Königssee

This past Samstag I went to Berchtesgaden, the city, which is just outside of the Berchtesgadener National Park, located in the Alps in the southeast corner of Germany near Salzburg. It was a four hour train ride to Berchtesgaden, then a short bus up to Königssee, a deep glacial lake. Finally, a boat ride across the lake to St Bartholomä, which is where I'm standing below.

The snow on the ground was fresh - last week was cold and the Alps got their first snowfall. I'm sure the snow in the mountains was not fresh. In fact, in the notch in the mountains behind me, is a glacier, which you can't see.  The peak behind me to my left is Watzmann (2713 m), and the glacier is called the Eiskapelle. But we went for a hike up that valley - didn't get to the glacier, but saw some pretty scenery. "We" is Jack and I. Jack is another engineering professor in the same fellowship program as I am. He's teaching in the Mechanical Engineering department, and is from Taiwan.

It was very nice to be hiking on hills, and the smell in the air was wonderful - trees, snow.  It reminded me quite a bit of Glacier National Park. As far as I could tell from the German brochures, much of the geology was similar, too.

The only bad part was the long train ride, which, on the way there was made even longer. Just outside of Munich the train stopped because of some blockage on the track ahead. We had to go back to Munich and wait for the next train - two hours later. So a 4-hour trip took 6 hours. But, the did give everyone a coupon for a free coffee and "Butterbreze", which is a pretzel sliced in half and spread with lots of butter. Pretty decadent.