That’s Herrenchiemsee castle. It’s on the Herreninsel (“men’s island”, former home to a monastary) in the Chiemsee. Nearby is the Fraueninsel (“women’s island”), home to a convent and some little shops and restaurants. Nothing too thrilling, but an attractive spot to visit on the ferry.
Good news. I’ve just learned that my sister (who is stationed in Frankfurt) won’t be deployed to Afghanistan. This means that she’ll be able to hang out with me (at least on the weekends). This also means that we get to use her brand new mini cooper (by brand new I mean she pick it up last week) to drive around in. The bad news is that one of my friends that I’m going with is an ex-football player (big guy). It’s going to be fun trying to fit him in to the little car. I’m an aggressive driver (I like to go fast) by nature and I can’t wait to get out on the Autobahn. Both my friends have said that they don’t want to drive and would gladly let me drive. Little do they know that that is exactly what I wanted to hear.
OK…I don’t mean to sound like “dad”, but just a word of warning.
People drive like maniacs in Germany. Not only do they drive too fast, regardless of the weather conditions, they also have never heard of the old “one car length for each 10 MPH” - so they will be driving three inches from your bumper at 120 MPH.
You are going to be driving a mini. The standard car in Germany is a Mercedes.
When I was living in Germany, there was a 200+ car pile-up on the Autobahn due to a dip in the road with foggy conditions. It was only two days later they had to add another two cars to the total because they had been smashed so hard, they didn’t even see the cars on the first go round through the carnage.
So - yeah, there are parts of the Autobahn where you can put your foot to the floor and not get a ticket, but when that Porsche passes you like you were stopped, imagine what would have happened if you were in the passing lane at that moment.
“Dad” will now get off his soap box and wish you a fun, safe trip!
A word of caution: much of the autobahn infrastructure now has speed limits and they use photo-radar. Also, in comparison to the German drivers, you are an amateur (unless you drive racecars for a living). At elevated speeds you have little time to react, and a mistake will cause an accident of truly spectacular proportions. Stay out of the left lane unless you are passing, and make sure that your 100mph car isn’t being overtaken by a 150mph Porche before pulling into the left lane.
Odd, that’s not my experience - but I’ve never lived there so I guess you know more than I do. Whenever I’ve been there I’ve been very impressed with how courteous and sensible the drivers are, even at autobahn speeds – strict lane discipline, observing separation between cars, etc. YMMV, I guess.