Ettal Basilica (Monastery, Parish, and Pilgrimage Church)

On October 22, they day after the boys' birthday party, we packed up the car and hit the road toward the German Alps. We had reservations at Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch for two nights. The drive was an easy 4 hours, except for the small stretch in Austria where our GPS went on the fritz and didn't have a clue as to where we were.


We arrived at the hotel, unpacked the car, and decided to head out on our first excursion: The Ettal Monastery. In order to get there we had to drive up some very skinny roads. Skinny roads are nothing new when you live in Europe, but this one was up a mountain on the side of a cliff. After a few near death experiences we finally made it to the top and I could breath again. We parked outside the monastery, 900 meeters above sea level.



It was founded in 1330 by Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian in fulfilment of an oath after he returned from Italy. It was built on a strategic trade route between Italy and Augsburg. The abbey's "foundation stone" is the Ettal Madonna, a statuette of the Virgin Mary which was brought back from Pisa and soon became a site of pilgrimage.


Here is the dome ceiling depicting the Benedictine heaven with the saints beneath the Holy Trinity.


Inside the chapel is accented all over with gold and marble.




Ettal Abbey also owns agricultural enterprises, several inns, a secondary school with boarding facilities, an art publishers, a distillery and a brewery.

Today the abbey still brews its own beer, a tradition dating back over 400 years, and also produces a renowned herbal liqueur - made from 40 herbs with no artificial additives - which is widely regarded as very therapeutic.

The abbey is still home to about 50 monks, including on from Compton, California. Before we left made a generous donation at the gift shop and loaded the car with two 6 packs of the Ettal Beer and a large bottle of Blueberry Liquor (just doing our part to keep the monks financially secure).



On our way home we stopped near the pedestrain zone in Garmisch for dinner. I was starving, so we went to the closest place: Pizza Hut. The windows were labeled with thier slogan - "Pizza the American Way". Their pizza was the closest to american we have had, but still not the same. I think the main difference is that they have chuncks of cheese instead of shredded cheese evenly spread and melted. They also served fancy coffee and cappucino, which you won't find in the states. It was still very good and the boys loved the pasta.




After dinner we walked through the shopping zone. All the shops were closed, unfortunately, but we enjoyed looking at the window displays. Maddox found this giant boar statue and spent several minutes running in circles around it.



We eventually made our way back to the hotel, sampled the Curator (the monks' dessert beer which was way too dark for my taste) and called it a night. We have a big day of visiting Neuschwanstein Castle tomorrow!