Last weekend, we went to Bavaria. It was an amazing place. Our trip actually started in Garmisch-Partenkirchen where Joe's friend Mike met us as we got off the train. He needed to finish up work, so we had some time to tour the town and stare up at the Alps, which are amazing.
On the way over to Mike's house in Mittenwald, a few towns over from Garmisch, we stopped on the outskirts of Garmisch to see the site of the 1936 Winter Olympics Alpine ski jump. This was the first Olympics to include Alpine skiing. They are in the process of installing a new jump, but the original stadium is still there and it was very cool to see.
Friday evening we took an amazing – slightly fear of heights inducing – hike on a metal w
alkway suspended about 150 feet above the water and about 100 feet below the top of the gorge. I didn’t measure it, but it seemed to run about 2 miles in length. It was a way to start the vacation.
Before our hike, Mike’s mom had us for coffee and cake. Real Black Forest cake in Bavaria, really great! We had dinner at a fun Italian restaurant that night with Mike and his mom. Mike’s friend Andy joined us for dessert.
Saturday we took the tram to the top of Karwendel, which is the tallest mountain in Mittenwald, about 7,000 feet. It was almost 80 degrees at the base of the mountain, but deeply snow covered at the top. Many of our hikes, including this one, took us into and out of Austria, which just added to the fun. Later in the day we took a single chair lift up a beautiful mountain, covered in edelweiss, eissen and buttercups. From there we stopped at a “hut” (in the States you’d call it a lodge) where we had lunch. The best potato pancakes ever with beer, of course. Joe had this giant bread dumpling served in a soup bowl and covered with a ton of wild mushrooms in cream sauce.
From there we took our longest hike, down the side of the mountain to a be
autiful lake and then out to the south end of Mittenwald before heading home to rest our feet. That night we had dinner at the biergarten where Mike’s Mom works. I had a traditional Bavarian dish called Kasespaetzle, which is spaetzle tossed with a farmer’s cheese – cottage cheese like – and topped with lightly breaded and fried onions, kind of a Bavarian version of mac & cheese.
On ou
r last day in Mittenwald we started with a very short hike through the gorge
we had hiked on our first day. This time, it was on a shorter suspended 
path about 10 feet above the water. This allowed us to see the waterfall we had walked above a few days before. From there we jumped in the car and headed over to Innsbrook for lunch. Along the way we drove country roads up and down the Alps.
Mittenwald is quintessentially Bavarian, picturesque charming, full of great restaurants as well as skiing in the winter and hi
king in the spring, summer and fall. We’re really looking forward to going back and doing much more hiking. It’s also fairly easy to get to Northern Italy from there as well.
