Only 50 or 60 miles from Munich is the lovely Apline Village of Oberammergau, site of the world famous Passion Play, presented every 10 years. The play was first performed in 1634 and is the result of a vow made by the inhabitants of the village that if God spared them from the effects of the plague then sweeping the region they would perform a passion play every ten years. The play is now performed in years ending with a zero, except 1984 which was the 350th anniversary, and involves over 2000 actors, singers, instrumentalists and technicians, all residents of the village.
That plague was quite a motivator in the region !
Would love to see the play in 2010.
We found the people of Oberammergau to be warm, friendly, nice, helpful people who seemed genuinely glad to have us in their town. Besides the Passion Play, they have turned their town into a tourist resort of sorts. Beats herding goats and probably pays better. Reminds me of another saying . . . "I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted paychecks." Oberammergau reminded me somewhat of Park City.
Wood carvings from Oberammergau wood carving shops are well know and prized throughout Europe. We experienced our first snowfall on this trip while in Oberammergau.
The Peak in the background of the photo has a cross at the top. The shop at the bend in the road behind Melanie is a Kathe Wohlfahrt Shop. Kathe Wohlfahrt has built her business on producing and selling traditional German Christmas items such as Kribben (Nativities), Schwibboden (Christmas scenes in wooden sculptures with candles), Ornaments, Pyramids (devices with Christmas scenes that spin when heat from candles propel blades on top of the device) , Smokers (figures that puff smoke from their pipes and mouths from incense burning) and Music Boxes. http://www.wohlfahrt.com/
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