Berchtesgaden National Park has an attraction called Königssee, a glacier formed lake, that is very close to our hotel. On a previous work trip I visited the lake but there is so much to explore around it so Devin and I headed there after breakfast at our hotel.
The only way to easily visit sections of the lake is to catch electric powered passenger boats that have three stops. You could also rent a row boat but that’s a lot of work. The night before we’d decided to go visit the Ice Cave – a cave formed out of a melting glacier.
To get there we needed a ticket St. Bartholomew’s Church, the first stop the boat makes after its port of departure at Seelände. The boats go very slow so the ride takes about a half an hour to the Roman Catholic Church of St. Bartholomew. The ride includes some commentary but it is only provided in German and mine isn’t good enough. I picked up enough to know that the lake is super deep and in the middle the steep rock faces provide an echo effect. They actually stop the boat at this point and one of the boat’s crew picks up a flugelhorn (trumpet/cornet thing) and proceeds to play along with the generated echo.
To get to the ice cave, also known as the ice chapel, it’s a 4 mile hike toward the nearest mountain. The hike in was not as hard as yesterday but there was enough elevation that caused parts of my body to hurl mild obscenities at me for doing this without hitting up the sauna the night before.
We learned a new word for hello on the trail. Most people we encounter hiking in Germany and Austria will give a greeting of Guten Morgen (Good Morning) or Hallo (Hello). Yesterday and today we’ve learned a new one: Servus (seɐ̯vus). Servus is a salutation used in Bavaria that works for Hello and Goodbye. Essentially a Latin expression for slaves relationship to their masters that has had its subservience removed that translates roughly to “At your service.” Hiking is great practice for improving one’s greetings!
There is a defined end to the to maintained trail with a sign and a warning. The warning ends with a reference to Mortal Danger so you know the rest of the journey will be good. From here on most of the rest was bouldering and traversing the stream produced by the melting glacier. We’ve scrambled up different mountains so we have some experience.
About a hundred feet away from the ice cave you could feel the cooling effect. It felt just like air conditioning blowing from the direction of the cave. Up close to the cave, the ice mixing with the humid air creates a light fog that obscures the inside and there is the sound of falling ice bits. Probably best to stay outside. Unless your name is Devin. She only went in a few feet.
The hike back was great, all downhill, and we got to practice our pronunciation of Servus. At the church there is a beer garden where we got a Schinken-Käse Brezelstange (Bacon and Cheese soft pretzel) and a piece of Zwetschgenkuchen (Plum Cake) before we caught the boat back.
Back at our hotel we showered and grabbed some drinks before getting some German fast food: Dönner and Burgers.
