OH MY GOODNESS!!! It's clear this morning!
Oh man, Zugspitze I'm coming for you today!
It looks like a good day for an adventure.
The directions from the lodge to the top of the mountain weren't exactly clear. I didn't take any photos of my walk up to the trains because I didn't know where I was going or how often the trains ran. I walked a ways and thought I might have missed a turn or something, but finally found the train station. I was told to take the cogwheel train at a certain station. So at that station I got off the train and went to look for the cogwheel train. It turns out the train I was on WAS the cogwheel train. So I ran back and thankfully caught it before it left. Unfortunately, I lost my seat.
But being against the doors had its advantages.
The cogwheel train takes you up to a base station.
It was quite chilly up here. I can only imagine what it's like in full blown Winter.
The base station.
A man enjoying the view.
Is that a church?
It is a church!
The view from the church.
It's a tidy little church.
The church was founded in 1981.
A plaque on the outside of the church. There was also a geocache here!
Okay, time to get to the top!
Looking back at the base station.
Hey! It's the Zugspitze Cross.
Apparently you can get out to it.
Zooooom in on the cross.
I feel like I'm at the top of the world.
I considered trying to climb out to the cross, but decided against it since 1 - I was by myself and 2 - I didn't have appropriate footwear. My mother's probably happy about this decision.
I made it! I've been wanting to summit this mountain since we got here, but the weather has been too bad to make it worth it.
That's the lake I saw from the train.
It was worth waiting for the good weather.
Here's what's out there.
Here's a different view.
I think Garmisch-Partenkirchen is in that valley in the upper bit.
More views with labels.
An important thing to know is that Zugspitze is on the boarder of Germany and Austria. There's a walkway so you can go to the Austrian lookout and be in two countries.
Mountain goat on the Austria side. It marks Zugspitze at 2,962 meters or 9,718 feet.
Beautiful Austrian view.
Apparently you can hike all the way up here. That....sounds like fun for someone else.
A different marker for Zugspitze.
To get from the German side to the Austrian side, or vice versa in this case, you had to go past a restaurant, gift shack, and a narrow walkway. It happened to be busy this morning. I think because everyone else was taking advantage of the nice day.
Okay, time to go back down to the base station. There's too many people up here now.
Is that a Maypole? It is! It's claimed to be the world's highest Maypole. Also, in 2004, a bunch of older citizens stole it with a helicopter and demanded four season tickets for the mountain train, sandwiches, and beer as ransom.
There is some rocky path you can take up the mountains past the church.
A few panoramas of the mountains and people.
There is also a restaurant here.
I got a pretzel and a beer to celebrate making it up Germany's tallest mountain.
A little bit of scenery on the train ride back to the lodge.
There's a path that runs through here. What a great path.
It goes to the village of Obergrainau.
You can also hanglide/base jump/something with parachutes off the mountains here.
Also, doesn't this look fake? I swear it's not. I haven't edited it at all.
One of the hay sheds served as a gear base for the parachuters.
More hay sheds in the valley below the mountains.
A little pink wild flower in all the greenery.
A woodpile wall for Jim.
A lovely view from a woodpile. A statement I didn't expect to say.
One last view of the hay sheds.
Houses dotted in the valley.
I passed a random building with this...gargoyle on it.
I headed back to the lodge and waited for Dan to be done with work for the day. I convinced him to take an uber back up to the hotel with the desserts from the hike I took a few days ago, Berggasthof Almhutte.
I present to you, the windbeutel. It literally translates as "wind bag" but it means "cream puff."
This one has plums in it.
In case you doubted the scale of this thing, here's me for comparison.
A windbeutel and Zugspitze. What a fantastic day.
There was some gorgeous evening light coming through the forest.
We were there!
Full of wind bags, we decided to hike back down to the lodge.
And an evening photo of the Loisach river.
This concludes our adventure for today.
