We had three eventful days exploring this southern part
of Bavaria. In the winter it’s a fashionable ski resort made popular
particularly by the local attractions of the 1936 Olympic stadium (and towering
ski jump), nearby Zugspitze (Germany’s highest mountain), a dramatic gorge and
of course, the Wank which proved to be a dumpling shaped mountain with a
family-run cable car and our campsite on it.
The weather had changed as we crossed the border and
mornings were cold and gloomy but afternoons were brighter. The bus to town
called at the campsite so it was easy to get about.
Garmisch is a modern and busy centre of hotels, bars, outdoors clothes shops and a small historic centre of painted houses, now pensions and guesthouses.
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| The Olympia Skistadion |
Partenkirchen is prettier and
is an alpine village with cobbled streets, a flowing river, restaurants,
designer shops and a casino.
They were joined together for the Winter Olympics in 1936
and both continue to host international ski events at the original, columned
and Nazi-like stadium. The
gravity-defying 62metre high ski jump dominates the stadium as one of four.
From the stadium we walked to Partnachklamm Gorge, a
spectacular and extremely narrow 700 metre gorge where the stone walls rise up
to nearly 100 metres on both sides.
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| On a slippery path into Partnachklamm Gorge |
A narrow, slippery rock passageway was carved out of the face of the stone in the early 1900’s and we inched along it, ducking under low hanging rock and groping through dark, unlit tunnels.
The
ferocity of the water was at times frightening as it swirled and seethed and hurled
its way across the rocky rapids. Standing on a 70metre high bridge the water
crashed down in falls into shallow icy pools.
Grateful for our hoods and jackets
we were both drenched with cold spray by the time we emerged at the other end
into sunshine and small groups of other walkers excitedly shaking out wet
clothes and hair.
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| Mountain water gushing down the rock face |
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| The narrow cleft through the Gorge |
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| The River Partnach racing through the Gorge |
To get warm we hiked up the steep side of the gorge onto
open alpine farmland. The sun was now hot and the hillsides full of hikers and Nordic
pole-carrying people. A single farmhouse had a garden full of early lunching Germans
sat along long trestle tables tucking into jugs of beer and plates of
sauerkraut.
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| An idyllic life above the Gorge in the German Alps |
A surprising number of Americans were around but we realised they
had arrived by a nearby cable car directly onto the summit. It was lovely to
meander about and greet ducks, sheep, cattle and goats before slaloming down a
nearly vertical roadside that was shored up with felled tree trunks to prevent
the sides crumbling down the mountain.
Remarkably a ford transit van passed us
at high revs making its way up to the summit, the driver cheerily waving and
shrugging off the challenging drive.
