OBERAMMAGAU

Monday, October 2nd, 2000 Fussen

Up and out before 9 am, and it was raining again! Checked on doing Laundry in Fussen but the only place we found did it for you and they wanted three days! Checked with the information house and a girl there told us that there was a self-service only about thirty km away in Kempten. Since it was raining; we were game so we loaded up the car and took off. Mostly country roads all the way there. Arrived in Kempten, found their information house and got directions to the Washateria! It took 32 DM and about two hours but we had clean clothes again! No change machine so I sent Jim out to find some while I sorted the laundry into the machines. On a trip to get change for the machines, Jim purchased a bag of tulip bulbs to take home. I went on the next trip and was able to obtain more change for the dryer at a wallpaper/carpet store nearby!

Left Kempten at 2 pm as we ate our lunch (sandwiches from breakfast) in the car on our way over more country roads to Oberammagau by way of Marktoberdorf and Schongau. By 3 pm we’d found the road south and went over the Pollat Gorge on a bridge known as Echelsbacher Brucke which is 250 feet high!

Raining in Oberammagau and the place was packed with tourists there to attend the Passion Play which is performed for fifteen weeks every ten years. It’s been going on for centuries to give thanks for saving them from the plague in the Middle Ages. Checked things out and found that there are only twenty tickets available on a first come first serve basis every morning. I think we’ll wait until 2010 and get our tickets early. Talked to the clerk in the Wolf Hotel and she said to try about three years ahead and to really push them hard about it not being too early. We have to specifically request the Wolf Hotel if we want it. Bought some postcards and headed out. We stayed at the Wolf Hotel on a visit in 1997 and it is a charming place to rest your head...but not during the Passion Play years....it's booked sold long in advance.

By 5 pm we were in Garmisch Partenkirchen. What a delightful town. We’d been there before but didn’t take time to find the really charming old part of the town. Want to go back. Would be a great place to spend a few days. Lots of hiking areas. Still raining. Back on the road we headed towards Reutte which is actually in Austria (we crossed the boarder twice). We were not as impressed with Reutte as Rick Steves. We like Fussen just as well if not better. Back on the road again and home to Fussen, arriving about 7 pm. Decided to use the bottle of wine from the store last Saturday and picked up food from a sidewalk café called Pic Nic. We had a whole bottle of wine and great German food on paper plates in the room.

Right now it is nearly 11 pm, Jim is sound asleep and I’m trying to sign on to AOL on my laptop by using the telephone lines. I haven’t been very successful in finding cyber shops so am attempting to do this tonight. Hope I don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to connect. I have a German telephone line but it’s difficult to get access as it’s so busy. (So much easier ten years later with all of the improved technology!)