Day 107 - Leavenworth, WA

To get to Leavenworth we jumped on the Interstate over the river and then picked up Route 2, a pretty scenic highway which took us through Alp-like scenery all the way to the Bavarian-themed town.

This is one of the few towns we visited where we stayed in a campsite, normally we would stay in a hotel / motel in towns and camp when we are visiting a National or State park. We chose to camp as the Alpine View RV & Campground was only a 10 minute walk from the town and with lovely clean hot showers and well kept toilet block, it felt just as good as a hotel. The Interstate was close to the campsite but Lee had chosen a really secluded spot at the back and whilst we could hear the trucks belting past at 4am, it was only for one night so we could live with the noise.

Once we had pitched, we headed into town. At first, we thought that the Bavarian theme must have been as a result of the first settlers in the town but we learnt that Leavenworth was nearly a ghost town when the railroad re-routed its rails and moved out of town but the town leaders in the 1960's had the idea to change the appearance of the town to draw in visitors. They decided to change it to a Bavarian themed due to the alpine hills surrounding the city where are said to have "no equal except in German Bavaria".

The town didn't just change the look of the buildings, it was a whole culture change including creating new Bavarian themed festivals, producing and selling Bavarian goods and even wearing Bavarian clothes.

We had a lot of fun walking around town, looking in the shops, enjoying the buildings and learning more about this unique place. Even Starbucks is Bavarian themed!

Lee decided to speak only German whilst in Leavenworth but soon realised that no one understood German here, including me. Even saying the German beers correctly with a German accent wasn't understood so he soon forgot about it and reverted back to English.

We went to a couple of really cool bars, one of our favourites was the Doghaus Brewery. This is one of the smallest breweries we have been to during our trip but we had the a fantastic time and their beers were good too. The bar only seats 6 people, it is a tiny room at the bottom of a hotel but peanuts are served in dog bowls and flights of beers in bones. We met some awesome people in this little bar, one couple bought us a t-shirt which you will see Lee wearing in the video. It was very kind of them and just reflects the kind and generous people we keep meeting on this trip. Whenever Lee wears the t-shirt he always ends up with people commenting on how cool it is, even as we're walking around Walmart!

Another bar that we went to that we enjoyed was Stein where there were 55 different beers on tap and hundreds more in bottles.

We ate dinner in a restaurant which was of course Bavarian themed and enjoyed two starters - roasted garlic and toast and a German Sausage sampler. Being a bit of a German sausage expert due to the number he has eaten, Lee said they tasted fairly authentic. A little like a Cervelat and Bratwurst. Since the portions were reasonable, we just about had room for an Apple Strudel for desert. It was lovely but needed some hot custard rather than ice cream.

We finished the night off in one of the more famous breweries in Leavenworth, Icicle Brewing. We'd seen some of their beers for sale in stores and felt we had to check them out. There was a really cool vibe in this bar too and again, we enjoyed the beers. They didn't just serve their own beers but had a selection of other breweries beers too, most of them local. I'm always a sucker for seeing a factory tour and I really enjoyed see how the beer was made via a huge window on the way to the top floor. There is even seating here so you can sit back with a beer and watch the next batch being made.