The Alps! (May 23. & 24.)

On Thursday morning, we woke up and left Innsbruck on an hour long train for Mount Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany. We arrived at a little town just over to the German side of the mountains, and we had to take a bus for about 30 minutes to get to the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (technically 2 tiny towns put together) where we were staying for the night.

I didn't know much about the town except that it's small and at the base of the mountains. As it turns out, the bed and breakfast that we stayed in is at the Skiing stadium where winter Olympics skiing events have taken (or do take) place! Literally, if you sit in the café outdoor area of the b&b, you are inside the skiing stadium!

It would be amazing in the Winter, and also most likely very expensive. So I think it's awesome we got to stay there during the low season!

However, we were quite unfortunately with the weather. It was cloudy and chilly, and I had only brought with me my Purdue zip-up sweatshirt. I suppose that made the day more of an adventure.

Because of the clouds, however, we didn't make it to the Zugspitze because we were told that it would be so foggy at the top that there would be no visibility or view and paying 20 Euro for the trip to the top would be a waste of money.
 So instead we decided to go to the 2nd highest mountain in Germany, Alpspitz.

The Aplspitz has 3 little stations near the top, with 3 cable car lines: base of the mountain to the lowest station, middle station to the highest station, and the highest station to the base. Notice that there is no way except foot path to get between the first and middle station.
It would have been a nice little hike were it not for the fact that we found ourselves in the middle of a cloud, where snow was forming around us.

My favorite picture. Maybe of all the pictures I've ever taken. And it was on accident. It reminds me of a scene in the movie of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where they're on the Hogwarts Express and it's all rainy and cold because the dementors are everywhere.

Except in this case, the train is a cable car and the dementors are... mountains?

also: all rights reserved and all that fancy stuff to say: Don't steal this picture or try to copy it

Another of my favorite pictures. I call it "Cable car in Fog"

 

Believe it or not, this is  NOT a view of looking up into the sky, but rather of looking DOWN. It was so foggy that you couldn't see ANYTHING

The dog guarding the giant's treasure.

 This is the giant sitting on a hill. It's kinda hard to tell in the picture, but the whole longish skinny rock on top is his whole head- he has a decent beard. The end of his nose is almost right between the eyes, and the darker spot across the middle of the rock is his mouth.  The rocks below the giant's head somehow make up his body but I don't remember what it's supposed to look like.

 The giant's castle ruins. It's supposed to look more castley on a clear day.

The story is that there was this giant who lived in the mountain and grew giant carrots as big as people (another rock formation somewhere that we never found) and he had a stash of treasure. He had a bunch of servants/slaves that built him this castle, as well as some iron fortress or something where they all lived and cooked for the giant. The giant got paranoid about his treasure and just sat on the hill watching it all day. But he got too weary and now his dog guards it for him. But over time his castle has turned to ruin as people tried to take over and get his treasure.

And then it started snowing

This is supposed to be a look-out point. Not much of a view!

And finally we made it to the 2nd station, where it was 38 degrees Fahrenheit. I was very cold.

 2nd cable car to the top of the mountain (yay). where it will only be colder still and more snowy (Noooooo)

Aaaand as you step off the cable car at the top, there are doors leading right into the restaurant, which is cheerful and warm, with hot food and drink!

I got a plate of sauerkraut with bacon dumplings, and gluehwein to drink. It was excellent! I also sat next to a heater so that I could dry my sweatshirt from all the snow!

This is supposed to be a view from the lookout of the highest station on the Alpspitz, but as you can see- you really can't tell how high up it is because we were in a CLOUD

the look out at the highest station. That's the station building. I was actually somewhat concerned that we wouldn't be able to see the path back to it.

 The mountains are smoking clouds!  ... Clouds of Smoke. :)

The Bob museum. ... meaning bobsleds. As in, the winter Olympics are a big deal here.

 

And after that crazy weather adventure, we decided to check out a gorge. I'd never been to one, and I was quite tired and cold and definitely didn't feel like hiking anywhere, but I hate just sitting around in a hotel room. Soooo, we took a walk to a gorge.

 

 Here's the entrance to the gorge. Aka the Partnachklamm.

In a gorge. The ceiling part over the path was really low, and I kept getting dripped on. But it was so cool. You might even say saucool or uebelcool.

And the end!  This was really neat because looking at it reminded me of something from Lord of the Rings. I was expecting to find Rivendell somewhere nearby <3

So pretty and awesome

And then we had to hike back

 Anthony and I were in the complaining commitee about hiking uphill to get back to where we started. BUT, after about 15 minutes, we wound up in this splendid meadow.

You really can't tell from my pictures just how gorgeous it was. I honestly understand now why some people never want to live in a city. If I had grown up here, I would never be able to look at a city park and think "Oh it's so pretty here." I mean just about any sight is ugly in comparison to this place.

<3  <3 <3 

 And then we found a little path going downhill that let to "The Iron brige" (Eisenebruecke)

It looked over the gorge.

AND THEN, there was a super awesome rock formation! At first I thought it was shale by the way you can see the cleavage of the rock in think horizontal layers. BUT, I picked up a little piece and even though it looks like the same color and potentially texture, it's not flaky like shale. So I'm guessing it's a dark clay stone? I don't know, I would have to look it up in my geology notes.

Waterfall + little wooden bridge

 

It was such an adventurous day. I slept quite well that night, and in the morning was delighted to find there was cake for breakfast! (Among the multiple kinds of cereal, breads, sliced meats and fruits)

 

 

As we were leaving the b&b (it was called Olympia Haus, by the way), I was so pleasantly surprised to see sheep outside across the road!

 

There were 3 adult sheep and one little lamb! I love sheep!

For the next couple hours before I caught a train headed back to Stuttgart, I took a walk around the city looking in the little shops. I admit though that I was somewhat creeped out at the lack of people. I don't know why exactly, but there were incredibly few people walking around. But, nonetheless, the buildings were all very charming!