Continuing on with our tour day in Germany with "Panoramic Tours" brings us to our final stop for the day, Königssee, or "Kings Lake" in English.
See my previous posts for more details of the other stops during the tour that day.
The lake is located in the Bavarian region of Germany very close to the small town of Berchtesgaden. It's also right near to the border of Austria and the city of Salzburg, which was where we came from that morning.
The bus ride was about 20 minutes or so from Berchtesgaden and we arrived on site in the mid-afternoon. During the ride over our tour guide had given us instructions on how to get to a scenic look out point at the lake and he suggested that we go there right away if we wanted to see it. We only had an hour at the location and it was quite far away. We really had to hustle to get there and back again, and remain on schedule.
When we first got to the site we were greeted by a row of gift shops that were selling the usual touristy junk. We basically just walked right past them without stopping at all to look around. No time to look at crap we didn't need that day.
Once we passed through the gauntlet of shops we came to the beginnings of the lake itself.
The lake was emerald green in color with crystal clear water and it was set within a forested mountain background.
It was an extremely picturesque location if you ask me.
There were hotels at that point that looked out over the water and a large dock where electric boats were periodically picking up passengers to take them out on a tour across the lake.
Off to the side there were these wooden boathouses that I'm pretty sure have been there for nearly 100 years, if not longer.
I saw a picture of the site online that dated back to 1945 and they were there in the photo at that time, so I imagine that they were built even before then.
We passed by the boathouses as we made our way to the trail that took us to the viewing platform.
The space between the wooden structures made for a great spot to take pictures. I liked the rustic, weather worn wood juxtaposed with the smooth clearness of the water. All of that with the complementary color schemes and the great lighting. You can't beat a spot like that for photos if you ask me.
I would have taken a 100 pictures there if we had more time but we were on a schedule and had to keep moving along the path.
The paved road turned into a gravelly trail that took us around the lake and through the woods.
The walk was pleasant but it was actually a lot farther than we had expected and we started to wonder if we had heard the bus driver correctly when he gave the group the instructions.
Luckily we passed some folks on the trail that we recognized from the bus. That reassured us that we were headed in the right direction. The lake was almost always in sight during the walk, just beyond the trees.
I didn't time it, but I would say that the walk took us at least 15 minutes in one direction, if not more. It felt like a long time though because of our schedule constraint. Getting back to the bus on time stayed in the back of our minds making me a little anxious. We didn't want to be the couple who lost track of time and held up the entire tour group. There is always one couple on every tour like that and everyone else always silently hates them for their inconsideration.
My wifes parents ended up turning around about half way down the trail and after considering turning around several times ourselves, we finally made it to the look out.
We saw that there were other people from our bus tour there so that calmed us down a lot. It made us realize that we probably had more time than we expected. We could leave when they left at the very least.
We are really fast walkers so we would definitely beat them back to the bus, so if anyone was going to hold up the tour it wouldn't be us.
We stayed and looked out over the water for a decent amount of time then.
The lake is one of Germany's deepest lakes and supposedly it is one of the cleanest lakes in all of Europe. Only paddle and electric motor boats are allowed on it, which greatly reduces the amount of pollution that can enter it. In the photo you can see that the boat had stopped in front of a shear rock wall of one of the mountains. Supposedly, that location is known for its echo. The tour plays a horn there to demonstrate the areas acoustics and then plays along for some time with the reverberating sound. Source. The description sounds pretty amazing to me and I would have liked to do something like that if it was possible.
I took a few photos of my wife at the location and then we headed out along the trail, back to the village area and then back to the bus.
We had a little time left for a last look at the lake and to grab a snack before meeting up with everyone else. Actually, no one was late at any point during the day, which was pretty surprising considering how large tour groups usually go. Anyway...
Königssee was another location that I wish we had more time at since it was such a picturesque destination. I would have liked to take a boat tour on the water and to continue on hiking down the trail around the lake. If only we had been there longer... Nonetheless, I'm glad that we went that day even though our time was brief and limited. It wasn't a location that I had known about, so we wouldn't have seen it at all had we not gone on the tour that day. It's a spot that I would visit again myself too, so I could easily recommend it to others. If you do go there, just give yourself more time to fully enjoy it.
