town of Obernau, where we bought delicious farm-fresh strawberries from a kiosk and devoured them in the shade of a bus shelter. 

We were now about halfway, 11 kilometres into the day's walk. We continued along the main road through the town of Oberau, crossed the railroad tracks, where we had some excitement as our group got separated and my dad almost got stuck between the barriers when they suddenly went down due to an arriving train! Then we crossed a bridge over the Loisach river and followed a winding bicycle path through Alpine meadows, heading toward the snowy mountains ahead. Soon we could clearly see the peak of Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze, towering before us at 2962 metres high. 

We stopped on a bench in the shade for a lunch break and then continued along this path, frequented by plenty of cyclists and other walkers on this holiday long weekend. We spoke to two men walking from Munich to Venice, and a group of hikers walking a sort of marathon, 40 kilometres in a single day! We were impressed by what they were doing, and they were equally impressed by our mission of walking to Italy!

The views were spectacular, but it was hot the paved cycling trail in the sun and we were glad when, after a few ups and downs and round some bends, Garmisch-Partenkirchen finally came in view. Though we still had some way to go, across town to our guesthouse, with of course a stop at the tourist information office to get our pilgrim credentials stamped with the official stamp of the Via Romea Germanica.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen 

Garmisch (in the west) and Partenkirchen (in the east) were separate towns for many centuries, and still maintain quite separate identities. Partenkirchen originated as the Roman town of Partanum,  first mentioned in A.D. 15, on the Roman road and trade route between Venice and Augsburg, which now corresponds to its main street, Ludwigsstrasse - and to the Via Romea Germanica. While Garmisch was first mentioned some 800 years later as Germaneskau ("German District"), suggesting that a Teutonic tribe had taken up settlement in the western end of the valley.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is the hometown of composer Richard Strauss, and of Michael Ende, author of fantasy fiction best-known for The Never-ending Story.

Guesthouse Geyer, which offers a pilgrim discount and is the most economical option in this touristy town, is some way off the trail in the centre of Garmisch. When we had figured out how to get in (the GPS navigator took us to the back door instead of the front) and had time to shower and recover from the day's exertions, we went out for beer and schnitzel (or vegetable curry, in my case) at a nearby restaurant, where a large table was occupied by the Canadian in-line hockey team! There's an international in-line hockey tournament going on in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a renowned centre for winter sports which hosted the winter Olympics in 1936. 

Beer from the monastery we visited in the morning 

Schnitzel, Weiner Art (Viennese style)

Oberammergau - Garmisch-Partenkirchen 24 km

Via Romea Germanica Day 53: Bad Bayersoien - Oberammergau

Ohne Hast, aber ohne Rast. (Without haste, but without rest.)

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Letters

The plan was to take a rest day today - if I could make it all the way to Oberammergau by yesterday evening. But I stopped walking in Bad Bayersoien in the rain, and took the bus the rest of the way. So this morning I set out to take the bus back and walk the rest of the stage - in the rain again!

But when I got off the bus the rain had stopped - and I found myself at the muster point for the village parade!

At 9:30 sharp the Himmelfahrt parade began. You can find an explanation of Himmelfahrt, a uniquely German holiday, here!

Last year I experienced the secular aspects of this holiday, as described in my blog entry here; this year I participated in the original, religious festivity. I followed the parade to the village church, sat in a pew at the back and stayed for Mass. It was a beautiful service, with the participation of the church organist, the village choir, the brass section of the band, and all the congregation dressed in traditional Bavarian outfits.

I left the church with a feeling of immense gratitude and spiritual and musical nourishment, realising I had participated in a ceremony that had taken place for centuries and centuries, exactly the same, year after year. Except perhaps during the wars recalled on the banners carried in parade into the church: 1870-71, 1914-18, 1939-45. Another aspect of Himmelfahrt seems to be honouring veterans and the victims of war. 

Upon leaving the church in Bad Bayersoien I followed the bicycle track beside the main road to Saulgrub. Here the Via Romea route does a bit of a U shape, but as it had begun to rain again I decided to stick to the cycling route, devising a shorter path to Unterammergau and then Oberammergau with the aid of mapy.cz. The rain soon stopped, and I paused for a snack of cheese and crackers and a banana on a comfy bench erected in honour of a hermit, Brother Konrad, who was slain by robbers nearby and brought to this spot for burial.

Lake view leaving Bad Bayersoien 

Cycle path by the road

Roadside shrine

 

Rest spot

I continued through Wurmansau and then along a path called the Meditationsweg, into a truly Alpine landscape. 

The path took me past the Kappel church, considered the oldest place of worship in the upper Ammer Valley. Eticho, a member of the Welf family, is said to have settled here as a hermit as early as the year 900. A monastery was probably even built here shortly thereafter. In the 15th century, the Kappel became a destination for pilgrims who venerated the Holy Blood relic there. A legend has been handed down about this relic. According to this legend, the blind Roman soldier Longinus, the one who pierced Jesus' side with a lance, applied the blood of the crucified Christ mixed with earth to his eyes. As the legend further tells us, he is said to have regained his sight this way. He is considered the first pagan convert to Christianity.

I walked through Unterammergau and then followed a gravel road around a marsh dotted with wild irises to Oberammergau. The road followed a stream which, looking at a map, I realised was the river Ammer: hence the names Unterammergau (the place below the river) and Oberammergau (the place above the river).

Oberammergau is best known for its Passion Play, performed every ten years since 1633, when the villagers made a vow to re-enact the Passion of Christ if they survived the plague. The last performance was in 2022, postponed from 2020 because of the pandemic. It's a good thing the play is staged only once every ten years, because, as I learned at the local museum, it requires a major effort on the part of the local population. About 1700 people participate in the play, responding to a casting call held a year and a half before the production; to audition, you must have been born in Oberammergau or have lived there for at least 20 years (except for the children). Two actors are selected for each role,  as the performance is repeated more than a hundred times over the summer season. The actors stop cutting their hair on Ash Wednesday of the year before the play; the choir starts rehearsing three years before the play!

Each performance is five hours long, with a three-hour break so the audience and the actors can rest and eat, and includes two hours of music. Christian Stückl has been directing the Passion Play since 1990. In the in-between years, the event venue - Europe's largest outdoor stage - hosts other types of performances, most notably the Heimatsound music festival.

Oberammergau's other claim to fame is the art of woodcarving, producing statues, Christas crèche figurines, and toys, also showcased in the museum.

Bad Bayersoien - Oberammergau 17 km