Germany Day 10

My plans for today were not really set until the morning. Even with the late return on Sunday I woke up early and had breakfast as usual. I wrote that post this morning before and during breakfast. I spoke to Sabine and she said that it would be a good day to go to Zugspitze, which is the highest mountain and point in all of Germany.  It is not really far away from the hotel so it at least seemed like a good starting point for the day. I packed up and headed to on my way before 9am easily. Erich and Sabine both said the earlier the better. The drive was not difficult though I had a tough time deciding which point I was supposed to go to when setting the GPS. I missed a turn and drove a bit out of my way and had to turn around. Still I was there fairly quickly and actually the timing was quite good.

The plan was to ride the cog railway up to the first stopping point. When I bought my round trip ticket the train was only 2 minutes away. I really didn't have to wait at all. The cog railway goes up through the woods a fair distance, has a nice view or two along the way then it basically turns into an all tunnel ride for the larger part of the trip. They have some small facts on a TV screen while you are in the tunnel because, well, it's kind of boring.

At the first stop you could see all the snow from the past couple storms quite easily. I walked around outside and took a few pictures. I should point out I was the only guy wearing shorts and a polo shirt with no jacket.  It was perfectly cool out though and not cold. After stomping around the area for a few minutes I again timed my next stage perfectly. The next step is to ride to the summit in a cable car. The cable cars have a 90 person limit (I am sure that means European, bet they could fit 120 Asians or 50 Americans). When I got there it was mostly loaded but I was able to squeeze in and it wasn't but a couple minutes before we were on our way up. As cable car rides go it was not really all that scary, probably because I was in the middle of a full car and it was really tough to see anything to get a sense of height. It was a very brief ride, only a few minutes. At the top everyone piles out and you get to walk around several platforms around the summit area. Technically you can climb to the summit summit where there is a gold cross but the path was closed due to the slick and snowy conditions. It looked quite scary and maybe I would have tried it on a day without snow but never today anyway.  It involved a ladder and pull rope to get up there.

Even at the summit the weather was cool and enjoyable. It was very sunny out. The view was clear for many miles and I took a ton of pictures. I wandered around the whole area from front to back and front again and pretty much captured all the views I could see as best I could. After a while I saw the lower beer garden wsa not really busy, only one couple there and decided to stop there for a beer or two and lunch. It was before 11:30 but I figured it was a good stopping point for the time. I ordered a Franzikan Weisbier which was ok and I had the roast pork with the large dumpling and red cabbage. It was quite good. I actually liked this one better than the one from Edelweis. Not long after I came down another couple of customers came down and ordered the same thing as I had so they must have thought it looked good too. It wasn't really long before the entire place was packed solid with people. I kind of felt like a trendsetter to some degree. Even all the black birds up there got in on the action and customers were giving them bread from their hands. In any event I had my second beer and the settled the bill and wandered for a few minutes more before taking the other cable car back down to Eibsee which is where I started the cog railway ride up. This one again was a large car with a lot of people in it. I got near a window but there still wasn't the same complete sense of height. I wonder if the car just felt too big or something. There were some incredible views. I am not sure. I think it took about 15 minutes from top to bottom. It might have been longer but it didn't feel like it.

At the bottom I wandered for a few minutes trying to figure out where my car was in relation to the cable car terminal rather than the train station. It wasn't long before I sorted things out and got in the car to figure out my next move. I decided I would again try out Reutte. I had only passed through it last time and I was hoping to get a small souvenir or two from Austria without having to go back to Innsbruck. The route I took by not using the GPS must not have been the most efficient even if I was following signs because I was on the road for a while. In any event as I was nearing Reutte I came across Ehrenberg. Let me say that I had found the name and idea of Ehrenberg in my research for this trip and it was what I actually planned to do in Austria. Ehrenberg is a medieval castle ruins that looked very interesting to me. So here I stumbled upon it by accident. There was no way I couldn't go there. I pulled into the exit and then down into a space in the lot and  realized there are several things that make up Ehrenberg. More than I thought.

At the parking area is Ehrenberg Krause which is a fort at the base of the mountain. I really didn't bother with it much. It is in renovations right now and it is 18th century work. Then up the hill about 30 minutes they say (I think I walked it in about 15 minutes) is Ehrenberg Schloss.  The castle was started in the 13th century and was built up over the years through the 18th century. It is all ruins now. Amazingly, or enjoyably or both, yes definitely both, there was not another soul in the ruins when I got there. I started to clambering through it and taking pictures from all angles. The grounds are huge and there are a lot of great things to see. They posted signs that explained the structures and when they were built. I was pretty much in heaven here. Castle ruins and no one else to ruin the experience, no pun intended (I suppose I could have said spoil).  In any event I was in the main castle for quite a while. As I started to head out I saw the first people that came up there besides me. They were older and were definitely tired from the climb.

Of course there is also Schlosskopf. That is an 18th century for that is built on a higher peak that overlooks the castle. I saw the sign for it and it said 30 minutes up. I would have kicked myself if I didn't do it even though I could see how steep a climb it was going to be. It took me about 20 minutes to get up there. I had to stop and rest a few minutes at one point because it was also very hot out. They thought it was going to get over 30C here and it did. That is over 85F minimally.  Anyway, I made it to the top of Schlosskopf and again was the only person up there. Perhaps it was a little less interesting to me being more of a gun fort than a castle but I still spent a while up there. I was able to hide in some shade for a bit and I was able even to spend 2 Euros on a bottle of apple soda that I desperately needed. They had nothing without bubbles in it, especially the water so I figured it was the least damaging. It actually was quite enjoyable, probably because I was so thirsty. Nice of them to put a soda machine up there.

After finishing up my drink and taking all the pictures I could take I started my way back downhill. The sign said 60 minutes to Ehrenberg Krause which is where my car was but it took me more like 30 minutes. I am always happy when the signs are for people other than me... At the car I decided I could see Reutte from the castle so I would just drive there sans GPS. It was a few minutes but easy to find. I found a parking space near the center that was for a supermarket and had a one hour limit. I walked through the center and then back to the car. Nothing touristy at all. I was not surprised but a touch disappointed. I ran into the market and bought another soda from the same company because again they have something against cold still water out here. I do hate them for that. This was a black currant looking thing and I kind of liked it too but I actually liked the apple stuff better. Typically I like black currants. It might have been a different type of berry. I set up the GPS for the hotel and drank that in the car on the way back. The route it took me was by the lake I passed the rainy day I went to Fuessen. I didn't stop for pictures. There were a lot of people sunbathing on the edges of the lake. It was very hot out. My car thermometer said 31C at that point and it was basically 5pm. It wasn't a long ride back but I had to contend with a bunch of jerk motorcycle drivers along the way. I think they are really bad out here thinking they own the road. In any event I let them all pass me and eventually I felt like I was the only one on the road which was a nice way to finish it up. I pulled into the hotel a bit past 5pm and freshened up then started writing this before dinner.

At dinner I started with watermelon instead of soup. Since the day was hot they offered the melon as an option to the soup. It sounded like a good idea and I was happy with the choice. I had 2 Koenig Ludwig Hell beers which are their basic pilsners. I hadn't tried it before so I figured now was the time. I liked the dark beer and this one was decent too. I had a stuffed cabbage roll in for dinner and that came with mashed potatoes. It was very good and I used the sauce from the cabbage rolls to season the potatoes. I figured I should have something that seemed local for the last dinner here at the hotel. I again have to state that Peter is an excellent chef and I really loved his food. After I finished my second beer I had the dessert which was a sorbet made with blue caracao and I also had a grappa to finish off the trip since I saw it in the drink menu. Both Sid and Juliano came down to dinner and we talked about what happened on the weekend and so on. By accident some of Juliano's classmates found the hotel while finishing their hiking and came in to eat. So after I settled the bill I headed off for the evening.

I fly out on Tuesday in the mid afternoon so I have some time in the morning to get some stuff done. I will probably need to start for the airport at about noon or so. It should be an hour and a half drive to the airport. I am not really looking forward to that but after two drives of five and a half hours each I am sure it will be nothing.