Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Munich to Murnau A I 7E left Munich at two o'clock, " " by what may be called " the pilgrims' train," a so-called express put on for the special convenience of those going to Ober-Ammergau. It was a long train, and there was no overcrowding or excitement, save that caused by the presence of a Crown Prince, which gave the officials much opportunity of airing their uniforms. It was a poor and dreary land over which we travelled, a monotonous plain covered with tracts of thin grassand peat soil. Yet the children of Attila once cried, " To Bavaria! to Bavaria! where dwells God Himself." The halting-places somewhat relieved our tedium, and by-and-by the sameness was pleasantly broken by the beautiful Starnberg Lake, formerly known as the Wiirm See. It reminded my husband of Lake Tanganyika, and me of the Thames in its most beautiful part. The placid sheet of blue water was broken by the white sails of yachts, and the occasional puff of smoke from a steamer. The blue-and-purple Alps form a background, and the sides of the lake are adorned with woods and fields, and many a turret and spire. Starn- berg See is a favourite place for holiday-makers from Munich, and in August it is crowded. In the hotels "Teller klappern, Glaser klingen, Zungen plappern, Kellner springen; Mussigganger steh'n am Strande, Kinder tummeln sich am Lande." "Dishes clatter, glasses ring, Chatter tongues, and waiters spring; Tourists saunter o'er tJte strand, Brats are tumbling on the sand." Fortunately we were not called upon to patronise them. Both soil and view improved as we approached the Bavarian Highlands. At Polling we were almost at the end of our journey. Polling, founded by Thassilo II. (a.d. 800), boasts a huge, desolate pile, at first a nunnery and then an Augustine convent. After...