Gutentag Clemmie,
This past weekend we spent a few days in Garmisch Partenkirchen, in the Bavarian Alps. Strange to think I was about two hours (through the mountains) from Mezzocorona where I had been about a month earlier, on the Italian side of the Alps. The month has gone by incredibly fast, too fast, but I remain grateful for the time I’ve been able to spend here, with The LTC.
I can report there is a lot of construction happening on the Autobahn, as well as adding infrastructure for improved and new high speed trains, so traffic is a bit of a bear. The nav system in our rental car is good about alternative routes, but takes us along some eyebrow raising byways. So after a longer than expected but eventful and interesting drive from Stuttgart, we arrived in Garmisch. We stayed at the army resort that turned out to be on post, so that in itself was interesting. It’s a nice resort, but there’s always an awkward vibe since no one is in uniform…no one knows where they rank among their fellow travelers and that leads to a weird, general standoffish-ness. Not that we spent a lot of time in the hotel.
Saturday morning we roamed the streets of Garmisch (Partenkirchen is a few KMs away, but shares municipal functions and the ministry of hipster has coined the two GaPa,) which is a very Bavarian, old town complete with onion domed churches, half timber homes, and lots of window boxes planted with geraniums; picture perfect. We stopped in the tourist info center and they discouraged us from taking the Zugspitzbahn (cog wheel train) to the mountain because of clouds. We wouldn’t be able to see all the way to Austria and Switzerland, so we should do something else, like the Partenkirchen gorge or Olympic Village (Garmisch was host to the Winter Olympics, infamously, in 1936) and within three blocks we didn’t listen. Our defiance was rewarded, richly! Not only was the trip up the mountain on the train breathtakingly scenic, but the view – albeit not to neighboring countries – was pretty spectacular once we arrived. Those of you who are claustrophobic would not have liked the last 25 minutes of the ride where the train took us through close (little tolerance on either side of the train) tunnels blasted out of the granite, at a very steep grade. From Eibsee, beginning again in December, the tunnel portion of the train ride can be skipped in favor of a brand new Seilbahn that will take you, via cable car, to the Zugspitze. There’s also a cable car from Zugspitze to Alpspitze (neighboring peak,) that runs a handful of times a day. Alternatively, you can hike between the two peaks…which looked like a popular activity but I will pass on that. There’s a little bit of a glacier left on the mountain which is a popular toboggan slope for kids year round, and according to our waiter from the night before, it offers seven months of skiing. Of course, in between and throughout the region there is a plenty of skiing, and lots of cute alpen pensions and cafes for ski bunny-ing.
We stopped mid point on the journey back down the mountain in Eibsee. This gorgeous, alpine fed lake is stunning for its beauty but also for the lack of any sort of development. There is a resort and a handful of restaurants/biergartens on the lake side of the train and Seilbahn, but otherwise the entire lake is public and accessible by a trail that encircles the perimeter. It’s actually possible to walk from Eibsee to GaPa but it will take you a good two + hours. The walk around the lake is a little over an hour, with views from every angle imaginable. Along the way, we saw couples, families and groups of all sizes enjoying the trail and the lake – swimming, boating, floating, and sunbathing – all while being watched over by these incredible, jagged, ancient giants.
There are three other lovely towns to note on this journey; smaller versions of GaPa and accessible to the hiking and skiing people come to the region for. Grainau is the next most accessible to the mountain and is thick with bavarian and half timber architecture, pastures for summer grazing of sheep and cattle, and naturally breathtaking views. Kreuzeck seems like a purpose built ski town and they offer a cable car direct to Alpspitze via the Alpspitzbahn, of course! Hausberg, just prior to GaPa is the jumping off point for long hikes and bike rides through the valley or up into the hills. I’m sure by spending the majority of our day along the mountain route, we missed many other beautiful and interesting places in this surprisingly large region, but we thoroughly enjoyed our time.
On Sunday, The LTC managed to find a bakery open for a hearty and delicious breakfast. This is a little unusual for Germany, Sunday is a quiet day and many restaurants and all shopping is closed. We lucked out though and were able to have a leisurely morning, (after I sent us on a bit of a wild goose chase…I thought we could find a breakfast joint in the adorable town of Lermoos, Austria. Turns out, mostly breakfast is provided by the pensions for their patrons, oops,) before heading to Dachau. A sobering way to end the weekend, but we toured the memorial site of the infamous concentration camp. The grounds and museum are well arranged to tell the story of how the place came to be, what happened there, and how it all ended. Dachau operated for 12 years, which is shocking in itself, with at least 150 subsidiary camps in the immediate, surrounding area, and was the camp all others would be modeled after. We may never know the full truth of what happened in these camps, but I appreciate that there are people who make sure we never forget what we do know.

Tschüss!