Day Trip to the Alps

The weather forecast was good again so we decided to take another Bavarian day trip. This time we headed south to Garmisch-Partenkirchen near the Austrian border which is the main winter sports town in Germany, the winter Olympics were held here in 1936. The weather forecast was right and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, although it was a bit colder than the city and there is a lot more snow around down here.

It's only 1.5 hours on the train using the Bavaria Ticket which allows 2 of us to travel anywhere in Bavaria all day for €26. The town was fairly quiet as it was a weekday, so we just wandered around and made our way to the Partnachklamm which is a narrow gorge just out of town.

Ice crystals on a pile of timber.

As we moved up the valley into the shade it got colder and colder and I was wishing I had my thermals on under my jeans. We didn't really have any expectations on what it would be like because I'd read that it's much more popular in summer. I've no idea why though because the gorge was filled with ice waterfalls and ice crystals and was fairly spectacular.

The narrow path is cut through the rock with lots of little dark tunnels. The ceiling is very low in places as the cut on my forehead will attest to (I have to wear a beanie for a few days until it heals....). Sure, the sign said "ACHTUNG! 175cm!" with a diagram but i'll blame it on a translation problem.

Ice waterfall

It was absolutely freezing in the gorge, our fingers could barely operate the camera by the end. We were glad when it opened up to bright sunshine at the end so we could thaw out a bit.

Just for a change we had a sausage from the local Christmas market for lunch. Every town we have been to has a Christmas market and they are all supposedly "famous". It's a bit like every second bakery at home says "best pie in QLD!".

-Joe