Today I didn't really think I wanted to drive so I decided I would do some local walking and hiking. I went down to breakfast at 8 and ended up talking to the British guests who were leaving today for a while such that I didn't leave the hotel until about 9:15. My first task was to climb Kofel. Kofel is the mountain right behind the hotel. The Venezuelan guest had already climbed it twice since I had been here but he is also around 15 years younger than me and obviously a runner. Still I knew I had to do it or I would not be fully happy with my trip.
To climb Kofel I needed to walk outside of town to the cemetery and the cut through it to a trail behind it. This trail leads to the trail up the mountain. The start of the trail cuts through a cow pasture with several cows hanging out and lots of cow pies along the way. It was a bit disconcerting because you basically have to pass a few feet away from them to get through or I guess maybe walk all the way around the outskirts of the field. There is a bench with a message in German inscribed on it on the other side of the pasture. From there it is basically switchback trails straight up the mountain. The Venezuelan kid said he did it in about 45 minutes but I took about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the to point before the last stage of the climb. At this location is an intersection of trails that come from different points along the mountains. I am sure some come from very far away, in the range of several kilometers. Starting up the final stage to the peak isn't so bad but it comes to a point where the climb gets a bit steeper and they have cables on spikes to help you pull yourself up. I've documentd many times my fear of heights and this is the area that definitely struck me right away. I was able to do it by not thinking about what it would be like on the way back down. I can tell you there were a few spots that definitely I searched for alternate routes and perhaps at least one location I made up my own because of how close to the edge without any security cable I would have to go. I did manage to get to the very top where the crucifix is. It was apparently erected in 1988 if I get the inscription correctly. It is quite large. The view from up there is totally spectactular. The weather was perfect if maybe a touch warmer than I would have prefered and I could see very far around the region. I stayed up there cooling off for a bit because the climb was very intensive to get up there and I was soaking with sweat by the time I got to the top. Even with the sun there was a slight breeze that made it nice to be up there.
Working my way down was the adventure I expected it to be and there were many places I had to crab crawl my way through or I would have probably just sat there and cried. Still there's no crying in mountain hiking so I just had to suck it up and work my way down. I had been at much higher points in Peru but nothing so hand over hand for climbing that I can remember. Perhaps I erased it out of my brain. After getting through the areas with the pull cables it was a bit easier to deal with and I made much better time and cooled off again from the sweat I had remanufactured while coming down the sheerer bits. Still it was basically switchbacks straight down the mountain and even going downhill it is fairly straining to the legs. After passing back through the cow pasture I headed to the cemetery and back into town. My hotel is on a hill if I haven't mentioned that... I got in at about 12:00 so was out for nearly 3 hours or so. I was filthy from all the crawling and sweat and since my room was next to be made up I opted to wash up quickly instead of take a shower.
After cleaning up I headed into Oberammergau and decided to have lunch at the restaurant at the Hotel Wolf which I am going to have to walk past again to get the name it appears. I ordered a beer and they gave me a Paulaner which was a typical Munich beer, so maybe less flavor than I like but not bad. I also ordered a Wolf Burger. Had I had any idea what I was getting I would never have done so. The thing was gigantic. I could only eat about half of it and I made a mess of myself and everything around me along the way. It was seriously a terrible scene of carnage. While I was eating I had decided I was going to walk to Ettal which should be about 5km away. Not that far for me to walk. Sid happened to find me at the restaurant and joined me to have a coffee. When I told him what I was going to do he asked if he could join because he needed to get his walk in. I agreed but he needed to get changed so I told him I would finish eating and get an ice cream at the really popular place right in downtown and then meet him at the hotel. I had to change and wash my pants of all the tomato wreckage that fell out of the burger anyway. I got a coffee ice cream cone that was really very good dense ice cream. I really liked it a lot. I ate that on the walk back to the hotel and then got up to the room, changed and washed the other shorts off and put them on the balcony to dry and found Sid downstairs.
Apparently along the way to Ettal we managed to take a wrong turn and what should have been an easy 5km walk turned out to be a 7.5 or 8km walk as far as I can tell. In the long run I think both of us were happier with the longer trek because we got some really nice views along the way and I think seeing Ettal from the path we took was much nicer than the path that we should have took. Ettal is a small village that has a monastery in it. The monastery also has the baroque (I think, it might be Rococco) church and apparently is used as a school as well. The town is small and pretty much the main thing is the church itself. It is as detailed and spectacular in its own way as Wieskirche was. Also it is Catholic. When we finally got in town we stopped at a cafe and I had a water and Sid had a coffee and an applekugel that looked really good. If I hadn't had my giant lunch I might have tried it also. After that we visited the church quickly and I took a few pictures of it then we found a place to buy some more bottled water for the walk back. This time we took the correct path back and it was the basic 3 miles it was supposed to be. This trek took us until almost exactly 5pm so I used the time before dinner to quickly wash up again and to then write this on the balcony. The weather was still perfect out and there was a nice breeze blowing to make it even nicer. The bees still like me but I guess I am learning to deal with them.
At 6pm I went down to dinner and had a breaded fish that I was told was a pike style fish that was excellent. I accompanied with a Hacker-Pschorr double bock beer named Animator that was really enjoyable, in fact I had 3 before the night was over. 8.9% alcohol which ain't bad for a double.The soup starter was a chicken rice soup that Sid said was a new experiment for Peter who is actually the chef these days. In my time with Sid I learned a lot more about the dynamic. Erik is Peter's father and Peter is the chef. Erik definitely speaks better English than Peter. Sabine is Peter's either wife or girlfriend and is the main waitress here. She is really sweet and fun to talk to. So I think technically Erik is the owner but is in his 70s.It sounds like the survival of the hotel is a bit precarious and a lot of that may be due to their location which is outside of the center of town and up a hill. It would be a sad thing because while the hotel is not a 4 or 5 star establishment it is clean and they are so nice, friendly and helpful that I want them to be successful on that merit. I hope they can continue on. If you ever consider visiting this region please look up the Hotel Friedenshoehe. I mean that sincerely. Sid had dinner with Sebile who is a local area actress who was taking him to the theater tonight. She was a very nice woman who spoke enough English that we chatted through dinner though she said she lost a lot due to lack of usage. All the same she spoke English very well. I had a coffee before my third beer and decided I wanted that last brew before retiring. While I had that our Venezuelan guest came in from his hike after class. His name is Juliano. He hiked Laber but did not reach the top. Technically he was 5 minutes late for dinner but of course they were nice to him. We chatted a bit and then he headed off to bed so he could wake up for his class and I talked to Sabine and Peter for a while before heading off to bed myself. I had a very active day in which I accomplished a lot and a very enjoyable night as well.
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