Up the Mountain and Down Again

Like the noble Duke of York, but with just two, not 10,000, we were off to our next objective, the Berggasthaus Ederkanzel, and lunch. Our plan: to find the trail up the hill/ mountain, and get to the place. We'd eat, then hike down the other side, ending up at one of Mittenwald's two lakes.

We walked along the road. No signs for the trail. No signs OF a trail. I read about it online, so it had to be true right? People suggested this was a good way to get to this restaurant. Well maybe trusting random strangers on the internet isn't always the best way to plan a vacation adventure.

Finally, Herr Hai said, "I see a trail, let's just take it." I didn't see anything remotely looking like a trail where he was pointing. However, since it was reminiscent of my trip with our oldest daughter, when we were driving across the Navajo Nation and I said I saw the town of Window Rock, and she said I was crazy, there's no town there... I was right. So I went with his vision.

It turns out, it was a trail. A forest service trail of some sort. Whether we were supposed to be on it, I don't know. It was steep. In places, steeper than that jinky trail up on top of Karwendel. No switchbacks. Not much of a trail, to be honest, just some tamped down dirt weaving around trees and over rocks.

At one point, as I was dragging myself up using said trees, we saw some people coming down. They looked to be in worst shape than I felt, and I almost asked, "Is there truly a restaurant up there?" But I didn't want to know, in case there wasn't. Then I'd probably have to start biting Herr Hai.

Then, as if by magic, or a lot of complaining and dragging my body up a mountain, there was a clearing. Turkeys! The place we were looking for was famous for serving turkey at certain times of the year, so it had to be it.

And then, there it was. We crossed the border back into Bavaria as we walked around the verandah of the restaurant. It was crowded, but the place did have a parking lot so maybe some of those people had been smart enough to have a car and drive up

It was a nice lunch. We decided to split two dishes: Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes) with apple sauce, and Leberkäse. Leberkäse, which contains neither liver nor cheese despite the name, is almost a meatloaf like dish. It's made of pork and who knows what, maybe veal, ground to a paste, flavored with various spices, maybe even that mystical German secret ingredient Maggi wurze. This version had a fried egg on top and was served with potatoes and something approximating a little salad on the side.

With a couple beers, it was the perfect lunch after all that climbing and whining and lamenting about how we were lost and would be eaten by Tazelwurms, never to be heard from again.

After that, we were ready to close out the day, even though it was only early afternoon. One more objective remained, then we would probably pass out in bed and not wake up until the middle of the night. But first we had to walk back down the other side. At least that was an actual wide trail, which made things a lot easier, even though we had to walk past goats.Leia mais