Oberammagau, Germany

This picturesque Bavarian town of 5,000+ citizens  is an easy place to fall in love with.   The typical houses and buildings are generously decorated  with beautiful railed balconies with many healthy flowers that overflow their boxes, and painted murals on front and sides of every kind, depicting people in various events, at play or at work, dressed in traditional Bavarian clothing. 
   Many sidewalk cafes abound with  festive umbrellas and various tables and chairs waiting for customers.
   Cobblestone sidewalks and curvy streets rattle cars, bicycles, motorbikes and baby buggies alike.  
   Our apartment was only 2 blocks from the center of shopping and restaurants.  A million things could be had for a price, as a shopper flitts from shop to shop like a Bee in a flower garden.  Traditional German food was reasonably priced and very tasty.  If you didn't care for Schnitzel or Brotwurst or other German delights, no problem!     Hamburgers can be found nearby as well as Pizza just across the street.  They even deliver!
   Oberammagau is home to the Passion Play.  It is only held every 10 years but draws crowds of thousands, some  from half way around the world.  It is a play put on by the towns-people that depicts the story of Christ.   The next show will be in 2020.  Apparently,  many years ago there was a terrible plague that was killing nearly 80 percent of those exposed to it.   The story goes that the townspeople prayed to God for deliverance; that if spared, they would proclaim the life and death and resurrection of Jesus by putting on a story or play, every 10 years.  And so they do and have done for years.
   This area has a beautiful landscape.   Tree covered mountains with lush, green Meadows,  clear streams from snowmelt,  hiking trails, bicycling and paragliding are but a few summer activities.  There is plenty of winter sports, as well.    Garmisch Partenkirchen, a nearby town  (my favorite place in all of Germany since 1967), still maintains the facility built for the 1936 Winter Olympics, held when Adolph Hitler was in power,  which still lies shrouded in a piece of this area's checkered history