Partnachklamm Frozen Over

We recently made our long-anticipated wintertime visit to Partnachklamm, and unlike the previous attempt this time we were not turned away.  We had been looking forward to seeing the gorge with frozen waterfalls and dramatic icicles for a few years.  We even took our family down there last winter, but we were turned away because of dangerous “melting” conditions and falling icicles.  But everything finally aligned for us, and we were able to continue our recent streak of winter photography and capture some awesome photos of the frozen paradise.

Though to make this trip a real success, we had to set out early on a Saturday morning to beat the crowds.  We were there just after it opened at 9 am with only a handful of other visitors.  It was definitely worth the early morning effort because the ice structures did not disappoint.  And since we were there so early, we were even able to setup our tripod for some pictures of us (this would block the very narrow path along the river’s edge – so if other people are around you are rudely in the way). 

The empty path didn’t last long though - Just about an hour into our photography session, the place began to overflow with people.  Luckily this coincided with the end of the trail, so it was time for us to turn around and make the hike back with our tripod safely packed away.

Now – here are some photos (and a couple gifs) of the beautifully frozen Partnachklamm!

Julie was able to line up a few photos from our last trip to show the summer vs winter

Another summer vs winter

The Wonderful German Alps

This last Saturday I awoke to the sun shining through the window.  I immediately hopped out of bed, found Noah already awake in the living room, and insisted that we must go do something! 

After some initial thinking, we decided to check out Höllentalklamm – a gorge down in Grainau.  Now, it was a bit iffy trying to figure out if it would even be open.  There is no set closure date listed online – just that sometime in late October it closes for the winter.  Well, it was November 1^st, and the sun was out, the weather was warm, and we figured – what the heck.  Let’s go check it out.  The worst that would happen is we would have a bit of a hike and have to turn around.

We pack up the car with the dogs and some snacks and some sunscreen, and begin our drive south to the Alps. 

As we make our turn off towards Grainau, I see the brown-colored tourist road sign that says ‘Höllentalklamm’, and underneath it a smaller red sign that says ‘geschlossen’.  Closed.  Well – that was lucky!  We didn’t even have to make it to Grainau to see if the gorge was open or not.  Ok – time for Plan B.  We are in Garmisch, had plans to check out a gorge… what about our old friend Partnachklamm?

We turn the car around and head over to the Olympic Ski Jump center, where the short hike to Partnachklamm begins.  As we are heading down the path towards the entrance, we see that we are far from the only ones that had the idea to spend this gorgeous Saturday doing the exact same thing.  I guess the incredibly packed parking lot was the first clue. Noah and I both have decided that neither of us really wants to take the dogs through this narrow cliff trail with so many other people - except neither of us wants to tell the other one that we have changed our minds.  So instead we both take our time with the dogs, letting people pass us by, and focus on taking some photos of the autumn colors.  

In my mind, I have decided that I wanted to at least check out the bridge that crosses the river – especially since it is before the payment point (after that, you are stuck with the crowds maneuvering through the narrow passage).  We bypass the line of people waiting to pay, and head up the path to the bridge.  Here we pause to take photos and learn that neither of us wants to go in the paid section.  So what to do instead? 

As we are pondering our next move, we realize that on the other end of the bridge is a free path upwards towards the top of the cliff.  And it is essentially clear of all people.  Bingo! 

2 happy dogs and examples of the trail we were on

We make our way gradually higher and higher along the path, only having to leash up the girls a handful of times as people pass us heading down.  Neither of us has a clue where this trail takes us, so after a bit of time hiking I suggest that we might want to turn around to head back.  Thankfully Noah suggests checking out what is behind the curve of the cliff to see what is out there.  Then we can turn around. 

If we had listened to me, we would have missed the bridge that crosses the entire gorge!  We would have turned around right before the main attraction!  Here we find the ‘crowds’ – 7 other hikers that have also gathered on the bridge to look down into the gorge. 

In the top of the photo on the right, you can make out the 'paid' trail cut into the cliff

Now that we felt satisfied that we saw what there was to see, we were ready to backtrack to the parking lot for our next activity of the day – taking the gondola up to the top of Eckbauer Mountain.  I have to give our two dogs a lot of credit here – the gondola fits just two people (one on each side) and is completely open from your waist up.  But those two dogs have learned to trust that we are taking them somewhere awesome, and they nervously sat by our feet in the tiny, swaying gondola. 

It is only our shadows, but you can get an idea of the size of the gondola

The views were lovely, at least for Noah and me

Once we reached the top and freed the dogs, it was like they hadn’t spent the last 10 minutes confined to a small terrifying space.  We walked up to the top of the hill and warmed ourselves in the sun and ate our snacks – us humans sticking to oranges and chips, the dogs excitingly eating as much deer excrement as possible before heeding to our yelling. 

While the views were lovely – the sun was at the wrong angle to get any nice photos of the mountains.  So after our small break, we began following a trail that led away from the restaurant/gondola area and towards where I expected to find good views of the sunny side of the mountains.  I wasn’t disappointed. 

With this lovely lighting, how could we pass up opportunities to photograph our two favorite subjects??? 

First we get the solo shots

Then them together

Then we run them!

With daylight savings over, the sun sets rather early now.  So before we were ready, it was time to leave our alpine oasis and start the journey back home.  We loaded two very happy and exhausted pups into the back seat and followed the other day-trippers back towards the city.  Until next time!  

Four Years Stronger

We recently celebrated our 4^th wedding anniversary and freakishly realized this was our 3^rd consecutive one while living in Germany.   Have we really been out of the USA this long?!  This year also marks 10 years since we first got together, the best decade I could have ever imagined.

We stayed closer to home for our anniversary this year at the Spitzingsee in the Bavarian Alps.  That means the dogs were lucky and also got to tag along our little getaway.  Our trip was delayed and cut short a bit by bad weather, but we were able to enjoy 1.5 beautiful days at the alpine lake. 

 

We spent our first day enjoying some nice hikes around the lake and surrounding area.  There we met probably the happiest cows in the world.  And then the rest of the time we were enjoying the spa/pool with a lakeside view. 

We ate dinner at the hotel’s Italian restaurant, where we enjoyed an absolutely delicious appetizer buffet.  However we almost made ourselves sick on all the marinated vegetables, cheese, and bread.  We could barely eat the pizza we ordered for the main course.

The dogs also had a wonderfully spoiled day.  Many German hotels, especially in the countryside, are very dog friendly and provide nice accommodations for pets.  This particular place had a bowl of treats in the lobby entrance.  This meant the dogs never really wanted to leave the lobby, and were actually excited when the walks were over and it was time to return to the room.  Each walk by they would grab as many treats that would fit in their mouths, knowing we wouldn’t let them have more than one pass at a time. 

Not a photo of the treats, but a cute picture of Sadie scaring off a duck 

We spent the night star gazing and trying to capture some night sky photography.  We lucked out with clear skies and were able to spot the 2 or 3 constellations we actually know.

When it was time for bed, we didn’t sleep too long before waking up for our anniversary tradition of photographing the sunrise (a very painful 5 a.m.).  We got some beautiful shots of the lake reflection before stumbling back to bed to try to grab a few more hours of sleep. 

However our plan to sleep in late was interrupted by what Julie thought was a casino that opened outside our window.  There were so many loud clangs and people cheering that she finally got up to see what was going on.  Looking out the window she learned that it wasn’t a casino, but a cattle drive directly through town (and right outside our window).  The noises were the cowbells and the farmers in lederhosen directing the cows through the main street. Oh the things you can see in Bavaria! 

After our cowbell alarm clock we decided to take a gondola ride up the mountain.  It was the first gondola ride for the dogs, so it was fun to watch their reactions to it.  However they have learned that when on vacation with us, they get to experience pretty fun things, so neither were worried enough to avoid the strange new ride.  At the top the weather was completely different, so we found ourselves stuck in a bit of a cold rain cloud.  Though we didn’t let it stop us from stomping around a bit and enjoying some nice views and hot chocolate before making our way back home. 

Happy Anniversary Julie!

Visiting Neuschwanstein…finally

The most famous tourist destination in Bavaria (outside of Oktoberfest) would have to be Neuschwanstein Castle.  They not only receive millions of visitors from around the world each year, but they also win the award for most obnoxious souvenirs which you can find in just about every tourist shop in Munich.  Therefore, we never had a sense of urgency to make a visit to see the overcrowded and over-commercialized site.  After all we live the local life here in Munich: you know, commuting to work, running errands, and all that fun “local” stuff [insert judgmental tone towards tourists here].

Instead, we have been strategically plotting for about 2 years now on the best time to make a visit there.  We waited to avoid the scaffolding that was up through 2012, avoided visiting in the bad weather earlier in the year, and then definitely avoided the tourist surge over the summer.  And so we capitalized on the perfect fall scenery/weather 2 weeks ago to visit the Schloss while our two Allisons were visiting us.  We timed it perfectly - combining the perfect fall weather with the beautiful fall colors into the best visit ever to Bavaria’s most popular tourist destination.  This just may be too much awesome for you to handle! 

After a beautiful two-hour drive along the “Romantic Road” (an arbitrary marketing designation for what is simply a highway), we arrived at the parking lots.  From there we took an amazing 30-minute hike up the hill to reach the fairy tale castle.  Ok, Julie and I did the hike – the Allisons waited in the long line for a carriage ride up.  The one thing not going for us that day was the fact that the buses weren't running.  But this was fine for me - most of the castle’s beauty is best enjoyed from the outside and from a far distance.  So when we reached the castle gates, we instead kept on walking away from it to get to more amazing views from the side and behind. 

As we reached the ‘Marienbrücke’ bridge behind the castle we heard a helicopter approaching, getting closer and closer.   Since helicopter rides and touristy places tend to go hand and hand, I did not think much of the hovering helicopter at first.  But then I yelled at Julie to start taking photos as I realized we were witnessing a full on helicopter rescue of two people at the bottom of the canyon.  In a matter of a 2 minutes a rescuer repelled out of the helicopter, secured the person, and flew out of there completely James Bond style.  They were back 15 minutes later for the next victim/bystander.  By the way, it wasn't obvious to us why they needed to be rescued, so I hope they are ok.  But it’s a rare moment when you can take a photo looking down on a helicopter. 

After enjoying the views, we wandered back to the main gates to meet our two Allisons, who enjoyed their more expensive but more romantic horse carriage ride up to the top.  We got a quick look at Neuschwanstein up close, had a nice lunch at a nearby restaurant, and then made our way down for part 2 of the castle tour.  And yes, we skipped going inside for the Neuschwanstein tour, which we usually hear is overcrowded, expensive, and underwhelming since it’s only partially completed (we hear this from both tourists and locals alike). 

However, as Allison B wanted to view a German Castle from the inside (she did travel all this way), we decided to take the tour of the neighboring Hochenschwangau castle about 1 mile away.  It was a bit disappointing to see our English language guided tour be falsely advertised as it turned out to be simply an “audio guide” tour in English.  This wouldn't have been so bad, except for the fact that they combined our tour with the German language guided tour behind us, so the tour guide spoke loudly in German while we were straining to hear our audio guides.  So basically we could not really hear anything in either language!  But I can’t complain too much since historical facts don’t really stick in my brain anyhow.  The castle was very nice, unexpectedly small, and nothing in comparison to our own Nymphenburg. ;)  

I think the rest of our trip can be summed up in a small sample of the 400 photos we took.  Can you tell we were excited to experience fall with colorful trees and falling leaves?  We even made a game out of trying to snatch falling leaves out of the air which was frustratingly difficult and pretty much sums up the fact we spent too many years in the desert.

King of the Lakes

The Bavarian summer season is quickly fading along with our chances to do summertime activities.  This weekend we took the opportunity to make a quick trip down to Königsee in the lower Alps (direct translation: Kings Lake, a translation which has bailed us out many times when we are struggling with the German phonetics).  We were also in this area with Logan and Ashley last year, but we scratched a visit to the lake because access by boat is restricted in the fall/winter.  After work on Friday, we packed up the dogs and headed out after for the 2 ½ hour drive to our Gästehaus Böhm. 

View from our Gästehaus 

We woke up early on Saturday to catch the first boat out at 8:00 (and the dogs licking our hands at 6:30am pretty much ensured we would not be late).  This turned out to be a critical piece of advice I received from a coworker.  We rushed through our hotel breakfast, packed up the car, and made our way down to the lake.  We were shocked to see that instead of these multi-tier, large capacity ships we are used to on lakes like Starnberg, we would be riding in a small ~50 passenger cruiser around the lake.  After securing tickets for all four of us (even the dogs had their own ticket), we awkwardly crammed in to what was already a packed boat.  Clearly this place was about to get very crowded.

The views on the lake in the early morning were absolutely spectacular.  The water was perfectly still and there was just a hint of lingering fog on the water, which of course means lots and lots of pictures. 

One of the highlights of the lake is the famous echo wall, and the boat guides play a trumpet duet to demonstrate.  It’s hard to make an echo sound really interesting, but this was definitely a pretty amazing echo and something you should go check out for yourself. 

We rode the boat straight across the lake to the end to get as far away from the surging crowds expected for the day.  We arrived at the Salet port to the most beautiful, calm scenery just as the sun was rising over the mountains. 

From there it was a 15 minute walk to the neighboring Obersee, where we then hiked for about an hour to the opposite side.  We had a nice picnic at this end before making our way back to the boats.  Lots of photos coming… 

As we got closer and closer to the docks, we started to encounter all the crowds.  We realized how lucky we were to have such a peaceful morning just by waking up a bit early.  We made a quick stop at one of the intermediate stops along Königsee (St. Bartholomä), which is famous for its picturesque church.  But the masses became too much for us after our very quiet morning.  Instead of lingering, we caught the next ship back, grabbed an ice cream cone, and made our way back to Munich. 

Crowds back at the main shore

Driving home we realized that having sights like Königsee just a few hours away is further proof that Bavaria will probably be the most beautiful place we will ever live…