You Go Nate!

From Die Zugspitze

Alan Comes to Visit - Part IV:
THE ZUGSPITZE (tsoog-shpit-suh) (Sept. 11)

On Thursday we took the train to the town of Garmisch, nestled in the Alps just south of Munich. Our destination: the Zugspitze-Germany's highest mountain!

We boarded the Zugspitzbahn, a small train that takes visitors through the countryside just below the mountain and into the mountain itself...

The day was quite hazy, unfortunately, but we could still see the very top of the Zugspitze as we rounded a bend...

Here, if you look closely, you can see the cable tram going up the side of the Zugspitze...

Here it is closer...

Our train took us up steep paths towards the summit. It stopped for a brief moment at this overlook to the Eibsee lake...

...and then the train went into a dark and narrow tunnel that was several kilometers long. We came out at the other end and disembarked...

We went out of the tunnel and found ourselves at a pavilion just below the summit.

There were majestic but hazy views all around...

...a small church...

There was also a helicopter up there doing some construction work...

If you look closely you can see that this is the Helicopter from Hell! (Hell, Austria)

Here I am with my back towards Austria (and presumably, Hell)...

Alan overlooking what, in the winter, is a great ski area...

We then took the short tram to the summit and there had spectacular views. Here is the view towards Garmisch...

At the summit lives a gregarious but threatened species of bird known as the Alpine Chough. These little black dudes were flying all around waiting for a free handout from a visitor...

Even though the Zugspitze is the highest mountain in Germany, it shares its summit with Austria. Here we are crossing into Tirol, Austria....

From the Austrian side we had a look back at the German side of the mountain...

..and a view into Austria...

NEW YORK CITY!!!??

We crossed back onto the German side and headed towards the actual highest point of the Zugspitze...

One must climb ladders, chains, and scramble a bit to reach the top, thus there is a warning sign...

So Alan set off first up the ladder...

...and took pictures from above.

I ascended next...

And then we had to wait as traffic cleared for us to cross a narrow rock-ledge...

And finally we were on top!

There were a lot of people up there coming and going, taking pictures, and trying to find a place to sit without falling to their deaths. It was rather chaotic....

But there were some great views...

Here I am. The highest person in Germany! (Though this guy was also probably pretty high as well.)

We hiked back around the chainway...

..and down the ladder...

Don't worry Mom, we were safe.

It was time to start heading back down. Here I am with Eibsee nearly a straight drop below...

We took the cable tram down to the bottom...

There we go...

It was pretty packed full of people but I did manage to stick my hand out the window and snap a shot of Eibsee on the way down.

Looking up the tramway to the top of the Zugspitze....

At Eibsee we found a pleasant (but very crowded) restaurant right on the lakeside. There we had a wonderful German meal of roast pork with potato dumpling. Oh man. It was good. Though I got a little schläfrig waiting for our meal to come...

After our lunch we decided to hike around Eibsee. As the sun waned we got some great pictures of the Zugspitze and the ridge beside it.

You go Nate!

We passed pretty ponds with mirror reflections....

Oh the majesty!

By the time we were nearing the halfway point around the lake dark clouds started coming in and we could tell that rain was on its way...

We sat at this covered bench and watched as the rain came across the lake and finally reached where we were sitting.

We decided to head back the way we came. I had my umbrella and Alan his rain jacket. It wasn't too cold, so it wasn't too bad walking in the rain.

We even met a new little friend....

From Die Zugspitze

When we got back to the Eibsee train station for the Zugspitzbahn, we had found that we had long since missed it. There were no buses and Garmisch was quite a few kilometers away. We weren't quite sure what to do so we just started walking. The rain was really coming down harder and harder and after about a quarter hour of walking and getting wet despite my umbrella, I stuck my thumb out to a passing car (a mini!). Luckily he pulled right over and told us to hop in.

He was very nice and when he found out that ultimately we were going to Munich he offered to drive us all the way himself, since that is where he was headed. We found out that he was a kindergarten teacher.

We left Garmisch and pulled onto the Autobahn. The rain came down in torrents with lightning, thunder, a glowing pink sunset with a rainbow. I had never seen such a storm in Germany! (Although there were some whoppers in Cusco).

We arrived back safely to Munich and I gave the man some of the beef jerky that Mom had given me for my birthday. He seemed to appreciate it.

We ate Turkish döners (kind of like a gyros) at a Turkish cafe near my apartment and then finally made it back to the apartment, wet and tired but satisfied with the great day we had had.


Coming up: Schwans, Submarines, Saltmines (sort of), Stones, and Sausages.

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