Pronounced Pree-en am Kim-tsey.

Or something of the sort.

I often believe that in a past life I was Bavarian.  In fact I often believe that in this life I am still Bavarian. Bavaria is that large south-eastern part of Germany that everybody usually associates with beer, Lederhosen and sausages – and they would be right.

But there is another, less stereotypical part of Bavaria – it’s nature.

From Berchtesgarten to the Bayerisches Wald, Bavaria is cramed full of beautiful views, awe-inspiring cliffs and more castles than even the Vikings could invade (and they tried!).

Southern Bavaria is where you will often find me, either skiing or recklessly attempting to climb up come mountain path – followed of course by a Currywurst (a sausage in a spicy tomato sauce) and a Dunkel Beer (nothing else comes close to it’s taste) served by a beautiful lady in a Dirdl (the womens’ traditional dress).

Southern Bavaria is quite close to my definition of heaven.

Chiemsee is home to not just one, but two casltes built on Islands.  The earlier caslte was built as a monastry and the latter was built by “Mad” King Ludwig as an almost exact copy of the Palace of Versailles in France.

Luke and I decided that our funds would stretch further if we went off in a diferent tangent though and went searching for the castle of HohenAschau.

To be honest it wasn’t a hard search.  Perched atop a small hill in a valley between two gigantic alpine peaks the caslte looked over one of the many mountain passes on the border between Austria and Germany.

Unfortunately for us the Caslte wasn’t open, but the views afforded to us from the caslte’s high vantage point made for some excellent photos…  more Germany countryside coming tomorrow.