Up to Alpspitze

Friday morning we headed straight to the base of the Alpspitze… the second highest peak in Germany.  We boarded the Alpspitbahn gondola which took us to Osterfederkopf… the look out area.  As the gondola ascended, the view got more and more spectacular.  Like the photo above, the distant mountains and town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen looked blurry and almost fake because of their distance.

 

Osterfelderkopf mountain station sits a breathtaking 2050 meters above sea level.     New this very July, is two protruding steel look out balconies hovering over the 1000 meter abyss.  I’m sure they test out this sort of thing before letting visitors on, but I could definitely feel a little movement while out at the end and it does something to your stomach.  It didn’t help that Luke was bouncing up and down.  In fact, one man wouldn’t even walk out on it after seeing Luke’s little bounces gently move the lookout tower.

After checking out the views from the overhangs we headed over to the grassy area for another great view.

 

From the mountain station are hiking trails down and also up to the Alpspitze peak. One of the highest peak in Germany…2628 meters above sea level.   We saw lots of hikers.  In fact, almost everyone travelling up the gondola had hiking boots on.  They are very serious about their hiking boots and hiking poles here. Mental note:  must buy hiking shoes.  Within about five minutes we reached a patch of snow.  It wasn’t cold so I don’t know how the snow was even still there, but Chris and the kids had fun making snowballs and throwing them at each other.  The hike was gorgeous and open to beautiful views all around us.  We hiked until we reached a turnoff and small trail dead-end where we stopped to eat Pringles and have a drink.  Chris took Matthew off his back and then he and Ryan and Katie climbed the rock walls to see if they could get a look at the Zugspitze… the tallest peak in Germany (2962 meters).

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is where the little kids and I waited while Chris and the big kids did their climbing.

This is the view of the Zugspitze, which of course this picture doesn’t do justice.  When they hiked down it was my turn… see below.  It was so impressive.

    

After the hike we stopped and relaxed on the grass for awhile and then Chris made us sing ‘The Hills are Alive…’ for the video camera while we twirled around.  It was a perfect morning.  A plaque at the mountain station  captured what someone wrote in a journal, years ago, having just climbed to the peak… “ What should I write? – I cannot think, on this mountain as I rest, of anything but silent awe, and feeling blessed.” Max from Munich.   Amen, Max.