Everyone should go to Chiemsee

We spent our four day weekend at Chiemsee in Southern Bavaria. Chiemsee is one of Germany's largest lakes and is absolutely gorgeous. Everyone stationed with the military in Germany should try to go to Chiemsee at least once. The last time we were at Chiemsee was the summer of 2003. The Army had announced earlier that summer that they would be closing the Chiemsee Resort -Lake Hotel at the end of the season in order to build one large, modern resort facility in Garmisch, Germany. Matt and I still have a hard time trying to understand why the Army would choose Garmisch over Chiemsee. Don't get me wrong, Garmisch is a beautiful area and is a premier place to go skiing in the winter. And I am sure there are more Army politics than we know about involved in that decision. But, the Lake Hotel was right on the Chiemsee and offered summer lake activities as well as winter skiing and snow activities. Being a water person, we much prefer hanging out at the lake during the summer.

We drove over to the area where the Lake Hotel was. For us, it was very sad to see this magnificent hotel, built in the 1930's, deserted, fenced in, and overgrown with vegetation. This hotel was one of Hitler's first Autobahn hotels. Remember, Hitler invented the autobahn system which we know in the states as the Interstates. The US Army took over the resort after WWII and made it a recreational facility for Americans stationed in Europe.

This is not the Lake Hotel but our hotel for the weekend, the Sport Hotel Achental in Grassau. The hotel was probably triple this size. German breakfasts are the best! Notice the multi-colored petunias. They were pink, white and purple, my favorite colors! And smelled wonderful right after the thunderstorm we had on Thursday night.

Also on the Chiemsee is one of Mad King Ludwig's unfinished castles called the HerrenChiemsee. It is located on the HerrenInsel and was designed to look like Versailles in France. King Ludwig never finished this castle. He ran out of money and bankrutped his country trying to build his two magnificent Shloss'. This one and the Neuschwanstein. He lived here for 10 days in the Fall before he died.

We took a ferry ride from Prien to the FrauenInsel and HerrenInsel. The Fraueninsel (ladies Island) is home to a convent from the 9th century and a monastery was built on the HerrenInsel (men's Island). Images from the FrauenInsel below:

Of course, being Germany, it rained on us for two days. However, the sun came out on Sunday and we were able to spend the day at a lakeside beach before heading home.
MK on the slide at the pier. The water was FREEZING but didn't deter her any. I went in up to my waist and Matt took a refreshing swim.