More German than Germany

Leavenworth Day 3

After our busy Thursday, Nellie and I had an accidentally slow starting Friday, both sleeping in and only emerging mid-morning. We'd been thinking about going on a hike in the mountains to a lake, but ended up doing the complete opposite. I hadn't had a good chance to really explore the crazy little village yet, so we thought we'd just go there for a short time in the afternoon. That stretched out to be the entire afternoon, as I stuck my head into lots of the shops, giggled at the decor, and we snaffled as many free samples as possible from the lolly shops. In the hat shop we tried on all the silly hats, and had a great deal of fun. Apparently that pretty much summarises the childhood of a Leavenworth inhabitant.

The town is very curious. In the 1960s it was struggling, and a committee decided to make it a themed village. Not because of any particular Bavarian connections, apart from the appearance of the mountains. So all the buildings were made up to look Bavarian, and the place has since flourished with festivals most weekends, theatre, music, and thousands of tourists every week. This week is Oktoberfest, the largest outside of Munich, and they were expecting 10,000 people over the weekend. The buildings all look like the idyllic Germany you never really see, with pristine paint and no graffiti. It's Germany for those who don't want to travel to see the real thing. And it's fascinating! There's excellent people watching to be had, and some pretty amusing shops to nosey around in.

We finished up with bratwurst at a local place, then went to apparently the best place for milkshakes ever. Americans always complain about milkshakes everywhere else in the world, and I can see why. I couldn't finish my delicious chocolate peanut butter one, it was just too rich. But the diner was incredible, just like you'd expect to see from the movies, complete with jukebox and Elvis pictures plastering the walls.

We both had things to get done that evening - Nellie needed to get some work done, and I had a bag to pack up, again. So we went back and settled into our separate activities. Well, I read my book by the fire, played with the cat, then packed while watching Mulan.

Leavenworth is beautiful, and I hope I can get back there some day. I'd love to explore more. Perhaps getting fit enough to go for some proper hikes in the mountains should be my goal...