Partnach Gorge & Zugspitze

Germany! Our first full day! I want to share a little about the places we went – but honestly, so much of my post(s) will likely be pictures because sometimes the words I have can’t do the pictures justice! So, enjoy the pictures and my small snippets of recap here and there.

I don't know how much we originally had planned for our Sunday; I believe we originally planned to go to the top of Zugspitze, but the cloud cover was pretty intense on Sunday morning and my Dad had discovered Partnach Gorge located right in Garmisch, so we decided to head there on Sunday morning and save Zugspitze for the afternoon!

  

 

The Partnach Gorge was such a surprising find and I’m so glad we did find it – because it was stunning! There was a short twenty minute walk to the ticket booth (and a ticket was just six euro – so this is an inexpensive tourist option) and then you made your way alongside the gorge, taking in the stunning aqua blue waters and the rock formations that have been carved by the rushing water.

The walkway is paved and makes its way through tunnels along the route, always with the river running along the right side. Near the end of the walk, you enter a tunnel and climb upward and when you emerge on the other side – I just don’t even know if the vista can be done justice with pictures but I certainly tried.

If you’re in the Bavaria region and looking for something to do – I can’t recommend the Partnach Gorge enough. It really was such an excellent find (way to go Dad) and is affordable as well! I would note if you have kids – you cannot take strollers on the trail (it is definitely not wide enough) and you should be aware that portions are wet/at an elevation. I do think most anyone could do this trail and once you reach the vista, you do have the option to continue on to additional hikes – if you’d like!

 

The Gorge offers horse-drawn carriages back to the parking area (for a fee, of course) and we elected that option. The parking area for the gorge shares parking with the remains of the Olympiaschanze – where ski jumping was held in the 1936 Winter Olympics…. Which were opened by Adolf Hitler. Yikes. Let me tell you – the ski jump would NOT be my sport.

 

After a brief mishap on the roadway taking us to Zugspitze (a brief closure) – we arrived at the cable car station and amazingly, as soon as we bought tickets, we were able to catch a car up the mountainside! The cable car is the longest single span cable car in the world and let me tell you, it just takes you straight up the face of the mountain! And that thing moves!  

The Zugspitze is 2,962 meters tall (which is 9,718 feet) and overlooks Lake Eibsee at the location we chose to go up. You can also take a cog railway up the mountain – but it’s worth noting that the train goes mostly through tunnels, so you don’t have quite the views you have on the cable car. The views from the top are stunning – you can see four countries: Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland! If the cloud cover isn’t too intense…

You are truly hanging with the birdies when you’re on top of the mountain – they are everywhere, soaring on the breeze and perching on the railings hoping for a bite of bread from tourists! We had a late lunch at the Panorama restaurant (make sure to know that everything is in German at this restaurant) and took in the sights from the multiple viewing decks. We stayed up top for around an hour and half and decided against climbing to the summit – I wasn’t keen to leave the “safe zone” just for a picture, ha-ha! I was already high enough!

We returned back down to Earth via the cable car, picked up a souvenir or two and walked over to Lake Eibsee to check it out – I also ended up getting a full moon view of a daring German man who was pulling on his wetsuit. Yikes man! Put that away! There are children present! Hehehehe…

We returned to the hotel for a little while and ended up getting pizza from a local Italian place for dinner. The pizza was tasty but the restaurant seemed a little deserted and unfortunately my Dad was feeling a little unwell during dinner (altitude sickness maybe…) but either way, it was such a wonderful first full day in Germany! I truly couldn’t begin to comprehend the stunning beauty of the Bavarian countryside and couldn’t wait to take in more!

Places we Visited Today

Partnach Gorge in Garmisch-Partenkirchen -  https://www.partnachklamm.de/en

The Olympiaschanze - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro%C3%9Fe_Olympiaschanze

The Zugspitze - https://zugspitze.de/en