My Trip To Oberammergau

A once-in-a-decade chance for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

- Edward Grinnan

THE PRIMARY DIFFICULTY I faced in 2010, when asked to help lead a Guideposts trip to see the ancient decennial Passion Play in the Bavarian town of Oberammergau, was actually being able to pronounce Oberammergau. The more I tried, the more I sounded like I had a mouth full of sauerbraten. Executive Editor Amy Wong, who had studied German and spent time there, tried her persistent best, but even she gave up on me eventually. “German is pretty phonetic,” she’d say, pointing to the word as if I were an idiot. “Ober means ‘upper,’ Ammer is the name of a river, and gau means ‘vale.’”