Today we bid farewell to Munich and headed south. Our first stop was the Zugspitze... the highest point in Germany. Strangely enough, the shortest route to it is to drive to Austria first and take the Zugspitzbahn from Ehrwald. It should have only been about 1.5 hour drive, but it was more like 2 hours because it July must be road construction season in Germany just like it is in Illinois and Wisconsin. Lots of traffic and road construction getting out of Munich.
We made it to Ehrwald around noon and piled onto the tram that takes you from 1225 metres to 2950 metres (9,678 feet), a climb of 5,659 feet, in 10 minutes. This thing moves FAST!
At the top we enjoyed the novelty of walking back and forth between Tyrol and Bavaria. The views were awesome! Katie and I thought we'd try to climb up to the cross at the Bavarian peak, but the way was clogged with other tourists. I had no doubt about Katie and my own ability to navigate the cables and ladder to get there, but I was worried that some of the other wackos would do something stupid and we'd end up paying a steep price. We settled for taking lots of pictures.
While at the summit, we also visited the museum on the Austrian side that tells the history from 1926 to 2006 of the construction of the various incarnations of the Zugspitzbahn. It was pretty interesting.
Finally we descended back to the parking lot where we left the car and drove away. Just in time, too. Because shortly after that there were brief strong downpours and lightning that I'm sure were far more disruptive and serious back at the summit. The road we drove on was smooth sailing until we got to Heiterwang. There was a huge backup on E179, miles long. Obviously, nothing was moving for awhile. Fortunately, we had maps and a GPS and so we rerouted ourselves through Bichlbach and Berwang and Rinnen... all small villages deep in alpine valleys. It was a totally unexpected detour and very scenic.
We rolled through Reutte and into Füssen. Our hotel is right at the edge of the pedestrian zone and has been completely redone. Our "room" is actually two rooms joined as a family suite and it comes with a reserved underground parking spot. That's quite a perk in this medieval town.
After two full days in Munich eating meals consisting of sausage, potatoes and beer we really needed a break. We leaped at the chance to go to a highly rated pizzeria. We all enjoyed pizza and pasta and Laura and I enjoyed a second round of wine while watching our kids scurry and play in the plaza. It was very peaceful and relaxing.
After dinner we took a walk through the town and found it really, quite lovely. The Lech River runs along side the town and it has a very unique turquoise green color.
Tomorrow, we hit the bit name castles, Neuschwanstein
