Well, back from a one week tour of boldest Bavaria and arresting Austria. With Martin behind the wheel for the week and myself able to appreciate the scenery – thanks to the absurd British insurance laws – while adding occasional words of encouragement when driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road became hazardous, a thoroughly enjoyable week was had.

Many thanks to Simon’s benevolence for bring us to a wonderfully picturesque lake up in the Tirolean mountains where a well deserved swim was had following a four hour journey from Martin’s brothers house near Munich. A quick submergence in alpine waters can reawaken one with great effect following a start-stop journey on the German Autobahn during the main summer holiday period.

An evening spent at Simon’s Tirolean, wooden, attic retreat in quant Inzing – a stones throw from Innsbruck – was perfect. Retiring in front of his new ‘beamer’ for a Sunday night movie, despite not being able to watch the film – Lebanon – to an end, it was the perfect conclusion to the day, only to be followed by a natural alpine summer storm for an encore.

Awakening with the birds – a woodpecker to be exact just outside the bedroom window – we headed into Innsbruck for some breakfast at the impressively high ceilinged breakfast couture eatery of Cafe Vienna.

Following this ideal start to the day we said our goodbyes to Simon and met friends of Martin’s in the city and then headed to Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze, directly on the Austrian/German border. After passing with what appeared to be an astronomical sum of cash for the pleasure of the cabled assent to the summit the weather was not playing ball and we entered the summit shrouded in a deathly white cloud.

With a quest to get our money’s worth after calculating how many hours we would have to work for the pleasure of this cable car ride we headed for the peak of the mountain – only attainable via foot. Having watched others sheepishly turn back we headed for the final 20 metre climb slightly hesitantly. However after a couple of steps it became evident why people without – and even with – safety harnesses were aborting the final push. Having reached the last resting point before the golden cross adorned summit, we also decided to head back to man sculpted ground after considering that the safety issue of one false step and it could all be over came over our own well being. Quite frankly the €47 gondola ride would have not quite had the same value for money if we were unable to take the return journey.

Heading directly to the beer serving bar immediately after our near death experience to lower our fast pumping heart rates we had a beer each which quickly went straight to our heads and ‘pissed on a pint’ was once again not so much of a hazy memory of our underage debauched youth.

After a brief stroll along the beautifully alpine turquoise coloured lake at the base of the mountain following our decent, we headed to Garmisch to find some accommodation in a local guesthouse.

Awakening early we headed for the major tourist attraction of King Ludewig’s Neuschwanstein castle on our route to Bregenz in western most Austria on the Swiss border, bordering the vast trans-country connected Bordensee. Making a brief unplanned stop along a stretch of fast flowing river near to the road for a spot of lunch we took a whistle stop route around Neuschwanstein. Having both visited before we dodged the vast hords of foreign tourists and continued on our journey whilst stopping off for a quick swim in a nearby lake making sure the threatened thunder storm had passed. The ducks seemed to welcome some company and were happy to swim in formation with us.

Continuning to Bregenz via a brief treacherous downpour in the the beautiful Algau, Bregenz was reached and a room at the Inn was sought. Discovering the Antoney Gormley exhibition, which was the purpose of travelling to capital of Vorarlberg, was a further 80km away was slightly disappointing but a visit to the Bregenz art museum the following morning was worth the visit alone, mainly for the architecture rather than the exhibition content. Peering out to the Bodensee was also enough to make the trip worthwhile.

Heading back to Munich the following day so that Martin could meet someone, we headed back into Germany with its unlimited speed motorway sections. With Martin really putting the pedal to the metal we were in Munich in next to know time with just a brief lunch stop in Landsberg am Lech along the way. Lansberg am Lech, as we later discovered, the place where Hitler was imprisoned and wrote Mein Kampf, turned out to be a wise decision with its imposing river promenade over looking the fast flowing river Lech.

Arriving in Munich at a very plush hotel was just what the doctor ordered in Northern Schwarbing. Having spent a good 15 minutes having fun with the electronic window blinds switch we headed into town where Martin went to his meeting leaving myself to take in the awesome sight of surfers taking to the wave in the centre of Munich on the river Isar in the beautiful Englische Garten. Visiting the Haus der Kunst art gallery adjacent to the Isar was easy enough although the exhibition was slightly disappointing. A brief quick read of a magazine in another part of the Englische Garten in a type of orangerie where lots of beautiful people appeared to be and Martin was finished with his meeting. A few beers later and a shisha a new day beckoned.

Deciding to view the centre of the city for some shopping was quickly aborted as it was so crowded especially in the sweltering, unforgiving August heat and a few minutes later we were once again in the natural splendour of the Englische Garten with the beautiful people once again. Seeing everyone enjoying themselves in the park was quite heartwarming considering that this activity of laying in a park and swimming in the refreshing cool river was available to everyone at no cost. Exactly how it should be.

With the next two days spent at Martin’s brother’s once again in Freising which involved a trip to the oldest brewery in the world and an evening spent at Martin’s house in the Bavarian forrest, the holiday was over and an orange painted plane was boarded and another holiday was finished, this time with a sigh of relief that we actually survived following the heart stopping slightly over ambitious mountaineering earlier in the week.

A journey hin und zurück from überBusy on Vimeo.