Nights 9 & 10: Oberau and Garmish-Partenkirchen

Oberau - a little town in the heart of Bavaria surrounded by towering mountains. It's only a few kilometers away from the more famous Garmish-Partenkirchen, which is touristy like whoa due to the gigantic Zugspitze mountain and is a potential location for one of the upcoming winter Olympics. Strap on your lederhosen and here we go!


Before I go into any more detail, I just need to put out there that this visit was so wonderful, both in the means of seeing wonderful sights and meeting wonderful people. SO WONDERFUL. It really could not have been better.

This was the location I'd been most excited about visiting ever since I'd planned the trip. Almost all of that excitement was due to the Alps, and more specifically the Zugspitze mountain, and even MORE specifically, the train and cable cars that take you to the top (www.zugspitze.de). Then when I found a host that is a professional tour guide all over the world, things only got better.

To get from Freiburg to Oberau, I had to take another waaay out of the way route again because of not having direct access through the Schwarzwald. That meant back north to Karlsruhe and Mannheim, then down again back through Stuttgart (shiver shiver), over to Munich, and finally way south into the Alps. I was very excited to watch the landscape grow as I neared my destination, though was a little put out that it was raining. So ist Deutschland.

I was staying with a married couple on the brink of turning 50, both of whom had been born and raised in the area. They had wonderful Bavarian accents. (But luckily ones that I could understand.) Monika met me at the train station and brought me home to meet Michael and have tea and homemade muffins. They were very kind and easygoing folk that loved to think and laugh and exchange ideas. We hit it off immediately. Later, Michael took me on a little hike in the trails behind the house, which brought us to his favorite view of the town. (It's the photo at the beginning.) The cross is there for all the war victims from Oberau. Normally there are super super big mountains in the background, too, but the rainclouds were hiding them. The next photo is of the town pool, which is heated by the sun in the summer. (And the mountains behind it.)

This is the evening view out my window in the cute little guest room where I slept.

I helped Monika make a delicious African couscous ragout for dinner, after which we just sat around and talked for ages. They both ended up telling me about all the incredible trips they'd gone on all over the world and Michael showed me some of his photography from said trips. Incredible stuff. He organizes about 5 big trips a year and spends all his downtime organizing them in Oberau. I wanted to go everywhere he showed me! They also taught me some fun Bavarian phrases to use on my Hochdeutsch professors, my favorite of which was "Oachkatzerlschwoaf," which means "squirrel's tail" and apparently cannot easily be pronounced by any northern Germans. They were blown away when I nearly nailed it my first try. I love German.


This was the view when I woke up. Everything was covered in beautiful new-fallen snow and the sun was just barely peeking over the peaks. Amazing. I was sad to see that it was so cloudy because I'd wanted to go play on top of the Zugspitze mountain, but then Michael made me look out another window at the Zugspitze itself, shining brightly in the sun and completely clear of clouds!

"Du bist ein Glückskind!" he called, which literally translates into "luck child." We ate a quick breakfast and he drove me over to Garmish-Partenkirchen, where the cogwheel train up the mountain departed from. We had a little time before it left, so he showed me around the old town. The architecture was COMPLETELY different from any I'd seen yet in Germany. It basically matched every Bavarian stereotype I'd ever seen and then some. The buildings were all built with that "Heidi's Grandfather's House" hut feel, but were covered with baroque style paintings, quotations, antlers, and whatever else. Very interesting (and cheesy). You can tell the town survives off its tourism.

After a little exploration, Michael brought me to the train and I paid the gross price that they asked for the experience of a lifetime. The train was full of skiers and snowboarders off to enjoy the mountain.

Look ma, no clouds!

The valleys around and between the mountains were full of these little huts, though I forgot to ask what they were for.

For a moment during the ascent, I caught this gorgeous view of the Eibsee, Germany's highest lake.

It took about an hour to reach the top skiing area, the last good chunk of which was in a tunnel. From there I had to the cable car to the very very tippy top of the Zugspitze at almost 3000 meters. While trying to actually locate the cable car, I found Germany's highest church, just a little thing now surrounded by slopes. I wanted to go inside, but not as much as I wanted to stand on top of Germany before the clouds came back.

Less than four minutes later, I felt like I was standing on top of the world.

Beautiful sunshine on new snow, barely any wind, hundreds and hundreds of mountain peaks in four countries, and believe it or not - completely handicap accessible. There were lots of people there with loved ones in wheelchairs or with walkers. I've seen a lot of beautiful sights, but this might have topped them all. Ich bin ein echtes Glückskind. I was up there for a couple hours, inside the indoor exhibits and picnic lunching on a nice warm bench in the sun with a view, and outside breathing it aaaaall in. Once ready to depart, I took another cable car, this one about 15 minutes long and descends directly over the Eibsee. From there you hop back on the train which takes you back to Garmish-Partenkirchen. Here's a very Bavarian church we passed on the way back.

Once my feet were planted firmly back on the ground, I wandered around the downtown for a while and checked out more architecture. I peeked at cafe menus and was shocked at the prices - they were even more than in the restaurant on top of the mountain! I finally found a decent one and treated myself to some hot cocoa while I thawed out.

Michael was home by five, so I wandered back by then and we hung out for a while before meeting Monika and a couple friends at a Yugoslavian restaurant for dinner. He practiced his upcoming Kilimanjaro presentation on me while we waited and I marveled at all the incredible things he had seen and experienced. Now that's a fun career.

Dinner was delightful. I had some sort of yummy mushroom dumpling thing. After we got home, we talked about German identity things. They both had a lot of love for their homeland, but also talked more about the importance of being world citizens. Another good talk.

Monika had to leave super early for work the next morning so I wasn't able to take her picture, but I did snap one of Michael on our way to the train station. He waited with me there until my train came and I noticed that this was the first host family I'd left on my trip where I think we were both sad to leave one another. We'd all really connected and I felt like I could have easily been their child if they'd ever had one. Sad, but a nice feeling all the same. "Du bist ein nettes Mädchen," he told me, "Bleib wie du bist!" ("You're a nice girl - stay as you are.") And that was that. A wonderful visit.