After ECDL2007 had finished, my husband and I took a week and a bit to have a break and travel around, before heading back to Australia. First stop after Budapest was Prien am Chiemsee, in southern Germany. I lived in Prien for a few months, back in late ‘99. I hadn’t been back since, but as it’s quite a beautiful little place I really wanted to go back.

Nothing had changed (apart from there being no snow at that time of year (Sept), whereas it was covered in snow when I was there last). We managed to get to Prien on the last weekend of their big summer season – so everyone was still out and about, and all the “touristy” things were still in full swing.

We took a boat out onto the lake (Chiemsee) and we caught the ferry across to the islands – for those of you looking for somewhere nice to visit, Prien is lovely. The largest island on the lake has a castle built by Ludwig II of Bayern (slightly crazy guy) who built lots of castles throughout southern Bavaria. The smaller island houses a convent. We stopped for afternoon tea at a beer garden type place on the Fraueninsel (island with the convent). My gastronomically-adventurous husband decided that the un-refrigerated smoked herring in the cabinet looked like a good bet (the smell was enough to turn me away!) – it was served with pickled horseradish and a slice of good solid brown bread. Hubby hadnt tried pickled horseradish before (it’s hot hot hot) so got a bit of a shock when he took a large mouthful. The smell of the herring lingered with us for the rest of the afternoon…

The highlight for me though, of our day and a half in Prien was Sunday night. We had seen posters around the town advertising a target shooting competition and my husband was keen to find out more – alas, we couldn’t find where this competition actually WAS. Late Sunday afternoon, we inadvertently stumbled upon the location of the competition (in a guest house / pub / gun club sort of behind the town). We decided to have a go, and I who have never held a gun before managed to take out the Women’s Competition, and actually came second overall. After some confusion and much bayerisch conversation, we established that as we would not be in town by the time the award ceremony was on, I would receive my prize there and then (a lovely watch!). I was absolutely chuffed, and can’t wait to go back to visit FSG.