Touring the lakes

The old gravel pit at Stoibermühle

When I left for Germany about two weeks ago I expected it to be warm and sunny, but I did not expect to get a  tour of the local lakes! Sabine had told me about the various ponds and puddles for weeks, waxing poetic about how one of them was like Walden Pond while others invited to a quick dip after work. So, just a few hours after my arrival I went to the former gravel pit at the Stoibermühle for my first swim.

What is more alluring, the pretzel or the buns?

Indeed, this lake was warm and lots of families and couples were enjoying a warm afternoon in and out of the water. It was here that I saw my first inflatable swim-pretzel—only in Bavaria. But it gets better: Numerous lakes also feature a biergarten, only adding to the allure to spend a lazy day in the sun. If beer isn't your thing, maybe you're more into skinny dipping: No problem as numerous smaller lakes attract the sans crowd. Nothing like getting nibbled on by the lil' fishies.

After the swim one is supposed to nourish the body.

We also went to the big lakes (more about that in a short while), on the weekend after we had been to Dortmund to see Sabine's mom and bro. That trip was a good reminder that even hot summers can bring with them 36 hours of straight rain and temperatures that barely rise above the mid-teens (Celsius, of course). But we used this ugly time for an excursion to the Deutsche Bergwerksmuseum in Bochum, a museum dedicated to everything you ever wanted to know about mining and life below the surface. Bochum and nearby Dortmund are located in the Ruhrgebiet, which for a hundred years was Germany's industrial center thanks to its coal deposits. It's been just over the past 15 years or so that essentially all the mines have been closed (only two are still in production) and the area has been freshened up and now experiences a renaissance as a tourist destination.

The German Mining Museum in Bochum

A trolley from a mine shuttered in 2000

Another tourist destination is the medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, one of the most picturesque places one can imagine and surely an inspiration to Walt Disney. On the way back from Dortmund to Freising Sabine and I stopped over in Rothenburg, which I had never visited. The weather was still crummy, but that kept the hordes of tourists (at least half of whom hail from SE Asia) at bay. As an interesting aside: I had thought that Rothenburg had miraculously escaped the aerial bombardment of WWII, but more than half of the city was actually destroyed. However, the place had been a destination for travelers for a long time beforehand and the citizens knew about the value of tourism and thus rebuilt the place in the most authentic and exact fashion. Wow!

Market square in Rothenburg ob der Tauber

A roofer's paradise (or nightmare)

It was quite a whirlwind trip to Dortmund and back, but the autobahn was rather empty and we shared the driving. So, just a day after getting back to Freising we decided to get back into the car and see friends at the Ammersee and the Bodensee, both within a two-hour drive from Sabine's abode. The Ammersee is much smaller than the Bodensee (also known as Lake Constance), Germany's largest lake even if it borders Austria and Switzerland who can also lay claim to it. We spent one night each with Sabine's friends (Petra and Stefan in Unterhausen next to the Ammersee, and Bernd and Isolde and their kids in Wasserburg on the Bodensee). The weather was back to brilliant sunshine and pleasant temperatures, and we got to ride the bikes as well as sail. (Yep, that's the same lake and the same boat that I used to break my leg two years ago.)

112 kilos of apple in the Skoda

That's the dry part that's left over after pressing

And that's one of seven 10-liter bags of apple juice

In Unterhausen Sabine and I were enlisted by Petra to take 112 kilos of apples to the local apple press. The result: 70 liters of fresh apple juice! The small co-op press was quite interesting and—being German—extremely efficient. The Ammersee turned out to be pretty damn cold to swim in, probably because there had been a lot of rain in the week before we got there. And jumping out of Kleiner Blaupfeil in the middle of the Bodensee to swim once around the 26-footer was a bit nerve-wracking.

Ammersee at Herrsching

A Jamaican biergarten in the middle of Bavaria. Go figure!

Visiting both of these lakes, riding the bikes, and getting to see old friends was almost the perfect way to end this quick trip to Germany, but on the Monday before I left for the US it went one notch better: Sabine took me to a tiny Walden-like pond that her friend Frieder leases and where one is far, far away from everyday worries and sounds (if one discounts the occasional plane that starts and lands at the MUC airport). Let me tell you: It was magic to lie on the small, squeaky wooden deck with big carp swimming below and looking at the branches overhead and the deep blue sky. Nope, no pics, just great memories.

Isolde and Sabine ready Kleiner Blaupfeil for our outing ....

... while Bernd has taken over as Harbor Master for the day

It was a short 12-day trip, but Sabine and I had a fabulous time, not only because we got to swim in six different lakes. And now it's back to the races.

Jürgen