Today was going to be a rest day.
But…. the weather is looking rubbish in this area for tomorrow and the day after, so we decided to go for it and get the bus to Königssee and the lake.… and… a near disaster!
Even with the change of plans we had a leisurely start to the day… well I did, Sue went for a run of course!
After shower, brecky and a cuppa, we headed for the 10:47 bus from Winkl to Königssee. Our campsite fees included free bus travel so we just had to present our digital passes and off we went.
Once in Königssee we had a look at the lake tour timetables, we knew we were late today and only half expected to get a boat trip in. But the queues weren’t “terrible” and so we decided to do the shorter of the two trips, a round trip to St Bartholoma – half way-ish up the lake.
As we bought the tickets they were loading boat numbers in the 40’s and we were boat 70, due to leave at 13:45 – we had about 75 minutes to kill.
Now, we’d sort of preempted this… at least we were planning on our next activity if the boat trips were a no-go… we’d come dressed in our swim gear. So we headed to the other side of the lake, a 10 minute walk, and went for a swim.
And this is where the almost disaster hit – and a very first world problem it would have been too!
The water is crystal clear but cold… as you might expect being this high up and fed from such high mountains.
Sue managed her swim though with no drama, and really enjoyed it by all accounts.
I however, decided for my swim, that I needed my shades.
I was smart enough to realize that diving in to the lake (I can’t just wade in, I’ve got to take an all or nothing last half meter) was going to knock my sunglasses off my head. So I held them in my hand.
Everything went well with the near zero plunge but when I put my shades on, one of the lenses was missing. The water was crystal clear but there was no sign of the missing lens.
Fortunately I do have a couple of spare pairs of sunglasses but it would be a shame to have to lose the use of my number one pair. It also meant I’d have to survive the rest of the day with a squint.
So I carried on with my swim and exited the water without my complete ocular experience.
As I was drying off we got talking to a dad and son who said the son would go and find the lens for me. We were haggling over the price, he wanted €3 and our offer was an ice cream. All very jovial though.
He trotted off into the water with his goggles and lo and behold if he didn’t find the lens… the water really was that clear. His dad had gone to get changed when the kid got back to the bank and he wouldn’t take any money. But we eventually got him to accept €5 and we got a picture when his dad returned.
Calamity averted!!
We were now pretty soggy in our swim gear, but we were travelling light so we were going to have to dry off in the sun as we walked to the boat trip.
Our boat left a few minutes late, but not after we’d sacrificed our fantastic seats to let an old (large) East Asian (I think Asian American) dad take our seats. They were the last in the boat, he was struggling with a walking stick, and we were close to the entrance to the boat. Lots of other people could have offered seats, but we were the good Samaritans. That pushed us to the back of the boat, not near a window and in the middle of two very unhelpful indian families! That was my perfect photo opportunity well and truly stuffed! Hey ho, karma and all that!
We took a few shots on the outbound leg of the trip, but our view was impeded☹️
The Königssee boat tours are of course known for the scenery, but they are also known for the trumpeting.
About halfway through the tour, the boat stops and one of the crew gets out a trumpet. They clearly stop at the right point, because when the trumpeter fires up, his music echoes off the sides of the valley which sounds like his short musical pieces are being answered. Unfortunately, giving up our seats to the elderly Chinese guy also meant losing any chance of recording the music (Grrr!). Sue did wander up to the middle of the boat and get a picture though.
Once at St Bartholoma, we had a wander around. Unfortunately, we’d probably left it a bit late in the day for a proper explore and the queues for the return boats were getting long. So we took a few pictures…
Then we headed back to Königssee, via the long queues, this time with better seats… but clouds for much of the way.
As we walked back to the bus stop we had a couple of aborted attempts at a coffee stop, but decided the wasps were a bit too feisty for us at this time of the day.
Getting back to the bus stop we got on the first bus that arrived. It wasn’t displaying a number and the driver said he went to Winkl. By the time we’d got to Berchtesgaden we decided the bus was the wrong one and we got off at the bus station.
We ran to the right bus, only to be met by the bus driver from the morning, who told us she was going the other way. But she said we could sit on her bus back up to Königssee again and then take it back to where we really wanted to go. So we hopped on the air conditioned bus for a winding but not so mystery tour.
The bus driver was a hoot. She was having lengthy conversations with many of the passengers and stopped as we headed back from Königssee to politely explain to a very small child that running in the road in front of a large bus was probably not a good idea! We thanked her through the glass as we walked away from the bus. She also shouted “shit” and stopped the bus at Königssee as she realized there was a woman in a wheel chair who could get on the bus better at this point rather than waiting for the bus to do a loop to her stop. That caused a huge amount of confusion as the other 20 people waiting at the same stop as the wheelchair user, thought they could also board the bus early!
Back at the campsite we decided we didn’t want to pack away too much stuff in the rain tomorrow, so we reeled in the awning, packed away tables and chairs and took the front wrap around off. We also put the bikes and bike rack back on. Even if it’s tipping down we should be good for a clean getaway.
Off to lake Bled tomorrow, to a campsite with only 3 pitches that doesn’t take bookings… this could be interesting!
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