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We arrived at Chiemsee on previous evening to find the place being a small lazy resort with a marine, a small grassy beach and a big warm lake with lots of yachts gliding its waters. It didn’t really meet our expectations of an attractive lake with lots of activities, so we decided to move on the next morning instead of staying and enjoying the day at Chiemsee. So evening on Tuesday was spent eating fish dinner at the local restaurant and warily investigating weather forecasts for the next day that promised rains and thunderstorms, which with high probability could cancel our plans for boat trip and hiking up yet another mountain at Königsee.
And the morning came and it was as hot and sunny as the previous one, so we quickly ate breakfast and drove away to Schönau am Königsee to take that boat trip while it was still sunny.
Königsee is a beautiful mountain glacier lake with emerald water near the Austria border. Located at a Jurassic rift, it was formed by glaciers during the last ice age. It stretches about 7.7 km (4.8 mi) in the north-south direction and is about 1.7 km (1.1 mi) across at its widest point. The lake is noted for its clear water and is advertised as the cleanest lake in Germany. For this reason, only electric-powered passenger ships, rowing, and pedal boats have been permitted on the lake since 1909. The water in the lake is quite cold - as a tour guide on the boat told us later - the water temperature is 20C in the top 20cm of water, down below it’s not that warm any more. The lake is situated in a Berchtesgaden national park with mountains, lakes and beautiful valleys and is a very popular destination for German and Swiss tourists.
A useful piece of advice: since the place is “uber”popular, to find a good hotel with a decent price you have to book in winter-early spring.
We arrived at Chiemsee on previous evening to find the place being a small lazy resort with a marine, a small grassy beach and a big warm lake with lots of yachts gliding its waters. It didn’t really meet our expectations of an attractive lake with lots of activities, so we decided to move on the next morning instead of staying and enjoying the day at Chiemsee. So evening on Tuesday was spent eating fish dinner at the local restaurant and warily investigating weather forecasts for the next day that promised rains and thunderstorms, which with high probability could cancel our plans for boat trip and hiking up yet another mountain at Königsee.
And the morning came and it was as hot and sunny as the previous one, so we quickly ate breakfast and drove away to Schönau am Königsee to take that boat trip while it was still sunny.
Königsee is a beautiful mountain glacier lake with emerald water near the Austria border. Located at a Jurassic rift, it was formed by glaciers during the last ice age. It stretches about 7.7 km (4.8 mi) in the north-south direction and is about 1.7 km (1.1 mi) across at its widest point. The lake is noted for its clear water and is advertised as the cleanest lake in Germany. For this reason, only electric-powered passenger ships, rowing, and pedal boats have been permitted on the lake since 1909. The water in the lake is quite cold - as a tour guide on the boat told us later - the water temperature is 20C in the top 20cm of water, down below it’s not that warm any more. The lake is situated in a Berchtesgaden national park with mountains, lakes and beautiful valleys and is a very popular destination for German and Swiss tourists.
A useful piece of advice: since the place is “uber”popular, to find a good hotel with a decent price you have to book in winter-early spring.
Schönau am Königsee is a lakeside town with a population of 5300 locals, with main attractions in the area being the Jenner mountain with numerous hiking trails and tours on the Königsee lake.
As soon as we arrived into the town, we took tickets to the boat lake tour and soon were on the small electrical boat, gliding towards the other side of the lake.
There are several famous places on the lake: the Echo place, the Saint Bartolomeu church, three waterwalls and a small other Obersee lake next to the far end of the Königsee lake. There might actually be more, but the tour guide talked in German and I only understood about 30% of what was said, so I missed some really funny stories. I should practice German more!
Halfway through the journey the tour guide stopped the boat, took a trumpet and started playing a tune towards the cliff on one side. The echo was so amazingly precise and beautiful, that it seemed that there was an orchestra playing along with the tune.
Unfortunately, the waterfalls were barely visible, since the whole July was very hot and dry in the area. But the Obersee lake turned out to be a great surprise. I originally wanted to visit it because of the third waterfall, that was said to be situated on the other side of Obersee. In order to reach there you had to disembark at the far end of Königsee and then walk about half an hour to reach Obersee.
The walk in a closed mini-canyon in +35C around midday felt like pilgrimage to sacred places in Jerusalem - long and exhausting.
But when we reached it, we realized we found paradise. The lake was quite warm and we immediately dived into it. Swimming in crystal clear emerald cool lake, surrounded by mountains with a sound of a distant waterfall falling down the cliff was a small miracle. Oh, and the waterfall was tiny too, but it didn't really matter. All that mattered was the saint cool waters of Obersee.
On the way back I noticed a nice stream connecting the two lakes running merrily between the mountains. Such streams are not rare in Alps and are consistently clean, cold and beautiful.
On our way back we disembarked at St Bartolomew church, which turned out to be small, but preciously cool inside, so we stayed there for some time and then went on to have lunch in the church yard. I tried ordering a Spinatknödel, only to realize I will never ever order it again (no offence, German people!) - it was just too heavy food for me! In general, food is something I am having a hard time with here. It’s quite heavy, unless you take pure vegetables. There are very few vegetarian options offered in the restaurants. Fish is a great alternative though.
All in all, I made a conclusion that St Bartolomew place is better watched outside and is not worth disembarking, especially considering long lines to depart from there.
One local hero worth taking a picture though was one of the numerous ducks. This one looked at me in such a reproachful way, I had to take a picture!
After returning back from the roundtrip on the lake we drove up into the mountains into our hotel and then the promised thunderstorms came. Lots of lightning, not so loud thunder, but massively pouring rain finally cooled down the air and refreshed the valley. I believe the place needed these rains, because as we drove the rivers next to the roads were half-dry and the waterfalls were not as spectacular as they would have been had there been more rains in the past weeks.
Now, an intriguing question: will tomorrow be rain-free enough to go up the mountain?
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