Europe Trip Post 10: An Unexpected Twist, Mittenwald, and Grainau

It has been a long time between posts… a few weeks in fact. I have a pretty good excuse for this, I promise.

Mittenwald and a Knee Twist

We arrived in Mittenwald, Southern Bavaria (almost in Austria it is so far south), Germany way back in late January. This gorgeous little town was to be our home for 5 days. We had some very cute accomodation, with a great view of the mountains right from the breakfast table!

Skiparadies Kranzberg

The day after our arrival, we were very excited for some skiing (by we I mostly mean me!). We picked up some snow pants (surprisingly expensive) and headed up to the local slope, at Kranzberg. On arrival our first hint of issues to come emerged – there was very little snow at this relatively low altitude (This was a theme that came up throughout our stay in the Garmish-Partenkirchen area – even Germany’s most reliable ski runs have become so unreliable for winter snow that they are considering taking them off the international ski tournament circuit. Weather was extremely mild!) There was enough artificial snow for some fun, but very patchy and dodgy. We stuck to the training slopes initially, and I got my confidence back on a snowboard (had only been snowboarding for 1.5 days previously, and it is pretty tricky starting out). At this point, we got more adventurous, and headed for the ski lift to the much bigger slope. I hadn’t really got the hang of ski lifts on the snowboard (the ones that drag you along) and fell over pretty much straight away. I managed to get back up and keep on heading up the slope… only to hit a really dodgy piece of non-snow, trip over, try to keep myself up, and twist my right knee. I knew it was bad straight away – felt a popping sensation and instant pain in the joint. I was stupid enough to wave off the ski lift attendant’s offer of help, and even slowly snowboard my way back down the mountain… but the burning sensation in my knee was enought to know my day was done.

After hobbling my way back to the accomodation, my knee got so stiff and sore that I couldn’t straighten it or stand on it, and stayed that way for quite a while. Crutches and a knee brace were and continue to be life savers. After about a week I gave in and got my knee checked at the local emergency… and the verdict came back as a torn MCL as well as a collection of other minor damage to surrounding ligaments. The key message though – no surgery required, so our trip goes on! Thankfully it looks like our travel insurance comes through, as that one doctor trip took a bit of a bite out of our budget.

Despite our time in Mittenwald taking a different shape than expected, I enjoyed staying in Mittenwald. We were staying in a small family-run guesthouse on the outskirts, with great views over Karwendal (nearby mountain – bigger than any we have in Australia) and a beautiful blue stream running through the town. Charlotte saw a lot more of the town, but more from her later.

It rapidly had become clear that we were going to have to extend our time in the area beyond the initial five days, as my knee was very slow to heal initially (aka I could barely move). So that led us to finding some very affordable accommodation in the nearby small town of…

Grainau

After a gruelling couple of hours transferring locations (with poor Charlotte carrying two hiking packs, and me struggling along on crutches, on multiple full busses) we made it to the small town of Grainau. Just down the road from Germany’s largest ski resorts, Garmish-Classic/Zugspitze, this sleepy little town has incredible views over the largest mountain in Germany (the Zugspitze) and a bunch of ski runs. We found some incredibly cheap and comfortable accomodation in another small guesthouse (found by scrolling through Google Maps and emailing the owner – another handy trick for cheap stays in less internet-savvy locations).

Zugspitze and the Eibsee

We spent one of our days in Grainau making the intense journey up the Zugspitze. The tallest mountain in Germany at 2,962 metres, it is one of Germany’s most popular skiing spots, and while not as intensely as Karwendal and Mittenwald, it still looms over the valley below. We took a incredibly fast and steep ski-lift on the way up, which took us up some 2000 metres in less than 15 minutes. At the top of the mountain, we enjoyed the view over the glacier ski area (plenty of snow up that high) and the valley below, and wandered our way over to the Austrian side of the mountain, where we grabbed some Goulash for lunch.

On the way back down, we took the much slower, and in my opinion much more interesting, Zugspitze cog railway. Built way back in the late 1920s, this train really does run on a cog (to deal with the incredibly steep incline/decline) and goes through a 4 kilometre long tunnel down through the mountain to emerge back at the bottom. It was quite a ride.

At the bottom, we briefly checked out the Eibsee. This lake is currently partially frozen, but by all accounts is a beautiful swimming and boating spot in summer.

Alpspitze

Another day we made the journey to the Alpspitze. This lower point on the same range as the Zugspitze has a great vantage point over the Garmisch area. It also doubles as a popular starting point for skiiers heading through the “Garmisch Classic” ski area, and certainly had a party atmosphere on the beautiful day we headed up!

Fasching

One of the more unusual events we stumbled across during our stay was the unique Bavarian festival of Fasching (similar, but not the same as “Karneval” elsewhere). This pre-Lent celebration runs over several days – and is incredibly hard to describe, but includes eating delicious food, and wearing absurd costumes – even parading them. We were a little bemused by it all, but thoroughly enjoyed the hilarious parade and costumes.

Zugspitzbad

One of the few things I was capable of doing with my injury was lying in warm water. Thus a regular haunt of ours became the local swimming/spa centre in Grainau, the Zugspitzbad. I became a big fan of the steam baths – very refreshing – and the salt water spa pool there had an incredible view of the Zugspitz above, which made it a great spot to relax and just enjoy the view

Despite the unexpected events and extended nature of our stay in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen area, I definitely fell in love with this area of Southern Bavaria. Having the mountains towering over you is an incredible thing to experience on a daily basis. The fresh mountain air is beautiful, the people were very friendly and always up for a chat, and the ski slopes are… just there! (Already planning a return visit and actual skiing, but we will see what my knee has to say about that…).

Charlotte’s Solo Adventures

With me injured, and thus an extremely slow and at times grumpy travel buddy, Charlotte got in some solo adventures during our time in Mittenwald and Grainau. Rather than try and guess what she got up to, I convinced Charlotte to do some guest posting…

Hey everyone!

With Brendan and his knee out for the count, that left me with quite a few days to fill. Luckily, the Southern Barvarian mountains don’t have a shortage of incredible hiking tracks, alpine lakes, and spectular views. I made the most of them.

Hiking in Barvaria: There are 4 things I noticed during the small hikes I did over the last 2 weeks:

1. There are little wooden huts everywhere, and they are adorable

2. Every mountain must have a resturant at the top

3. The locals are fit – I overtaken more than once by hikers easily in their 70s

4. Everyone else seemed to find walking on pure ice completly normal.

Luttensee and Eibsee: This area is filled with alpine lakes, and they are stunning. Despite the warm weeks we’ve had while staying here (yes, I’m calling 10 degrees warm now) the lakes were all frozen over. With a backdrop of mountains taller than any back home in Australia, the steep uphill hiking to reach Luttensee was well worth it. Eibsee is located at the base of the Zugspitz, is much more of a tourist attraction, and requires no mountains to be climbed to see it, but is still equally beautiful. There’s a 8km track you can take to walk around the whole lake, which was very busy on a sunny day with some locals, and many tourists (though most of them still German I think).

Kranzberg Chairlift: When you stay in any of the towns in the Garmisch-Partenkirchin area, you get given a guest card which gives you free access to some of the local facilites, once of these was a chairlift that takes you halfway up one of the local mountains, Kranzberg. Naturally, I went for a ride.

Violin museum: It turns out Mittenwald was home to some very famous violin makers, and a violinmaking school stilll exists in the town to this day. I spent a rainy afternoon in the small local musem, which not only had many instuments on display, and lots of information on the history of violin making in the area. The museum also had a whole section of Fasching masks. Fasching is a annual festival with its history dating back to when the town was first established in the 13th century. We happened to be staying just up the road in Grainau during Fasching, but Brendan will tell you more about that.

Neuschwanstein Castle: Originally, we had planned to go stay near Neuschwanstein Castle after leaving Mittenwald, but with Brendan’s bung knee, our plans changed. Since Brendan had already been to Neuschwanstein on his last trip to Europe 5 years ago, and it was only 2 hours away on a local bus, I decided I would go visit while Brendan was resting his knee. I must admit I didn’t pay too close attention to the history of this particular castle, as tickets to go inside were sold out on the day I went, but there were plenty of walking tracks around the outside to take in the impressive view. Neuschwanstein looks very much like a fairytale castle. Visiting here was one of the first times on this trip that I truely felt I was in a sea of tourists, backed up by more signs in English than in German. Since it’s been the middle of winter here, and the exact opposite of peak tourist season, most places we’ve been have been on the quiet side, with many more locals than tourists. I’m not pointing this out a bad thing, it was just a reminder for me that we’ve been off the beaten path, and summer when we finally get there is going to feel like a whole new experince all over again.

Overall, I had a very action packed couple of weeks, and while solo adventuring is still fun, I much prefer having someone to get excited about things with, and to be a second pair of gesturing hands when talking to people in small Barvarian shops who don’t speak English, and my German is limited to single word responses and lots of pointing. Luckily everyone has been very patient and friendly.

Ok, Brendan is back! Thankfully with my knee seemingly improving quite quickly now, we are off again, heading to central Italy to hire a car, get some slightly warmer weather and hopefully some beach and hot spring time for a couple of weeks.

Next stops: Bologna, Siena, rural Tuscany