Auf Widersehen, Bayern :(

Friday 7th June 2024

As I woke up the day felt different. Warm sunshine had been replaced by some short, sharp thundery showers. This didn’t stop me from feeling sad that I would today be leaving Bavaria, starting the long drive back home to Cirencester.

Once it had dried off and started to brighten up I went outside for a morning walk around the town, enjoying my last Alpine views. I will miss waking up to views like this every day!

I returned my keys and Ammergauer Alpen guest card (entitling me to local discounts) to the drawer in the hotel reception along with my €10 tourist tax (in return I collected my €0,40 change which they’d left in the drawer).

Sabine, the owner of the guesthouse, had written me a lovely note in German, with a couple of Greek phrases thrown in too. She had obviously read my AirB&B profile which lists Greek as one of the languages I speak! Loved this personalised touch!

After I left the Guesthouse for the final time, I went to the nearby Moorlehrpfad & Meditationsplatz. Here, there was a moorland mud pool (which I didn’t use) plus many benches along the meditation trail, and a lovely sunbathing area next to the mud pool. I used the sunbathing area to sit and read my book. It was very relaxing.

Last walk around Bad Kohlgrub too, was so welcome in the sunshine.

At 1 I got in the car and left Bad Kohlgrub for the last time. Two places to stop off at before leaving the area. As I was in the Ammergauer Alpen area, I thought I should at least see the river Ammer – which I did, just a couple of miles from Bad Kohlgrub.

Then I stopped at Uffing, on the shores of lake Staffelsee, for a final view of the Alps, before getting on the A95 at Sindelsdorf, passing within a couple of kilometers of Alison and Dieter’s house.

I hit the outskirts of München at about 3pm, and immediately got stuck in the city’s Friday afternoon traffic as I used the city’s ring road, passing extremely close to the city centre.

I was on my way to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, which I remember visiting during my first solo holiday all the way back in 2014. With the anniversary of D-Day happening while I was in Germany, I thought this would be my way of marking that. It gave the afternoon a bit more of a sombre feeling.

From Dachau/Munich it was back on to the Autobahn, heading toward Stuttgart, then turning North. My destination was Bacharach in the Rheinland – between Bingen and Koblenz, about 30 minutes drive from my normal Rheinland destination of Boppard.

Reaching speeds of up to 200km/h (125mph) again while on the Autobahn, I did the journey in under 5 houras, leaving Munich at 16:30 and reaching Bacharach before 21:00. I had time, before it got completely dark, to wander round and take some photos of this lovely looking town.

The Rhine was very high – highest I have seen it in all the years I’ve been coming to Germany (I first came to Boppard 18 years ago!) The subway which would have allowed me to cross under the road rather than cross the actual road, was flooded.

Early start on Saturday for the long drive back to Calais then onwards to Cirencester.

Gute Nacht,

FH.

On the Car Stereo: Bayern 1, SWR 1 Baden-Württemberg, SWR 3, SWR 4 Baden-Württemberg, SWR 1 Rheinland-Pfalz

Today’s Mileage: 351.04 miles (564.94 km)
Accumulative Mileage: 1528.16 miles (2459 km)

Fred Hart

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