Discovering Bavaria: Chiemsee

Husband and I moved to Munich in January and since then we've been slowly exploring this city and the area around it. We've been to little medieval towns with a lot of charm, to beautiful lakes, to beer festivals and to huge markets and flea markets. So I've decided to share our little adventures with you all.

The Chiemsee is a beautiful lake on the south east of Munich. It took us about an hour by car to get there, but it's easily accessible by train too. Plus, we saw that for the last stretch of the train line to get to Prien am Chiemsee, they use a really old steam train, so this would make for a real fun day trip from Munich if you are visiting.

In the lake there are two islands that you can visit by boat from many towns around the lake. So after having a stroll around the lake in Prien, we took a boat. It first takes you to the bigger island, Herreninsel (island of the men). There, you can get off and explore this island. As you can imagine, it has a brewery, a couple of restaurants and a biergarten but the main attraction is Herrenchiemsee, a palace built by kink Ludwig II in 1878. The curious thing is that the palace is a replica of the Palace of Versailles and even if the king died before it was completed, you can now visit it and enjoy this little piece of France in Bavaria.

It's actually a really impressive palace. You are just walking through a forest and then turn a corner and bam! There it is! We didn't go inside this time but I'm really curious to discover more about it so next time we visit, I'll make sure to have a look inside and tell you all about it!

The island is quite big so it takes around half an hour to get to an end to the other but it's a really beautiful walk, surrounded by nature and even some deer. After having a drink, we took a boat to the smaller island, Fraueninsel (island of the women). It houses a Benedictine nunnery, built in 782, as well as a cute little village with lots of workshops where local artists sell their crafts.

I think I fell a bit in love with this little island. The house and shops were so cute and quirky and the views were just spectacular. I just wanted to sit on that table and spent the whole summer there. We spent a couple of hours just wandering around and taking a million pictures of every little detail. Afterwards, we sat on the terrace of the convent for a snack. The food was delicious and the portions huge.

So after a fantastic day in this beautiful lake, we took the boat back to Prien am Chiemsee and then the car back to Munich. As I said I fell a bit in love with this place and I'm sure we'll visit again soon to keep discovering it. A highly recommended day trip if you are visiting Munich!