Visiting The Werdenfelser Land - South Upper Bavaria

This last weekend we decided to visit Zugspitz, the highest of the Wetterstein Mountains (a section of the Alps) and the highest peak in Germany at 9,718 ft. There are cable cars that go to the top of this peak, and there is a ski area near the top of the mountain.

Our drive to the peak took us about an hour longer than we expected since the two lane road to the mountain was jammed with skiers. At least this gave us some time to admire the Ehrenberg Castle ruins that we saw up on a small mountain/large hill along the way. If we'd had the time, I would have loved to explore the ruins. There are apparently well maintained trails going to them. I was fascinated by these ruins, so I looked up some information on them when we got home. Apparently, the Ehrenberg Castle was started sometime in the 12th century. For over 200 years after its complete abandonment at the end of the 18th century, it remained a remote unvisited ruin, but in 1992 it was made into a visitor's attraction with some attempts at reconstructing parts of it (thus the roofs on the circular towers that don't quite fit in with the rest of the ruin).

There are actually four castle ruins in this same area. You can see the ruins of the Schloßkopf, which was the most recent building dating from the very beginning of the 1700s, in the picture below on the hill above the Ehrenberg ruins. Again, attempts have been made recently at reconstructing it in part.

 

On the ride up

Finally we reached the cable car to the Zugspitz after about three hours riding in the car. We were actually in Austria at that point since we had decided to ride up to the top from that side of the border. We got our tickets, which were very pricey costing us 75€ for two of us (Austin was young enough that he was free). Then we boarded the large cable car and enjoyed the scenic ride up the mountain.

The top was beautiful. Luckily, it was a pretty clear day (otherwise we wouldn't have bothered going to the top to start with). It is said that you can see over 400 peaks in four different countries from the top, however we didn't count. It was also very cold at -10°C (14°F), and it was pretty windy too, which made it feel even colder. We really enjoyed the great view, but I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more if I hadn't been freezing cold.

We couldn't really get to the actual tip-top of the mountain peak, which you can see behind us in the picture below. There was a path too it, but it didn't look very accessible (or safe) given the icy snow, the steep climb, and the stiff chilly wind. I doubt it was even open, and certainly no one was using it!

Austin took a ride on the wooden mountain goat at the top. We actually saw some real mountain goats on the ridges as we rode back down the mountain too, though unfortunately we weren't able to get any pictures of them.

After getting down from Zugspitz, we ate the lunches we had packed and headed to the Partnach Gorge (Parnachklamm). The gorge is 2,303 ft long (702 meters) and up to 260 ft (80 meters) deep. During the 18th century, locals would transport fire wood on timber rafts on the water through the gorge from the Reintal valley to town of Partenkirchen below, which was a dangerous process. The gorge was designated as a national monument in 1912 and the area was developed with a trail for visitors. We paid a small entrance fee of 2.50€ per adult visitor.

We found the gorge to be very wet, narrow, and absolutely beautiful! The steep walls and water reminded us of the slot canyons and narrows in Southern Utah. Only, because a trail had been carved into the side of the rock, we didn't have to walk through the water. The trail was actually pretty dark and sometimes went into dark tunnels. Water dripped down and off of the walls onto our heads in many spots, making Nate wish he had brought his coat with a hood. Tiny waterfalls streamed down the rocks too in some spots. I am so glad we went here. It was really fun to see and in many ways I like liked it even better than Zugspitz.

Originally, we had hoped to also visit the Linderhof Palace, but we didn't have time to make it before it closed at 4:00. While I would like to see the inside of the main palace, the gardens and garden buildings there are of particular interest to me. Unfortunately, they don't open until April, so even if we had made it there we couldn't have seen them. So, the Linderhof Palace will have to wait until we return to Europe on some other trip.

Instead, we headed to Ettal to see the Benedictine Abbey there. The abbey was originally founded 1330 but was largely destroyed in a fire and rebuilt in Baroque style under the plans of Enrico Zuccalli during the first part of the 18th century. However, Zuccalli's plans for The building's façade and towers were not completed until the early 20th century.

I was fascinated to also learn that during WWII, many of the people in Ettal were part of a conspiracy against Hitler. Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (who was eventually hung just 23 days before the German's surrendered for his involvement in plans to assassinate Hitler) was friends with the Abbot there and spent several months as his guest. While there, Bonhoeffer worked on his book Ethics.

Unfortunately this abbey is also know for recent scandals. In 2010, ten priests at the abbey were arrested for sadistically tormenting and sexually abusing boys at the monastery school there. Most of the abuses took place in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.

Of course, I didn't know most of that while we were there. We were just happy the church was open so we could go inside and see its incredible interior. It was darker than ideal at that point for pictures, but it was still well worth seeing!

After seeing the abbey we walked over to a nearby hotel restaurant to eat before driving back to our apartment. We decided to order the family spread since cost wise it came out to be more economically than all of us ordering separate dishes. We were still surprised to see just how large it was! It was great though because it had plenty of items that everyone, including Austin, enjoyed.