Day Six - Lake Starnberg, Andechs

(Above) The Benedictine Monastery on top of the "Holy Mountain" in Andechs. (Below) Their famous brewery offers a sampling of six of the seven beers made on the premises. The Doppelbock Dunkel (far left) was hands down the best one (and the strongest).

(Above) Our Andechs tour guide Ursula gives an overview of the brewery. (Below) A brown cross just off the shore of Lake Starnberg marks the spot where King Ludwig II and his doctor were found dead June 13, 1886. His mother built a chapel there in memory of him.

Our final full day began with a free morning in Oberammergau. I slept in until 8:30 a.m., skipped breakfast and went for a walk alone around the small town from about 9-10:30 a.m. Not much to say here, as it was more just a chance for me to catch my breath and soak in some of the beautiful Bavarian life. One highlight was stopping to pray at the church, Sts. Peter and Paul, and finding myself alone for about 10 minutes while the organist was practicing. From there, I went on a hunt for some nice, sturdy rosaries to get as gifts but surprisingly did not find anything along those lines. There were lots of cheaper rosaries made of small chain link metal or string. Maybe I just looked in the wrong place. My walk concluded along a trail next to a stream that runs through downtown (see picture in yesterday's post) and took me right to the front of the hotel. Mike, the Oberammergau tourism director, noted that it had rained in the days leading up to the pope's visit, that it had become cool and clear for his entire stay and then the clouds rolled in after he left. Indeed the sky became more overcast as the day went on and would remain that way leading up to our departure from Munich on Friday.

From our hotel in Oberammergau, we piled onto the bus and headed to Lake Starnberg for a meeting with the minister of tourism for that area, Klaus, and a two-hour boat ride around the lake. Not much Benedict-related information was given during this part, but it's a safe bet that he visited this area as a child and ocassionally during his vacations as a cardinal. As we sailed toward the other end of the lake, where our hotel was, we passed the spot where King Ludwig II was found dead in 1886 at the age of just 40, about three days after his family tried to push him off the throne by having a doctor (who had never met him) declare him insane and incompetent to rule. He is officially said to have drowned, but bolstering the conspiracy theory that he was murdered were facts that the water was only waist-high where he was found and that he was known to be an excellent swimmer. The appeal of this place reminded me of Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, but without the crowds of conspiracy theorists passing out pamphlets.

After settling into our hotel, we took a beautiful drive through some countryside to get to Andechs Monastery and brewery, which is run by Benedictine monks. The monastery is located on the eastern shore of Lake Ammersee in the middle of Upper Bavaria’s Five-Lakes Region. Although the monks have long stopped participating in the actual brewing process, they make the managerial decisions on the operations. The successful brewery funds the monastery, where only seven monks live right now, and its preservation, as well as St. Boniface Abbey in Munich, where the abbot resides. The monastery dates back more than 500 years, with the church even older (although much of it was rebuilt after a fire in 1669. The campus is impressive and is built on top of a hill that was dubbed "the holy mountain" sometime in the first half of the 1400s.

The brewery is a completely professional operation with the latest equipment, although the recipes have not changed for hundreds of years. Their strongest beer, Doppelbock Dunkel (nearly 8% alcohol) is considered the finest of their beers and was created as a substitute for meals during times of fasting.

One of the highlights of the monastery tour was a special visit to a tiny chapel where the church's "holy treasury" is kept. Items stored here date back more than 1,000 years and include three "blood hosts," or hosts that were reputedly consecrated by popes Gregory I and Leo IX and are said to have miraculously bled (one in the letters "IHS"), and the shirt of St. Elizabeth of Hungary that she is said to have worn on her wedding day. One interesting story about the monastery... shortly before the Andechs family line died out in 1248, the last surviving male took a large portion of the family treasury and hid it from their local rival, the Wittlesbach family. For nearly 150 years, the treasury remained undiscovered. Then on May 26, 1388, the treasury was discovered under the altar of the church, which had previously been the site of the chapel of the Andechs family castle. Legend has it that during Mass, a mouse entered the altar area and had a piece of paper in its mouth. When they looked at the paper, they realized it contained part of the inventory list for the treasury. They began digging shortly after and quickly discovered the treasury. The story is immortalized in one of the story panels along the balcony of the church.

After the tour, we went to the monastery's restaurant, which provided a beautiful view of the farms around it. We sampled six of the seven beers and had our final Bavarian-style meal. Most of our meals this week consisted of pork, bread dumplings and some sort of tasty broth (sometimes including little slivers of what looked like pancakes), with ocassional steak, chicken and veal dishes. One humorous note... what we call "beer bellies" in America are sometimes called "dumpling cemeteries" in Bavaria.

With a 5 a.m. wakeup call awaiting us for our ride to the airport the next morning, we wrapped up our meal around 9 p.m. and headed back to the hotel . . . but not before being reminded why we were here. As we walked past the kitchen area of the restaurant, there stood a picture of then-Cardinal Ratzinger and his brother, holding up a beer with the members of the restaurant staff. We were told that when Pope Benedict visited, he often drank a "radler," a popular Bavarian beer that is an even mix of lemonade and beer.

One final note, much thanks to Nick Mancino and Ed Michelson of Regina Tours for arranging this incredible trip, which I have considered more of a pilgrimage than a press tour.