Sunday, 16 July 2006
After I returned to Munich from Tegelberg, I took the 15:45 train in the direction of Salzburg. But after about one hour, I got off at the stop Prien am Chiensee. Chiemsee is a lake surrounded by mountains--my German supervisor highly recommended it.
As I got off, I was confused about everything--mainly because I did not have a map. The person at the train station information centre was not particularly helpful either. Walking around for about half an hour, I finally figured out that the Chiemseebahn (train) was a private operation, and I could take the train from the Chiemsee train station to the shore of the lake.
The round-trip fare cost 3 Euros. The Chiemseebahn is a historical one--it still puffed and steamed as it went along its merry way through Prien at about 20 km/h. About eight minutes later, the train carried us to the Stock station by the Chiemsee lake.
The quay was just a short walk away, offering ferries to the islands in the middle of the lake and to the other side of the lake. Indeed, it is said that on one of the islands, Herrenchiemsee, there is a lovely garden. However, it was already evening, and I did not have much time to stay around, let alone getting to these islands.
The lake was larger than I thought--such that the mountains were quite far away and not as dramatic as the ones I saw on Tegelberg this morning. Indeed, the lake was almost like a sea. The waves sent to the shore sparkled in the sunlight, and sails dotted the surface like sesame on a bread.
On such a pleasant Sunday afternoon, the quayside was understandably full of people. Most of them were holding an ice cream.
At around 18:05, I took the last train back to Prien. While waiting for the 19:03 train back to Munich, I ate dinner at the train station, watching people.