Berchtesgaden

Day 2 in Germany's only alpine national park led us to explore the mountain range at the north Königsee Lake.

We head off by bus crammed full of tourists, luckily it was only a short 5km journey til we reached the Jennerbahn cable car.

This cable car was much more modern, robust (and expensive!) than yesterday's open, rickety red carriages. Sal, Zoe and Cihan got off at the middle station to walk to an Enzian (gentian) Schnapps hut 5km along the Königsweg path. Cihan had found out about this in an old newspaper article from 2007, and it was well worth a visit! 
Dad took the cable car all the way to the top to ascend the peak Hoher Göll (2522m).

Zoe & Cihan taught mum the classic (cheesy) German song "blau blüht der Enzian" by Heino ("the gentian blooms blue"), although we found that it wasn't the flower that was used to make the schnapps, but its roots.

During the week in the summer months, a man lives in the hut and harvests the roots, distilling them once before they are taken down to the valley.

We later attempted a swim in the Königsee, but couldn't find anything quite suitable and were overwhelmed by the tourists all getting boats across the lake. We went for a quick walk to a view point, where mum and Cihan attempted to rescue a disorientated frog who had come away from the lake.

After that we had an ice cream, then waited for dad, who came back down on the last cable car, a bit like the frog, slightly disorientated and dehydrated.

Turns out he had had a 13km epic, with lots of steep ascent and not even time to stop to eat lunch. We all got the bus back together and let him recuperate at the hotel while the three of us went to the Watzmann thermal Spa. We left feeling very relaxed & refreshed after a salt peeling in the steam room.

After that we had dinner altogether in the fancy four star Edelweiss hotel bar, as this was the only place in town still serving food at 9:30pm!Read more