On Top of Karwendel

Well, since time was short, we decided to use it wisely. See, I'm learning to pivot and be flexible. I had a plan for Mittenwald, and it didn't include wandering around the town on our first afternoon with our bags. I had each day laid out, and when we were standing there, forlorn, looking at the locked door of our pension, I thought-- screw it, time to be flexible.

New plan. Go down to the train station and leave the bags in a locker. Cross the river, and ride the Karwendelbahn up to the top of the peak. The Karwendelbahn is the second highest gondola in Germany after the outside Grainau that takes you to the Zugspitze. The peak isn't the second highest, that's in Berchtesgadenland somewhere, but the gondola station is.

Anyway, that's what we did. Thankfully there was a large locker. We left the bags, crossed the tracks, and made our way to the station. It was uphill. Pretty steep at points, but I managed. Thank goodness for those overpriced, novelty hiking poles I bought in Berchtesgaden.

We paid our entrance, there was no line, so when the car came down, we boarded. Before we left a family group got on. I felt bad since we were in front, and they had two little kids, so I let them get in front. The little boy was thrilled and was talking to us in German (yeah, I'm dumber than a three year old). His sister, not so much. She stood there with her eyes closed, and her mother explained she didn't like heights. So it was only half of a good deed.

The ride up was fast. Not as dramatic as the ride up to Montserrat outside Barcelona, meaning I didn't feel like we were going to smash into the side of the mountain. At the top is a restaurant, a trail around the area and up towards the summit of the peak, and a sketchy tunnel through the mountains that leads to the trail you can hike from the valley to get up there. That trail was way above our pay grade, we didn't even think about it.

Here's the ride, complete with appropriate musical accompaniment. It's five minutes long, but worth it, shot through the bluish glass of the gondola. And oh, yeah, we didn't know we should turn the phone horizontally. Our bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amhf2Xbl3ag

At the top, we had lunch. I had the schnitzel this time, with a Bavarian beer garden favorite called obatzda which is a cheese spread with onion, caraway seed and paprika. Herr Hai had weisswurst and a pretzel with sweet mustard, a traditional breakfast in Munich, but we didn't get to try it there. We shared. Everything was good. The obatzda was much better than when I tried to make it at home the previous Christmas. Looks like I need a new recipe.

At the top-- wow. There aren't enough superlatives in my vocabulary. I might have been up this high in Yellowstone, but this was more stunning. 7,360 odd feet above sea level, with mountains marching away to the south and east, and Mittenwald, its two lakes, and more mountains to the west.

We walked along the trail, which got quite steep at times. Then there were the sheep. They came up from the grassy bowl in the middle to hit the hikers up for food and petting. No thanks. They didn't want to give way, and I didn't want to push them or touch them or anything, afraid to hurt them. Herr Hai had no such compunction and we made our way passed.

We also went part way into the Dammkar tunnel. I don't think this was one of the famous "Nazi tunnels" of the Alpine Fortress where they hid treasures and planned to wage a forever war, like the ones around Garmisch. It just seemed to be a tunnel that connected the top of the mountain to the ski area below. If you hike up from the town, you pass through it. We didn't go far into it, though, and probably should have gone through to the other side.

We didn't go up to the summit cross. It was a bit too high and rocky for me. I had a little attack of vertigo at one point. I couldn't walk. I just froze, unable to turn or move. Thankfully I worked through it, or I'd still be up there. But the views (and the schnitzel) were worth it.

More pictures on the FB page, as always.Read more