When we got Schengen visa in 2017, Lakshman asked me which destinations were on top of my list. I came up with Switzerland and Santorini. He countered with Bavarian Alps and North of Spain as alternates to avoid crowds and excessive expense. I was game.
So in 2017 Easter break, we flew to Munich from Heathrow and rented a car (Peugeot 2008) from Munich airport. I have to say this here, considering he has not driven either an automatic car or on the wrong side of the road, Lakshman tackled both these challenges admirably. We drove on from the airport to countryside without seeing even a glimpse of Munich city.
The countryside was beautiful and reminiscent of English countryside except for the houses which looked like Swiss Chalets. We stopped at a cafe for lunch and realised that communication during this trip was going to be a big challenge as English was not popular in rural Germany and my German, which was purely based on an offline dictionary app, was not quite enough. We had one slice of bread and a few thinly cut slices of cheese for lunch. But the cupcake and gelato slightly made up for that paltry lunch.
We drove on to Chiemsee Lake but quickly realised that the boating service was not in operation. We drove on to another side of the vast lake and walked along the shore and on the pier taking our fill of the wonderful views.
