2010/2 Bavarian & Tyrolean Alps

We have had a fantastic few days at Gamische- Partenkichen in Bavaria.The weather has been brilliant, a good variety of things to do and good company.  We started with our trip up the Wank. An appealing name, even if they pronounce it differently! It’s Joanna’s idea of mountain walking, take a cable car up the really steep bit, then meander about amongst the meadows and the wildflowers.   Coffee and apple strudel at one of the numerous mountain refuges. Annoyingly David loves the hills, so there is much discussion over routes taken and a bit of compromise. It’s amazing how you spend hours trudging to these places, feel like you’ve really got away from it all, then you look around the back and there is a car. However we love it, it’s the only way to get a decent beer or apple strudel up there and it makes it accessible to most people and they use it. Every day there are hordes of people out there – striding up and down. We’ve even seen men in lederhosen.

We settled into our stellplatze (campervan parking place with limited facilities, but much cheaper than camping grounds – called aires in France, sostas in Italy – a brilliant European thing that NZ could do with.) Also met up with Frans and Cynthia again. Next day we set off on a rack rail up the Zugspitze – the highest mountain in Germany (2996m). It is hard to believe when you look up that a train could get up there – but it does, thanks to efficient German engineering. You take a cable car for the last hundred metres to the peak. All very impressive. The weather was brilliant, not a cloud in the sky. You can step into Germany & Austria, and see Switzerland and Italy from up there, but have to say that the mountains all looked much the same. We did a walk through the fresh glacier snow up there to a viewpoint with a precipitous drop of several thousand metres into Austria.

On the way back Cynthia introduced Joanna to the Deichmann shoe shops. Managed to spend some money there immediately – so did she!  Then back to the stellplatze for a Bavarian evening which involved beer plus lots of bratwurst, other meats and salads plus entertainment by 3 brothers on their piano accordions, in traditional dress. Was good.

Next busy day was a walk through the very dramatic (thanks to all the recent rain)  Partnachklamm gorge with waterfalls descending everywhere through the midday sunshine. Followed by a long walk up through meadow and forest to stop for a beer at a hotel and Joanna descended by gondola while David walked down.

Thence in and out of Austria to Fussen and another top stellplatze. It is interesting that we have noticed the different types of people at the different stellplatzes. Gamische was a mixed group,some quite young, enthusiastic hiking types. Here in Fussen it is a bit like a retirement village, Joanna being probably the youngest person here. They all ride bikes and hang about the place a lot. The most brilliant thing about this place is its close proximity (about 50 metres) to 2 supermarkets, a Deichmanns and other assorted shops where we can spend heaps. Campsites are usually miles from shops. Visited the town on foot (regretting that we have no bikes this trip) and up to the famous and much photographed   Neuschwanstein Castle of King Ludwig II- unfinished as he died at 40.  Managed some side walks around a lake and down through a gorge to fill in the day.

German supermarkets are not a patch on the French ones but items like herring roll mops are so cheap as is all alcohol. Australian shiraz in original (screw top) bottle for 2 Euros ($4), Williams pear liqueur for 10 Euro, and cheap grapefruit or lemon beer – quite refreshing and only 2.5% alcohol – good when driving and Joanna has given the grapefruit beer an exemption on alcohol free days. It sounds awful but it is really very refreshing – a bit like Radler beer at home. We only seem to be able to find the budget supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi Sud. They have a very limited range of products and the centre aisles are full of a wide assortment of stuff ranging from radios to clothing – all sorts of little knick-knacks. Things you can’t do without. We are missing the French cheeses already but every country has some new little delight – like the rollmops and bratwurst. Yum!

From Fussen we moved over the Fern Pass with fantastic alpine views , including the Zugspitze. Spent a few hours in Innsbruck then onto the Stubaital Valley – off the Brenner Pass highway. We settled in quickly to a campsite at Neustift and hounded the poor souls at the local Tourist office. We discovered that there were only 2 mountain huts open, so quickly selected one, packed up and set off for a night up in the Sulzenauhutte.  It was a steep ascent of about 650 vertical metres, but not difficult, spectacular scenery and a myriad of wildflowers. In about a week the slopes there are going to be covered with bright pink azaleas. Also fantastic waterfalls thanks to all the recent rain.

We love these serviced mountain huts. They go to amazing amounts of trouble to wine,  dine and provide you with a warm, comfortable bed so far up a mountain. All supplied by flying foxes. Sulzenauhutte, where we stayed is run by an Austrian guy and his Australian wife, so we were able to ask heaps of questions. David allowed a beer and a rest for about an hour before he dragged Joanna further up the mountain to visit a lake – all very pretty and lots more wildflowers. We really felt we had earned our evening meal with plenty of beer to assuage the thirst then a bottle of wine with difficult conversation with a German couple from Munich. We are not particularly enamoured with the German fondness of dumplings – the whole menu was pretty stodgy, but somehow it seemed suitable.

The long walk down the next morning – then bus back to the campsite. A casual walking day ( David’s idea of a casual walk involved 10kms up a valley!! We are getting fit.) followed plus restocking the beer etc before heading off to Italy over the very impressive Brenner pass with its huge viaducts, trucks and more trucks up to the summit and glide down into Italy (although all signage etc in German)