I see Ammersee…

On Day 3 of the Baby Bears visit to Munich we decided to get out of the city…mini-trip trip time! My sisters and I stocked up on the essentials - breakfast pretzels - and hit the road. 

 We drove to Herrsching on the east shore of Ammersee (“Lake Ammer”), a lake formed by glaciers about an hour outside of Munich. It’s the 6th largest lake in Germany (approx 18 square miles with maximum depth of 81 metres).

It had a seaside town feeling, as the place is a popular sunshine and waterspouts destination in Bavaria - though there were very few people around when we arrived.

After admiring the lake, we set out on our one hour walk from Herrsching up to the Kloster Andechs (Andechs abbey). This Benedictine abbey is a place of pilgrimage and is famed for it’s impressive Baroque church and brewery.

The first part of our walk to us through interesting homes where we enjoyed house-spotting…

Next, into the woods and up the hill…

Before we arrived in a meadow, where the sunshine came out and we frolicked with wild flowers!

Almost there...

Then finally we arrived at the abbey at the top of the hill aka “The Heliger Berg” (Sacred Mountain). We paused for breathe before heading inside to inspect the decadence!

In need of refuelling, we happily headed to the 3,500 seat beer garden and restaurant which surround the church.

Evidence suggests that the Andech’s monks have been brewing beer for approx 900 years. Their beer is also considered one of the finest in Germany (and helps them survive Lent’s 40 days of fasting!)

They brew 7 different types of beer, we ordered a Andechser Spezial Hell beer, a lager frequently used at festivals and special events.

To accompany our beer we ordered two gigantic pretzels, two random-looking sausages and two spoonfuls of cheeses - one was a Philadelphia-style cream cheese and the other was obatzda, a Bavarian cheese delicacy.

After eating, drinking and resting, we headed back down to Herrsching, using the hour-long walk to burn off our lunch!

From Herrsching we drove south along the edge of the lake, doing a circuit to bring us around to the opposite side of the lake. There we admired a (distant) view of Kloster Andechs and enjoyed more sunshine lake-side time before heading back to Munich.  

Spot the Kloster in the distance

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