After our visit to Herreninsel and Fake Versailles, Ann's and my boat ride on the Chiemsee continued on to Fraueninsel, a tiny and adorable island 1.5 kilometers in diameter that's home to a bunch of little hotels, waterfront restaurants, and small fisheries, along with the oldest convent in Germany, Frauenwörth, which was founded in 782. The step leading into the convent's chapel has a groove at least six inches deep from all those hundreds of years of feet wearing on it; I wish I'd gotten a picture of it. The chapel itself is small and dim and mysterious-feeling, and the wall of letters and embroidered notes giving thanks to the patron saint, Irmengard, who'd been an abbess there, is really something. Walking around the back of the convent by the lake, we saw a Bavarian wedding where everyone was in full Trachtenkleider (Dirndls & Lederhosen) and were utterly charmed.
One thing about Fraueninsel: as much as I loved it and wanted to claim one of the tiny houses for a summer vacation home of my own, it was overrun with tourists even on a rainy mid-September Friday. I think I'm going to have to go looking elsewhere for my waterside cottage retreat. Probably Sweden. I'm pretty sure the summer house of my dreams is around there somewhere. (Maybe I can just move into Hilda Grahnat's?)
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