Due to its length, this trip report will be posted in two
segments. The first segment covers our
stay in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (July 9 – 18), the second segment covers the
rest.
This trip was suggested by Joe and Jess as a family
get-together. Ellie and Kuau used up a
lot of their vacation days with Reid, so they decided not to go. Joe’s original plan was from July 8 to July
30, Anne and I didn’t want to be away that long, so we planned to come back a
few days earlier on July 26. With a
toddler, Joe and Jess were quite modest in their expectations, we would fly
into Munich, drive to a small town in Bavaria (Garmisch-Partenkirchen, GaPa)
where we will stay in a house for about a week, then spend a few days each in
Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and Vienna.
Anne and I would fly back from Vienna while Joe would continue to
Munich, spend the rest of the time there before returning to Boston.
After about a week, Joe and Jess decided to cut short
their vacation, and they would leave a day after us, from Vienna. I think the logistics ends up being a bit
overwhelming, so it is a good decision.
Wednesday 7/9.
Chung-Shu came by to take us to the airport. UA3875 was a commuter flight to Toronto. My experience with immigration and customs at
Toronto has not been that great as the lines are always long. However, transiting at the airport was quite
straightforward. Joe and Jess were
already at the Air Canada Lounge when we got there.
Joe booked us in First Class on LH495 with frequent flyer
miles. It is a spacious cabin, with
large “suites” and lie-flat chairs.
There were eight seats in the cabin, and we were the only passengers (4
adults and a lap.) Being an afternoon
flight lasting about 7 hours, no one got much sleep (with the possible
exception of Emmie.)
Spacious F
Cabin on LH495. We were the only people
in it.
Thursday 7/10.
Joe needed some rest before tackling traffic, so we
stopped by the LH Lounge. It turns out
one can clear immigration there – I am not sure how people can’t slip through
with the set up they have, but I assume it is somewhat foolproof.
The car we picked up was a Citroen SUV, considerably bigger than the Passat wagon we expected, so we had no problem with our luggage at all. The drive to GaPa is about 120 miles, but traffic around Munich was slow, so it took us about 2 hours.
Emmie in
car seat. Our rental car was a roomy Citroen C4 Picasso.
Schalmeiweg is a small street on the edge of
Partenkirchen. The Swiss chalet-style
house we rented is quite large, over 2800 square feet, on three levels, plus a
basement. There was enough room for
Ellie and Kuau if they had decided to come.
It has heat, but no air conditioning, and that turned out not to be a
problem. It also has internet which
worked most of the time. The only thing
that we missed were a washer and dryer.
They are located in the complex, shared by several families. That proved to be a bit inconvenient as we
often found them in use when we needed to do a wash, and a bit puzzling. In any case, it was a comfortable place to
call home for a few days.
The
apartment for our GaPa stay. Anne and I
stayed on the top floor.
Having dinner in the house.
Having dinner in the house.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen was formed when the two towns
merged as a preparation for the 1936 Winter Olympics. Partenkirchen is the older sibling, and is
quite a bit quieter than Garmisch. Now
by “old” we mean old, it was first mentioned in AD 15, and Garmisch some 800
years later. The town is situated in one
of the many valleys of the Bavarian Alps.
We have heard about Garmisch because that is where Richard Strauss
composed a lot of his music. One
characteristic noticed rather quickly is that people decorate the outside of
their houses with paintings, some depict sacred scenes, some ordinary life.
There are
many fountains around where we live.
Notice the paintings on the house in the background.
In the
afternoon - rain or shine - you see people sitting on these decorated benches and chat. These are squatters.
Downtown
Partenkirchen.
We walked
on this street numerous times on our way to town. Badgasse is not what you get after a terrible
meal, it can be translated into “Spa Alley.”
Emmie
taking a stroll in town.
We took it easy.
Lunch was at a Grille Restaurant in town, dinner was cooked at the house
with groceries purchased at Tangelmann, which turns out to be a rather large chain
in the area.
This is
where we had our first meal.
Meanwhile, Joe would sleep for practically 16 hours
straight to recover from his flights and travel.
Staying at Schalmeiweg 13, Partenkirchen, for 8 nights.
Friday 7/11.
Reminiscent of Italy, markets come to town every now and
then. Yesterday it was in Partenkirchen,
but we were too tired to visit. Today it
was held at Garmisch. Despite the slight
rain, we decided to visit. Stalls
occupied over a block, and various items (mostly food) were being sold. We bought various items as lunch - I had a foot-long hotdog (well, it was some
kind of wurst, but I can’t keep them straight.)
We also bought some groceries.
It was a rainy day in Garmisch. Over the course of the trip, we ate a lot of sausages.
Weather was quite a bit cooler than we expected (60s
during the day, 50s at night, and wet.)
Both Anne and Joe bought some clothes for it.
Dinner was at the house, with the main course baked
chicken legs prepared by Jess.
Saturday 7/12.
Zugspitze is the tallest mountain in Germany. It is located minutes away from town, and we
could see it readily from where we lived.
However, for most of the time the peak was hidden behind clouds, and
today was one of those days.
Zugspitze
with its peak in the clouds, as seen from our ride up Mount Wank.
For our first mountaintop experience we decided to ride
the cable car to Mount Wank. The ride
was about 20 minutes, taking us from an elevation of about 750 meters to 1750
meters. We had lunch at the top; for me
it was again some kind of wurst.
Actually the weather cooperated and we had great views of the valley
where GaPa and other towns are located.
The cable car was a small operation, and it wasn’t particularly busy on
this day.
Inside
cable car bound for Mount Wank.
View of
Partenkirchen from cable car, the ski jump was used in the 1936 Olympics.
Grandpa and granddaughter on Mount Wank.
Grandpa and granddaughter on Mount Wank.
Everyone in this family wears hoodies (mao mao, as Emmie would say.)
This area has many well-marked hiking trails. It took us a few days to realize Std in German means hour.
Our first restaurant dinner in the area wasn’t that good
(forget the name of the restaurant.)
From how popular it looked, we expected a reasonable meal. Instead there was only one refrain about the
food: too salty! Turns out food in this
area is generally quite salty, some not as heavily as others. The other characteristic is the food is it is
generally rather reasonably priced. Most
of our dinners cost about 80 or so Euros, including a typical 10% tip.
Sunday 7/13.
Our activity for the day was to visit the Partnach
Gorge. We parked the car at the Olympic
Ski Stadium and walked about an hour each way – Anne and I did. Joe and Jess took Emmie for a longer walk
along the whole length of the gorge.
Partnach reminds us of Watkins Glen.
Partnach
gorge. To get to the entrance required a 40 or so minute walk.
Dinner was at Taj Mahal down the road from our
house. Afterwards, Anne and I walked up
San Anton Cloister, passing by stations of the cross along the way. We were surprised to see many plaques commemorating
the war dead (both world wars.) I assume
many were Nazi soldiers; but parents did lose their sons.
San Anton
Cloister and Stations of the Cross.
Plaques in memory of young men who died in the world wars. A reminder of the high human toll on all sides.
Monday 7/14.
We started with a plan to visit
the Monastery at Ettal, a town about 15 km away. Right before the church there is a small
cheese factory; we stopped there for coffee and cake. They do offer a tour on cheese-making but it
was German only.
The Ettal Basilica dates from
the 1300s. It has seen its ups and downs
throughout the centuries, but remains a monastery with about 50 monks. There is a school on premises with an
enrollment of 300 to 400. The brochure
we bought says the place is self-sufficient with income generated by the sale
of home-made beer and farming.
Emmie enjoying yogurt at Ettal Cheese Factory.
The Ettal Basilica dates from the 1300s. It still runs a monastery and
school.
Since the day was still young,
we decided to visit Linderhof Castle. It
was built by King Ludwig II. Ludwig II
is also known as the mad king. He
ascended the throne (by that time it was mostly ceremonial) at age 18 and lived
at Linderhof while Neuschwanstein was being built. He eventually was declared mad and die under
mysterious conditions soon after (a day?)
Anyway, Linderhof is like a mini-Versailles, in the real sense of the
word. For instance, the glass ballroom
is 1/50 of the one in Versaille per the tour guide. The other interesting fact is this castle is
privately owned while most others are owned by the state.
Linderhof Castle, built by King Ludwig II.
Garden at Linderhof Castle.
Our next stop was Oberammergau,
it has a tradition of woodworking. We
bought a rather nice “3-D” picture of a music instrument shop for about 100
euros (turns out to be the most expensive souvenir we bought during the
trip.) We look for the cemetery
mentioned in Rick Steve’s guide: it has a panel that says “We honor and
remember the victims of the violence that our land gave the world,” but couldn’t
find it. Our encounters with various
WWII-related sites suggest that Germans have come to terms with the atrocities
they committed during the war, and openly admit to the pain and suffering
inflicted on others.
Oberammergau has a woodworking tradition.
We are not into souvenir buying, but couldn't resist buying this 3-D music store work. The store-keeper told us it was made in Schweinfurt in Northern Germany.
We are not into souvenir buying, but couldn't resist buying this 3-D music store work. The store-keeper told us it was made in Schweinfurt in Northern Germany.
Dinner was at the house, with
salmon on the menu.
Tuesday 7/15.
The day started at 9:30 am. The weather forecast says it would be a good
day, but it wasn’t good enough for a visit to Zugspitze, it turned out. We drove to the Zugspitze parking lot and
noticed they provided a live camera shot of the peak. Together with the low clouds we saw, we
didn’t think it would be wise to visit.
So we walked around for a bit, including along the shores of Eibsee,
before we gave up on the idea as the mountain top feed continued to show clouds
surrounding the area.
Stroll
along shore of Eibsee.
This photo
reminds me of a picture Anne took during our Yellowstone trip. Eibsee hotel in the background.
After some discussion, we decided to buy the Garmisch
Classic two-peak ticket so we could visit Alspitze today and come back for
Zugspitze on Thursday. Meanwhile, Joe Jr
and Jess decided they wanted to do some hiking.
So we split up. Anne and I took
Emmie and went up via Gondola to the Osterfelderkopf station and then connected
to the Hochalm station; Joe Jr and Jess would take the cable car up to
Kreuzeck. They would hike there to
Hochalm where we met up for lunch, and then they would continue to hike to
Osterfelderkopf while we take the gondola back there. It worked out okay. Emmie was so tired that she soon fell asleep
after being beco’d onto me. At about 25
lbs she was still manageable. After we
met up we took the gondola back to the parking lot. It was about 4 pm by the time we were done.
Cable car
about to arrive at Alpspitze station.
There are
these walkways that take you over the peak so you can look straight down to the valley.
The fog made it impossible to see anything. Nonetheless I didn’t venture too far
out.
We came upon someone preparing to paraglide off the peak. He took off after some elaborate preparations.
We came upon someone preparing to paraglide off the peak. He took off after some elaborate preparations.
We met up
with Joe and Jess at Hochalm. They hiked up from the Kreuzeck Station.
Joe Jr and
Jess (the two people on the right) hiking up to Alpspitze from Hochalm.
We also stopped by Netto to pick up a few grocery items. This is a discount store and certainly gives Tengelmann a run for their money.
Dinner was at the house with Anne doing most of the
cooking.
Wednesday 7/16.
We left at 9:30 am for the 1 hour drive to Schwangau,
where the two castles are located (Konigschloss.) Hohenschwangau is the older one, where Ludwig
II grew up. Neuschwanstein is the one
built by Ludwig after he became King. It
inspired Disney in his design of Cinderella’s castle Joe had the foresight to
purchase tickets on line, so we avoided the long lines at the ticket
counter. We visited Hohenschwangau
first. The walk from Hohenschwangau to
Neuschwanstein is close to an hour, mostly uphill. Joe and Jess walked, Anne and I took the
shuttle bus, packed in like sardines with other passengers. Close to Neuschwanstein is Mary’s Bridge
which spans a gorge. It was very
crowded, I decided to skip it. Anne and
Jess did take a quick look.
View of
Zugspitze this morning. Now that we
already bought tickets for Koenigschlossen, of course it is a clear day.
Maypole in
Schwangau. This tradition dates back to
before the 16th Century, with the symbols representing the trades
that can be found in town.
Neuschwanstein was only about 1/3 of the rooms had been finished when King Ludwig II died. The castle was soon turned into a tourist attraction. During World War II it was used to store the illegal art Germany stole. The castle has rooms decorated with Wagner opera themes, including a grotto depicting a scene from Tannhauser. To my embarrassment I couldn’t tell what is what, and I thought I have seen a
lot of his operas. One reason probably
is many operas I saw had “new productions” which do not reflect at all Wagner’s
original conception of the sets. For
example, Parsifal is set in a countryside in the original, all I remember of
what I saw were men in suits without shoes.
Also, Tannhauser and Lohengrin are two that we haven’t seen.
Hohenschwangau.
Neuschwanstein
as viewed from Hohenschwangau.
Our bus
took us to St. Mary’s Bridge, Neuschwanstein is a short walk away.
Iconic
photographs of Neuschwanstein.
St. Mary’s
Bridge spans a gorge. It is very crowded. Picture taken from Neuschwanstein.
Lunch was sausages, again. We split up for dinner: Anne and I ate at Alpenhof, ordering roasted
pork loin and ½ duck. Joe Jr and family
ate at the Biergarten. The dishes were okay,
still salty, not as bad as first meal.
Duck and
Roasted Pork at Alpenhof in Garmisch.
Joe Jr,
Jess and Emmie at Mohrenplatz Biergarten.
We took a stroll around Kurpark after dinner. And we ran into this cow.
Thursday 7/17.
Today we woke up to a sunny day. We again left at around 9:30 am for Zugspitze. Even the line at the station wasn’t long, it was still a 40 or so minute wait before we got on the gondola. It was a short 10 minute or so ride to the top.
Here are some statistics on the gondola ride: Length –
4453 m; Elevation change – 1950 m, from 1005 m to 2955 m; Steepest slope – 46 degrees;
Longest span – 2635 m; Speed – 10 m/sec; Capacity per gondola – 45.
Display at
cable car station. We took the
Eibsee-Seilbahn gondola. The other route
up the mountain is via a cog railway.
Boarding
the gondola.
PHOTO: The gondola
takes close, but there is the actual Zugspitze.
Jess was the only person who climbed over there and made it to the top (she’s the one in the
red coat, middle of picture.)
View of
Eibsee from Zugspitze.
The cable car station area spans Germany and Austrian
sides. It was about 10 meter below the
actual peak. The way over looked pretty
hairy, but Jess still made it to the top.
Austria
side of the mountain. There is a gondola
that goes up from Ehrwald, Austria.
Proofs that
we were at Zugspitze.
Friday 7/18.
Anne went to buy some souvenirs (trinkets) from the gift
shop in town. We then put our packed
luggage in the rental car and walked to Strauss Institute for a quick visit. The place is not so much a museum as it is a
“working” building with a library and a concert hall. It does contain a fair amount of
memorabilia. Meanwhile, Joe Jr waited to
check out of the apartment; picked us up at around 12 noon.
Richard
Strauss Institute was a short 10-minute walk from our house. We visited it on the day we left GaPa.
Admiring
the score in the library, Strauss Institute.
We then drove to Mittenwald, known for its violin-making
tradition started by Matthias Klotz who apprenticed with Amati at same time as
Stradivarii. Lunch at pizzeria, pretty
good pizza and pasta; the staff there spoke Italian to each other.
We also visited Geigenbaumuseum. The instruments there dated back to the
1700s, and their ages showed. I wonder
how these delicate instruments managed to survive for centuries; especially the
Stradivariuses that are used constantly in performances which are
well-polished.
Model of a
violin maker’s workshop, Geigenbaumuseum, Mittenwald.
This concludes the first part of the report. Salzburg, here we come!
