Mr Soknitsome and I have just enjoyed a few glorious days in southern Bavaria. We stayed in Hohenaschau, part of Aschau im Chiemgau, between Lake Chiemsee and the Chiemgau Alps. The spring here has been quite mild and things were looking pretty green but there was still plenty of snow once we were up above 1600 metres (5200 ft). Since it turned considerably cooler and the sky was looking pretty grey, we never reached the summit of Hochgern, the first mountain we hiked up. Nevertheless, we enjoyed great views and a challenging hike. Naturally, we woke up to stiff legs and I was determined to walk ‘on the flat’. Mr Soknitsome suggested we went around the Haindorfer Berg. We did. It was still a bit hilly in parts and I was quite glad to get back. Being the energetic man he is, Mr Soknitsome went off for a run. I exercised my fingers and did a spot of knitting. On the following day we hiked up to the Priener Hütte (1400m/4600ft), where we enjoyed an early lunch outside in the sunshine with a great view. So what next? Yes, the summit. We plodded through snow, along ridges and up the steep climb to the summit of the Geigelstein. At just over 1800m (5900ft) it is the second highest mountain in the Chiemgau Alps. It was all very well reaching the top but there wasn’t much of it and the drops down were sheer on three sides. I don’t like heights at all and was fretting about the journey back down – steep, slippery and scary! Although I sometimes wonder if Mr Soknitsome thinks I’m exaggerating and underestimates my true fear of heights (I was already commenting on the ascent about how much I wasn’t looking forward to the return), he showed his steady and dependable side and made the descent just 2 steps in front of me, digging his heels into the snow to make footprints for me to step into. A couple of times I slid and thudded into him but it was funny, thankfully. Once we got down to the alpine hut we took a different path back. The views were great – we stayed up high for ages…so eventually the walk down was very, very steep.
We spent most of the following day with Older Daughter and her boyfriend. They caught a train down from Munich and we all took a boat over to the Herreninsel (also known as Insel Herrenchiemsee). There’s a palace and formal gardens as well as a woodland walk. The palace was a monastery that Ludwig II of Bavaria had converted along the lines of the Palace of Versailles. We finished the day with a traditional meal in a local inn.
The weather turned out to be much better than we had expected. Mr Soknitsome’s bag of reading material remained closed. Apart from lots of sock knitting during the six-hour journey there and back, I did very little knitting. But here’s what I was working on. It’s a Penny Candy Tee.
The place we stayed in has these baskets of scarves which you can add to during your stay or buy as a knitting kit to take home.