Recharging your batteries in the Bavarian Alps

By Caroline Mayer Apr 20, 2010, 15:17 GMT

Ettal, Germany - German author Kurt Tucholsky once wrote to his publisher Ernst Rowohlt that he wanted to do nothing else except to relax during his upcoming vacation. This wish was completely in keeping with the trend of that time, 80 years ago. What the Germans call 'Sommerfrische' (summer freshness) as a way of recovering from the stress of everyday life in the city was very much the mode then.

The same applies today, except that the terminology has changed. 'Bergwelt statt Burnout' - mountain world instead of burnout - is the slogan which various Upper Bavarian tourism offices in the region around Germany's tallest mountain, the Zugspitze, are using to appeal to a newly-discovered target group, 'stressed-out city dwellers.'

On offer is a whole range of activities, from hiking along trails to the pace and rhythm of one's own breath to spiritual pilgrimage tours.

'Our lives are turning increasingly faster and more exhausting,' says Joerg Christoephler, the managing director of the Ammergau Alpen tourism office which came up with the idea of the anti-burnout campaign. 'People are asking about the health aspects available and we are fortunate that in this region we not only have magnificent nature but also the people who can come up with the appropriate offer.'

There's Joachim Renz, for example. The relaxation coach is sitting on his foldable chair at the fork of a mountain stream in the natural preservation area near the town of Ettal. The group he has led to this idyllic setting is now occupied with meditation. Some of the participants are staring absently at pebbles and wooden posts, while others are lying on their backs, murmuring numbers and the names of colours.

'Naturally you can also relax in the outdoors without guidance,' Renz acknowledges. 'But almost everyone knows the feeling: on the first day of returning to work after vacation, the recuperation is immediately gone.' His seminars are aimed at teaching the vacationers how to retain their vacation relaxation once they are back in the workplace.

In order to learn this kind of turbo-relaxation, Renz tells his group, you have to have your head free. And in his experience this works best of all when out amid nature. The basics of meditation which visitors can acquire without much effort can, with a bit of practice, also be applied in the office, he says.

About 20 kilometres away, in a meadow in the Murmauer Moos region, stands Katharina Braendlein. With the Alps as a background setting, she is explaining to a group the basics of Asian archery.

'Finding one's stance, focussing in on the target, building up tension, and then, letting go,' Braendlein says as she pulls an arrow from her quiver, draws back the string and lets loose the arrow towards the target. The woman with a university degree in forestry offers hikes in the woodlands, team-building seminars outdoors and relaxation courses, including yoga classes high up on a mountain pasture.

Archery is above all loved by the men, Braendlein notes. So as a precautionary measure, she does not try to lure them using the term 'meditation' - that would sound too 'esoteric,' she explains. Braendlein instead uses the term 'focussing,' although she says that archery in fact is a meditative activity.

'Just try to hit a target if you are thinking about something else,' she says. 'This is completely impossible.'

Norbert Parucha does not shy away from using the word meditation. The physical therapist was involved in drafting the concept of the 'meditation trail' in the Ammergau Alps region which was opened in June 2009. Covering a distance of 85 kilometres, the trail has 15 way-stations on a route between the famous Wieskirche pilgrimage church and the landmark Linderhof Castle. At each station, a signboard provides information about the site.