Europe 2015: Bavarian Road Trip

Today we drove from Munich south to the Deutsche Alpenstrasse, then west thru the Bavarian Alps

The Munich hotel had the best (and free!), breakfast so far, including fresh honey

And OJ freshly squeezed by this machine. It was so good I had 3 large glasses

We hit the road, top down, at about 7:30 am.

Here's our route. We headed due south from Munich to Bad Weissee, then west on the Deutsche Alpenstrasse (literally, "German Alpine Road", but the nuance is lost in translation). The Alpenstrasse extends farther east, to Berchtesgaden, but we didn't have the time for the full route so we started in the middle

Red circle is the Sylvensteinsee, yellow is the shortcut, blue circle is Zugspitze (all in pics below). Left end is Fussen. Munich is out of the pic to the north.

The Alpenstrasse is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world - the mountains are incredibly huge and rugged, and around every corner is a view deep into the alps. Driving it is just plain fun, and a convertible is required to really take on the three-dimensionality of it.

Bee doesn't function before 10

This is Sylvensteinsee, a reservoir on the Isar upstream from Munich. Just beautiful.

Bee with the convertible at the same spot as above. It wasn't as warm today as yesterday, but we still put the top down and turned the heat onto our feet to compensate

Behind us is a couple on a motorcycle, of which we saw many. This area is a cyclist's dream. Not the poseurs on loud Harleys or flashy Japanese crotch rockets, but real motorcycle purists on BMW bikes.

Just west of Sylvensteinsee there's a small private toll road that's a shortcut between Vorderriss and Wallgau (look it up on Google maps). Costs E4 and is 1.5 lanes wide and takes you up the Isar valley way out away from civilization. In this pic we're on that road; Garmisch-Partenkirchen, our initial destination, is at the base of those mountains in the far distance in the center of the pic

At G-P, we stopped at the Zugspitze, Germany's highest point. There's both a cog railway (46 mins) and a gondola (10 mins) to the top. We went up the gondola and down the RR (look it up - it's crazy)

The top is over 10,000 ft high, and below 40 degrees today - chilly. There's a restaurant at the top with a viewing platform on the roof. The actual summit is the yellow pole behind us

Some people climb out there!!!!

(Look at the guy at the bottom climbing the ice)

To the south of the summit is a flat bowl with a glacier. There are ski lifts on the glacier which operate Nov thru May.

To the north is G-P, 7000 feet below. This pic is from the railing, from which it's a couple thousand feet straight down, and it took every bit of courage I could muster to stand there and take this pic

We rode the smaller cable car at the top down to the glacier, which is where the train terminates. Bee wanted to go skiing

This is the glacier house/ski lodge. The train station is in the basement. The summit building (previous pics' location) is visible at top right

There were a good number of people out hiking the glacier.

The lodge had these curious objects carved with a chainsaw.

The train ride down was actually anticlimactic after experiencing the summit and glacier.

And just after we resumed the drive it started pouring rain; it must have been horrible at the top.

We then drove to put hotel in Fussen, and went thru Austria for a bit. No more border checks, just a sign saying welcome. Last time I was here, 23 yrs ago, there were Hayes and armed guards and I was turned back. Changes for the better.

Here's Bee in Austria... can you tell the difference?

While driving thru Austria, it rained hard for a spell then we had immense wind bursts. The people on this bridge must have been terrified

I looked it up: it's 1330 feet long, the world's longest pedestrian bridge. See great pics of it at http://www.highline170.com

Here's our hotel room in Fussen, with old fashioned bed frames

After checking in to the hotel, we headed to Neuschwanstein. This os the parking lot, castle is above in the distance. It started to rain, heavily at times, but because you have a reserved visit time you go rain or shine

Happily, by the time we took the bus up, the rain had passed. This on the path to the castle from the bus droppoff. Alpsee and Hohenschwangau in the distance