A Weekend in the Swiss Alps!

Its taken me a while to finally post our weekend of adventures in the Swiss Alps and at the “Passion of the Christ” play in Oberammergau… For starters, the scenery… Admittedly it, as always, took us a little longer to get there than expected… We went armed on our expedition to get last minute “Passion” tickets with every possible map-quest map possible… But lack of exit signs on the autobahn and, of course, the ever so handy ability to speak German managed to take us on a little more scenic tour of southern Germany than we had originally planned… I’ve learned very quickly that as a passenger seat navigator the one thing you want to avoid at all cost is missing your exit on the autobahn… Often exits are 20km apart with no place for one of my mom’s famous u -turns… So your in for a little extra ride if you aren’t paying attention…

Anyhow… The good part of our extended trip was that we got a   beautiful view of the German countryside and mounting Swiss Alps in the distance as we headed South that Saturday… Our ever-so-brilliant plan was to try to snag 4 of about 30-60 last minute tickets to the famous “Passion” play in the little village of Oberammergau. So we spent Saturday night in an the gorgeous town of Garmisch, just at the base of the tallest mountain in Germany, the Zugspitze (at 2,962m). Our little guesthouse was in the center of the quaint little shops and restaurants of Garmisch, so we had a fabulous dinner there before striking out exploring… As a side note, we quickly discovered that the Germans are VERY serious about their “no-dog-pooping” signs… we saw no less than 2 unique signs, such as this one! Ha! :-D With the breath- taking mountains as our backdrop… I mean really, take a look at the view from our room balcony!

The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn to head back up the road to Oberammergau… D rayton and Mom brilliantly managed to be the very first people in the box office line and we waited for no less than 4-5 hours until the last minute tickets went on-sale… Needless to say, Carolyn and I made quite a few friends while taking our turn in line… It was an interesting experience but well worth it because we managed to snag four tickets! And for way cheaper than the package deals that had sold out before we managed to grab one!

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Oberammergau before the passions play began… Mom wisely packed a picnic lunch and we shopped and, of course, found the gelato stand to keep us busy…

Now the Oberammergau play… the “Passions of the Christ” play is only performed every ten years by this little village. The play began in 1634 and has been performed once every ten years since then. Apparently, in the early 1600’s the village of Oberammergau, along  with surrounding villages were struck with the Black plague. Thousands were lost. The town elders gathered the town together and as a whole the entire town vowed that they would reproduce the story of the passion of Christ once a decade if only there village would be spared. Legend has it that not a single person died after that day. And even more surprisingly,  this little village has kept it’s promise ever since then. It is truly a community undertaking. The play is massive and at any one time there may be as many as a thousand actors on the beautifully massive stage. The play is only performed from May to October every ten years, thus making tickets nearly impossible to get. The gorgeous outdoor (sheltered for the audience) amphitheatre uses the Swiss Alps as the backdrop scenery. The theatre seats more than 4,000 people and plays 5 days a week… There wasn’t an empty seat in the place, so you do the math… Yup, that’s right… The “Passions” play reaches millions and visitors travel from all around the world to witness the incredible  legacy of this tiny village… And we got tickets! :-)

Words can’t describe the experience itself… It was long and in German but the music was to die for and the sheer magnitude of the play was what kept all of us in awe… From babies and young children, to donkeys, horses, and even a camel on stage! The crucifixion scene was definitely too much for words… Witnessing it in person on a stage truly brought the magnitude of the story to life. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience I recommend to all…

We were so happy Drayton got to be a part of seeing it with us… He headed back to the States for his annual week-long beach trip with Uncle Sam and the boys… And then he’s back off to VMI for his 3rd classman year… Carolyn and I have been enjoying a little more downtime and a little break from the constant traveling (not that it’s not exciting, but it sure is exhausting!)… Carolyn will start school at the end of the month, and I’ve got another month and a half in Germany before I head  to Oxford for the year…

Our next big adventure you may ask??… Salzburg, Austria this weekend! We’re going to go spend a long weekend with Dad exploring the hills, palaces, and cathedrals of Salzburg! I personally plan to run through a meadow with my yodeling hat singing “The hills are alive!!!” at the top of my lungs, but hey… That may not be everyone’s cup of tea… haha :-) I love me some “Sound of Music!”

More to come soon as our adventures this weekend unravel!

With Love from Germany… ~Mary Elizabeth