At some point during our first six months in Munich, the Snook casually mentioned that we should go ride on Falkor. I was like, “Wait, what?!” He’d somehow learned about the existence of Bavaria Filmstadt, the local movie studio facility, and that it had a tour where you could literally sit on Falkor the luckdragon from The Neverending Story. I was all in on that idea.

Bavaria Filmstadt has been around under various names for over 100 years. Alfred Hitchcock made his first film there, and the many notable productions filmed in part there include The Great Escape, The Sound of Music, Cabaret, Downfall, and Das Boot. And of course, relevant to my own personal interests – a little 1971 movie called Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory…

The film studios are south of the Munich city center along the Isar, and not that far from where we live. We picked a nice autumn day and had a nice slow 45min pootle along the river on our bicycles.

Here’s the entrance to the studios. We had pre-booked tickets for the 90min tour. The website mentioned English tours once a day, but we discovered when we got there that they weren’t happening anymore because demand had dropped during Covid. Thankfully they had an app that provided some English commentary so we wouldn’t be completely lost.

The entranceway has some fun exhibits set up, like this scale model of the U-96 from Das Boot. There were also a couple food trucks, so we grabbed a quick lunch before the tour kicked off. Then we were ushered onto a little train which drove us around past some of the studios and offices. Our first stop was a “4D Motion Ride” called Mogli’s Dschungel Abenteur. It’s one of those things where you’re watching a very disorienting 3D movie while the seating moves up and down and water occasionally sprays in your face. It was… not my favourite part of the day.

Then the actual studio tour began. Our group weaved our way through different film sets and props from the movies over the years. I got the impression that the layout depends greatly on what’s been filming there recently. This was part of the backdrop for the upcoming filmed version of The Magic Flute that had filmed six months earlier.

From there we shuffled straight into the White House! This hallway had apparently featured in the upcoming Kung Fury 2 featuring none other than…

President Schwarzenegger himself. 😂

They had a large exhibit of set pieces from the Jim Button German films, including Emma the Locomotive. I haven’t read these books but they’re by Michael Ende, author of The Neverending Story. 

I believe this was Nepomuk the Dragon.

We were were shuffling between rooms when I glanced upwards and stopped dead in my tracks. The Southern Oracle!

At one point we shuffled down a hallway with lots of photos from past productions. At the end of it was a small exhibit of items from The Neverending Story, including a mural of the Auryn.

Morla, the Ancient One! Just looking at that face, I could hear that wheezing voice in my mind.

The Rockbiter! I like that they included a joyous representation of him, rather than the sad “They look like big, strong hands, don’t they?” version that makes me want to cry.

I didn’t spot any props from Willy Wonka but I did see it represented in a photo on the wall.

They had a major exhibit from Das Boot, including this scale (I think?) model of the turret from the submarine.

Another scale model of the sub. They had exhibits outside showing how the crew filmed shots from the movie as well as the 2018 TV series. We then joined the queue shuffling into the long building behind…

…which turned out to be the actual set of the submarine!

It was a pretty tight fit!

Would it surprise you to learn that he was actually quoting lines from The Hunt for Red October the whole time? “One ping only, please,” I heard him growl. ❤️

Note: the sub is pretty small, and there are places where you have to climb through low bulkhead doors like behind the Snook here!

Another studio had sets from the recent sci-fi film Stowaway.

The Snook was very excited by this exhibit of sets from Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar. We walked through the mock Gaulish village…

…and found Obelix’s quarry where he works on the menhirs (standing stones)!

They also had the set used for Caesar’s dungeon…

…including a pool filled with (thankfully fake) crocodiles!

Another outdoor set was a Viking village from the Vicky the Viking film.

The tour also had a couple interactive areas where I didn’t take photos. One was the classroom set from the German film trilogy Fack ju Göhe (which translate to, I kid you not, “F**k you Goethe” in English!). There a couple volunteers sat at desks and recited lines which were then edited into a scene from the movie. Another was about special effects and had a few of us (including me and the Snook) in a mock train carriage while a guy scrolled scenery out the window. (Apparently you could download these clips when you left, but we didn’t bother.)

The gift shop also had some fun Neverending Story merch, including a box full of Auryns and some very cute little Falkors!

Our final stop was to visit the luckdragon himself. They had him set up in a small building near the entrance to the studios, and to my shock not many of the tourists there that day seemed very excited to visit him.

A couple stuck their heads in as we were geeking out and taking photos of each other riding Falkor. The guy nicely offered to take one of the two of us, then grudgingly admitted he’d never seen the movie! 😱

Look at that face! Can’t you just hear his voice? I felt like a kid again.

I forgot to mention – we were there a couple days before Halloween and they were prepping for a special event. The whole tour was being made over with a haunted house theme for a “Spookytour,” and we saw lots of creepy props and zombie cast members getting ready. The Snook didn’t want to particularly do that, but I couldn’t resist saying “Spookytour” over and over. And wow, special Halloween Dunkin’ Donuts!

And then we headed home, enjoying a very autumnal ride through the Bavarian forest.

We crossed a high rail bridge and you can see that the trees were really changing colour.

And a final view of the Isar before we got home…

On our way back from Barcelona last October, I pulled out my phone and idly checked the Hohenschangau ticket office, as I had many times over the past few months. To my delight, they actually had some tickets available for the next weekend! On a whim I bought a pair and we quickly arranged a weekend away in Füssen, the nearest town to the famous castle of Neuschwanstein.

Füssen is southwest of Munich, less than three hours on the train. (It’s right next to the Austrian border, the next valley over from Garmisch-Partenkirchen.) The weather that weekend was gorgeous, and it was thrilling to see the mountains rising up in the distance. And… is that a little castle I spy?? 🏰

We stayed in the Hotel Schlosskrone, just a short walk from the train station. The view from our hotel was pretty glorious.

We headed out into the town for a wander and to find some dinner. Füssen was founded in Roman times and it’s retained quite a medieval feel.

It’s pretty touristy too, being the closest place to Ludwig’s castles. Phew, €500+ for a cuckoo clock?!

We also got a glimpse of the Hohes Schloss (“High Castle”) up on the hill, the former summer residence of the prince-bishops of Augsburg.

The next day we headed back out to check it out in the sunshine…

Gosh it was beautiful there.

We were heading towards the river, where we knew there were was a waterfall. Along the way we ducked in the courtyard of St. Mang’s, a former Benedictine monastery. Now it contains the Museum of Füssen.

I loved how decorated the buildings were in town. This was the Church of the Holy Spirit.

The river in Füssen is called the Lech, and it flows from a lake in the Alps all the way to the Danube. Here’s the Snook on the Lechbrücke (“Lech Bridge”).

We had another view of St. Mang’s from the river.

We crossed the river and hiked a short distance to the west, where we reached our destination – the Lechfall.

The water pours down a series of steps at a narrow bend in the river with high cliffs on either side. Up on the cliff there is a small memorial to King Maximilian II of Bavaria. There’s also a small footbridge across the river that we headed down to get a better view.

I recorded a little video too.

Behind us, looking back east towards town…

The water in the river was incredibly clear.

We crossed the river in search of the Via Claudia Augusta, the ancient Roman road created by Drusus and his Emperor son Claudius. Now parts of it are a popular hiking path marked with replicas of the Roman milestones.

We followed it north towards the Tal der Sinne (“Valley of the Senses”).

Along the way we passed lots of charming houses, both modern and traditional.

We made it to The Valley and found an old ski jump! That was pretty cool.

And the Snook got to impersonate a sundial.

We hiked back into town in search of sustenance. We passed a lot of hotels and guest houses, but tourist numbers were still pretty low due to Covid.

I thought this building covered in birdhouses was really cute.

Back in town, we did some shopping. I lobbied hard, but no, he regrettably did not buy the hat.

We found a sunny spot for lunch and beers…

The Snook may not have bought a hat, but I did! I got it at the Hutladen.

The next day, it was time to head to the castles! 🏰

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I can’t believe I’m still documenting last year’s travels! We have been incredibly fortunate to get to travel, even during the pandemic. In October, I had a work event in Barcelona and so the Snook decided to accompany me. We headed there a few days early so we had time to play tourist.

Neither of us had ever been to Barcelona before. Actually, other than a short work trip the Snook made to Madrid 20 years ago, neither of us had ever really been to Spain! We caught a Saturday afternoon flight from Munich and were there within a couple hours. We checked into our hotel and then went out in search of dinner. It was a lovely night.

It was nice to see palm trees again! We had made a 9pm restaurant booking off a recommendation from my boss Enrique, and we had plenty of time to walk through the city and explore. Our route took us past the gates of the famous Citadel Park.

Our dinner booking was at Passadis del Pep. We honestly had no idea what to expect. Our first challenge was just finding the place – there’s no sign, and you enter through an unobtrusive hallway. We noticed right away that our 9pm reservation – which felt quite late for us – was actually the first sitting of the night, as the place was still pretty empty!

Our waiter was an older guy who thankfully spoke a little English. “We have no menu,” he said. “We cook whatever is fresh and in season. Are you happy to be surprised?” We said we were. The starter was the classic “pa amb tomàquet” (bread with tomato) with some olives and chips.

I knew we were going to be in for a lot of seafood! Next course was a tuna tartare doused in olive oil with some crisp toasts.

The food just kept coming. Next was a pot of all different clams and pippis. This was my first time ever having razor clams! The Snook was in heaven, and we eagerly sopped up the pot liquor with bread.

See? Told you he was happy.

Next we had grilled Padrón peppers with sea salt, and a plate of lightly battered and fried baby shrimps. I was dubious of the Snook’s advice to just eat them, legs and all, but they were so tiny they had crisped up like French fries!

Little grilled squids! Just the right amount of char…

Next up was a local specialty of wild mushrooms with a very rich sauce. (Definitely butter, maybe even some egg yolks?) I liked this, but the Snook wasn’t as much of a fan.

At this point I noticed there was giant Jamón on a special stand behind the Snook. *drool*

These were like a langoustine, I think? With some sweet caramelised onions on top.

Yet more prawns! At this point we were getting pretty full, and there was no sign of the parade of dishes coming to an end. I flagged down our charming waiter to ask him how much more there was to come. “Steak or fish?” he replied. “Steak,” I sighed.

But we were feeling great. We drank an entire bottle of a local Catalan wine. That probably helped.

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In September, we went on a very special trip to Italy.

As always with these travel posts, I have to put them in context. This one goes way back! Five years ago, I went to a special foodie symposium at the Sydney Opera House hosted by acclaimed Danish chef René Redzepi (from Noma). He was joined onstage by many other chefs, including David Chang (from Momofuku) and Massimo Bottura (from Osteria Francescana). The event was all about the future of food, how we eat as a society, how food and culture intersect and impact the environment, and the responsibility of chefs to educate. Not only are these guys all really smart, they’re literally the best in the world at what they do. When you get a chance to eat at one of their restaurants, you take it.

Fast forward to September 2020, not long after we arrived in Germany. I started thinking about which bucket list restaurants we could visit in Europe, and I discovered that Osteria Francescana takes bookings six months in advance. It’s been rated the best restaurant in the world twice and currently has three Michelin stars. (Also, if you watched Master of None on Netflix, it was featured – along with Massimo himself – in Season 2.) Covid was still making everything uncertain, but we figured it was worth taking a gamble. The restaurant is very small (it only has 12 tables!!), but we managed to get a reservation for the following April. Unfortunately, we went into lockdown over winter and things were still very uncertain in March. The restaurant was open but we weren’t sure if we’d be able to get in/out of Italy without having to quarantine. Reluctantly, we cancelled the reservation and decided to try again. Thankfully we were able to get another booking for the following September, a full year after the initial idea. And happily, this time we were vaccinated and able to go.

As usual, we decided to train it. We caught the EuroCity train from Munich to Bologna, travelling south across Austria through the Tyrolean Alps to Italy. The trip takes about 7 hours and features truly stunning scenery. We were lucky that that weather was perfect and we had great views of soaring bridges, charming villages, and hilltop fortresses. (Note: we wore masks the whole time and I only had him take it off briefly for the photo!)

As we passed through Verona, a cheeky Capulet bit his thumb at me! 😂

At Bologna we had to change trains for the short ride to Modena, our destination for the weekend. Modena is known for UNESCO World Heritage sites, balsamic vinegar, Enzo Ferrari, Luciano Pavarotti, and of course, a very special restaurant. We hauled our bags over to our hotel and the headed out into the city to explore.

We got to Piazza Roma just as the sun was setting. The Ducal Palace runs down one side and has fountains out in front.

I’d found a promising place for dinner so we went for a wander through the cobbled streets of the historic center.

We headed to Sosta Emiliana, where we grabbed a small table outside. The restaurant specialised in local delicacies from Emilia-Romagna like tigella (Modenese flatbreads), meats and cheeses, and sparkling Lambrusco. We went with platters that meant we got to taste a bit of everything!

On our way back to the hotel we passed the Duomo di Modena (Modena Cathedral), a UNESCO World Heritage site. It looked very dramatic lit up against the night sky.

“Have we had too much Lambrusco or… is it leaning a bit?” we wondered. Definitely some funky angles going on there.

The next day the morning dawned hot and sunny. We had time to fill before our reservation, so we headed into the Parco Giardino Ducale Estense, the park that was formerly the gardens of the Ducal Palace. (As you can see, we dressed up a bit for our fancy lunch.)

The old part of Modena is shaped almost like a pentagon so we went for a long stroll around it. This beautiful building on the Viale delle Rimembranze is actually a bank!

The Snook scoped out the local real estate prices.

We also went back to the Cathedral and ventured inside. (It’s where Pavarotti’s funeral was held!) It’s over 800 years old and features lots of different styles of carvings and embellishments. The stone lions next to the entrance date to the Roman times and were thought to have been found while digging the foundations. The Cathedral also features the burial site of St. Geminianus, the patron saint of Modena.

We’d worked up quite an appetite by this point, so it was time to go to lunch! The restaurant entrance is quite unassuming with only a tiny sign, and we probably would’ve walked right past if not for the small group of people waiting nearby. We spent the time taking photographs with some of the other guests and gawking at the Maseratis and Ferraris parked down the street.

And then we were ushered inside!

Rather than a single big space, the restaurant had a few different rooms and we were in one with only four tables.  The walls were decorated with fine art and I felt a little daunted to be sitting there in a dress I’d sewn myself!

Buckle up, because you’re about to get a LOT of food photos…

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When I was 17, I spent six weeks in the summer of 1994 living and studying in Krefeld, Germany as part of the Indiana University Honors Program in Foreign Languages. There were about thirty of us, and we spent most of our time living with host families and going to class in the city. We did make a couple of group trips though, including one to Heidelberg to visit the famous Schloß Heidelberg. I remember vividly that it was my favourite castle in all of Germany. (I even posted some photos on my very first website way back in 1996!)

Fast forward 27 years…

After a Covid “Schnelltest” first thing in the morning, we boarded the train from Munich to Heidelberg. We’d decided to splurge and go for first class (mostly because you can reserve a seat that way), and to our surprise we had an entire compartment to ourselves! The trip was around 4 hours and we got there around lunchtime.

We dropped off our bags at our hotel and headed down into the Altstadt. Heidelberg’s historic main street is quite a bit longer than a lot of other cities, and there were plenty of folks out and about.

Down a side street we caught a glimpse of the Brückentor (bridge gate) at the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge) across the Neckar River. We also stopped to check out the lovely pink stone Jesuitenkirche (Jesuit Church). But our stomachs were growling, and we had a very special destination in mind for lunch…

The Schnookeloch! Somehow when we were planning the trip, the Snook noticed that there was a historic guesthouse with his name (sort of) on it. 😂 As near we can figure out, “Schnooke” in the local dialect refers to jokes or pranks, and “Loch” is German for “hole.” Fitting name for a very old student pub!

The burgers and beers were pretty good! On my way to the bathrooms, I noticed that the tables inside were covered in hundreds of student graffiti carvings. Pretty neat! But it was finally time to head to the castle…

We took the Heidelberger Bergbahn funicular railway up to the castle. Interestingly, I don’t remember taking that back in 1994. I suspect that our tour bus simply drove us up to the castle. (Any other IUHPFL alumni remember?)

The castle is a beautiful ruin. As far back as the 19th century there were debates about whether to fully restore it, but thankfully the decision was made it leave most of it alone. The way it looks now is pretty much the same as when Mark Twain visited and wrote about it in 1880. My memories of it from 27 years ago were mostly about being an overly dramatic teenager and swanning about moodily thinking about Romantic poets. (I still can’t quite believe I’m getting to revisit some of these places again.)

After walking around the castle walls, we headed into the courtyard in search of the Großes Fass (Big Barrel), also known as the Heidelberg Tun…

Rumoured to be the world’s largest wine barrel, I definitely remembered visiting it back in 1994. But… I remembered it being a lot bigger? Confused, we rounded the next corner and—OH. That’s the big barrel. 😂

That’s more like it! We made the circuit up the stairs to the viewing platform on the top, then back down the other side. With a Snookums for scale:

We headed back out to walk around the gardens behind the castle. The views of the city were glorious. The castle isn’t really as high up the hill as I’d remembered. The weather was overcast but hot.

We headed back to the funicular to go even higher. The castle is at 120m above sea level, but you can ride up to Molkenkur at 289m and then switch to the older line to go up to the Königstuhl at 550m. The old line is slower and smaller and doesn’t run as frequently, so we had to wait a while to board. The trip on the upper section takes about 10 minutes and at times you’re climbing a 41% grade! 😳

But it’s all worth it for that view…

There’s a hotel at the top of the mountain, as well as an observatory, a falconry (?!), a kids’ fairytale park, and many walking trails. We decided to follow the family walking trail, marked with these rather creepy signs…

We saw very few other people.

The family trail was a big loop and had some rustic play areas. The Snook found a brilliant orange slug and took a photo of it. There were also several creepy structures built out of old tree branches, which gave off a very witchy fairytale vibe.

We caught the funicular back down the mountain and walked through the Altstadt again. Back down by the Alte Brücke we patiently waited our turn to take a photo with the famous Brückenaffe (Bridge Monkey), who’s meant to bring you luck. 🐵

I should mention that I made heavy use of this blog post for planning our time in Heidelberg. We took the author’s advice and headed to the Vetter’s Alt Heidelberger-Brauhaus for dinner, and everything was delicious!

That was a pretty big day. My smartwatch says we did nearly 19K steps! We headed back to the hotel to crash.

The next morning, we took advantage of the fact that Heidelberg is a university town to have a hipster cafe breakfast at deer. (Honestly, going out for breakfast is the #1 thing I’ve missed in Corona lockdown.) The Snook was very, very happy with his pourover…

After breakfast we headed back to the Altstadt and finally crossed the Alte Brücke.

Our goal was the Philosophenweg (Philosopher’s Way), a walking path high up on the other side of the Neckar. To get to it, we decided to climb the Schlangenweg (Snake’s Way). This is an old narrow vineyard path that climbs nearly 90m as it snakes back and forth up the hillside, with stone walls on either side of you. It was actually pretty gruelling, and thankfully there are a couple spots with benches to stop and take in the view.

We even saw sheep!

We finally reached the Philosophenweg, which was thankfully flat. We meandered past more vineyards and gardens with lovely flowers. At one point, there was an outlook with some seats, and an old man was playing the guitar. It was heavenly.

We slowly made our way back down to city level. At the end of the Philosophenweg is the Philosophengarten, which was a riot of colourful blooms.

I took advantage of the backdrop to take some cute photos of us.

We walked past many university buildings and charming houses. This one was one of my favourites. It has a poem painted on the side:

Behüt dies Haus
von Wetter und Wind
und Menschen die langweilig sind.

“Watch over this house
from weather and wind
and people who are boring.”

We checked out of the hotel and stashed our bags in a locker at the train station. Then we hopped on a bus and headed to the nearby town of Schwetzingen. This hadn’t been part of our original plan, but I realised when looking at my old website that the IUHPFL trip had included a stop at Schloß Schwetzingen and the Snook cleverly figured out how to get there. More nostalgia! When we got to Schwetzingen, we had a quick lunch at a Mexican restaurant near the palace.

Then we headed over to the palace…

I remember that, as a 17-year-old from Indiana, stepping into that formal garden felt like Alice going into Wonderland. I’d never seen anything like it in my entire life.

The garden was established just as the more formal French style was giving way to the English landscape garden, so it’s unique in the way it tries to marry the two.

While the central vista features strict geometrical beds, topiary, and large fountains, the sides and back have more rambly, natural feeling paths with hidden grottoes and follies.

I was most looking forward to The Temple of Apollo. I remember spending a big chunk of my time in the garden back in 1994 having lunch on the lawn in front of the temple, swooning about and pretending to be a pagan. It looked exactly as I’d remembered.

We were delighted to find out you can actually go under/inside the monument and peek out behind the fountain.

We also came across the Vogelbad (bird bath), an over-the-top circular aviary built around a fountain, where dozens of bird sculptures perched around the roof spit water down into the center.

In the alcoves around the sides were many living birds, including quite a few from Australia! Here’s the Snook chatting with the budgerigars.

The far end of the palace gardens have a lake of sorts with little brooks with bridges over them. It’s all very charming.

We noticed that the Snook bore a resemblance to the statue of the Danube river god…

…and happily, we found my doppelgänger in a statue of Athena. She’s clearly taking a selfie! 😂

Rain was threatening, so it was time to leave the palace and catch the bus back to Heidelberg. We collected our suitcases and then hopped on the train back to Munich, getting back late Sunday night. I honestly never expected to get to visit these places again in my life, so it was such a special and unique treat to see these sights again! ❤️

After only glimpsing the Chiemsee from a distance on our trip to Salzburg, we knew we needed to head back on a nice day. It’s a large freshwater lake with several islands you can visit, including one with a palace! So when a suitable weather forecast presented itself a few weeks back, we caught the train southeast from Munich towards Prien am Chiemsee…

But not this train, of course. We took a modern train from Munich. This little green steam train is actually the Chiemsee-Bahn, which runs about a mile from the main station in Prien down to the edge of the lake. You could easily walk that distance, but we couldn’t resist getting to ride on heritage-listed choo-choo!

The train lets you out right at the water and then the engine detaches, spins around on a turntable, and hooks up to head back the other direction.

All of the Chiemsee ferries and cruises depart from this landing, and there are restaurants, a Ferris wheel, boat rental, a promenade, a swimming center, and lots of folks just hanging out, enjoying the weather. The view of the lake was really spectacular.

We hopped on a ferry and headed to the Herreninsel (“Men’s island”), the largest one and the one with the palace.

When you get to the island, you end up at a visitor center next to an old Augustinian Monastery. There’s about a 20 minute walk to the Herrenchiemsee Palace, or you can take a horse carriage ride. We went for the walk, strolling through a beautiful shady wood…

We eventually reached a break in the woods and stepped out into a formal garden, straight out of Versailles! 😳

It’s not accidental. It was built by King Ludwig II as the third and last of his famous castles (after Neuschwanstein and Linderhof), and he deliberately modelled it after Versailles. Dude had a fixation with Louis XIV! Several of the fountains are copies of ones at the French palace. (They weren’t running constantly; it seems like they were going every half an hour on the day we were there.)

The only way to see inside the palace is to book a tour, and I was lucky enough to get us on one of the few English versions. It was us and two other couples, and the tour guide took us inside and through all of the completed rooms. Unfortunately photography wasn’t allowed, but you can see some pictures on the Wikipedia page. One thing I found fascinating was that Ludwig had his architects copy Versailles pretty closely, but he also built in secret “modern” technology, like central heating from furnaces under the palace. He also had a trap door under his dining table, which cranked up and down like an elevator so it could magically appear with food on it! The Hall of Mirrors was spectacular, as was the world’s largest Meissen porcelain chandelier. Sadly, Ludwig ran out of money before the palace was finished, and he only spent like ten days there before he mysteriously died at 40. (Nowadays they use the unfinished part to host art exhibitions.)

Leaving the palace, you look across the sunken formal garden all the way to the Chiemsee in the distance!

After a wander back to ferry landing, we caught another boat over to the Fraueninsel (“ladies’ island”).

While the Herreninsel is mainly a tourist destination, the Fraueninsel has a Benedictine convent and a little village of about 300. It’s car-free, so we had a lovely time walking around and checking out all the little houses and shops. I noticed that several of the places had rental details on them, and I can’t imagine a more beautiful place to spend a week just chilling out. We were also delighted to spot some familiar flags. There are Antipodeans living on Fraueninsel! 🇦🇺🇳🇿

We took another small cruise to end the day, but we were getting a bit sunburnt and tired at this point!

To get home, we disembarked at Prien Stock and took the Chiemsee-Bahn back to Prien train station, before catching the regional train back to Munich. Lovely day out on the water!