I secretly harbour a burning, fiery love (to the core of my being) for little village towns. I love the homey atmosphere, the cosy houses, that lovely, blanketing feeling of fire and smoke and cooking things on a stove, the sense of quietude and calm, the clean air, the simplicity. It's for this reason that I've always loved travelling to our family friend's beautiful house in a blue mountains town for this reason. It's also for this reason that I harbour not so easily realisable desires to abscond to a cabin somewhere isolated and secluded to cook, and write, and be alone.
I think that's why I was so comfortable in Oberammergau, the little alpine town we travelled to in Bavaria. We arrived in the dead of night and didn't have much chance to see the surroundings, other than the spire of the town's beautiful embellished church. So when the sun rose the next day it was almost shocking to see that we were surrounded by perfectly formed Gingerbread houses, sloped roof, wooden shuttered windows, hand-painted houses and all. Famous for its wood carvings and its annual Easter crucifiction re-enactment (images from the event were stenciled all over the houses, and immortalised in wooden figurines), Oberammergau reminded me of a children's book we used to have as kids. In it, a family with 14 children (many sets of twins) lived in a mountain town in a cute little cottage, where the mother would make elderflower jam and the children would frolic in the woods. One snowy day (it had turned into winter quite quickly) a carriage went past carrying the King and Queen and their sons and daughters, who came into the house for refreshment and tried the mother's jams. The Queen instantly fell in love and asked the mother to come to the court to be her royal jam-maker. While there, the Queen's four eldest children fell in love with the four eldest of the alpine children, and they had an extravagant quadruple wedding complete with fur hoods and sleigh rides and a cake filled with elderflower jam.
Of course, it's easy when you put it all together. It's the child in me that loves these kinds of towns, the child in me that loves cottages and gingerbread houses and that truly idyllic, truly story-book kind of dream location.
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5 comments:
I hope to live in one of these small towns in the mountains someday... So beautiful!
it's pretty entertaining to see how europe excites you. for me, and most people from the german-austrian-swiss corner, villages like these are the most normal thing on earth. although i have to say that oberammERgau (not oberammagau) is quite picturesque. even though i prefer the actual alps, i guess.
by the way you should go to ettal which is very close to oberammergau. there's a complex of boarding school, beer brewery and a phenomenal basilica.
Sweet Harvest Moon - I know, how lovely!
Eveline - oh it's so exciting!!! There really is nothing like any of this in Australia - we don't have high enough mountains for that kind of snow or those kind of alpine towns (not like new zealand!) and definitely no architecture like that... It's also been wonderful going to italy and seeing all the history, the beautiful old palazzos.
THanks for the correction, I fixed it!! So charming. I wish I could have made it to more places, another friend recommended a town with the highest market in Europe or something? If only I could have been in Bavaria for longer... I really loved it.
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This is such a magical post - that last photo!! It's places like these that made me fall in love with Germany on school exchange years and years ago.
madeleine - I really get your love now! I wish I had more time to spend and I'm getting more and more jealous of your exchange as I revisit my photos.
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