Yesterday, we returned from a 5-day vacation in the Bavarian Alps, and it was absolutely wonderful!

After months of helping my girlfriend in the evenings and on weekends with her preparation for her exams, we finally got the chance to really relax for a few days. At least mentally.

We didn’t just sit around relaxing or chilled much in the Hotel pool, we actually stayed pretty active. Not a single day showed less than 10 thousand steps on my watch, and one day we even hit over 29 thousand steps.

This time, instead of renting a car, we traveled again by train, which worked well since Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where we had booked a hotel room, is pretty accessible by train. The trip only took about 5 hours via Munich.

On the first full day, we went up to the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain. We took the Zugspitze Railway, a cogwheel train, up to the Zugspitzplatt, where there was already snow. Then, a cable car took us to the summit, where we enjoyed the view and treated ourselves to some Kaiserschmarrn. After riding the cable car back down to the valley, we hiked around the Eibsee beneath the Zugspitze.

On the second day, we explored the Partnach Gorge. It was even more impressive than the Taubenloch Gorge, where I recently went for a walk with my family. After crossing Eckbauer mountain, we ended up hiking nearly 16 kilometers with quite a bit of elevation.

The third day took us to the Alpspitze, or rather to the Osterfelderkopf, from where we hiked over to the top station of another cable car. On the fourth and last full day, we took a trip up to the Wank mountain and did a loop around the nearby peaks.

The views from each of these mountains were always impressive. Compared to these, the low mountains around Kassel really do feel like flatlands.

The weather was fantastic too – no rain, lots of sun, and pleasant temperatures, so we could even walk around in t-shirts at the end of October.

On the way back, we took the train to Munich 3 hours earlier than planned and looked a bit around the city.

Although I sometimes struggle with Bavarian patriotism and the dialect, the landscape is beautiful. The vacation was a good opportunity to recharge my batteries and enjoy nature before it gets dark and wet again for the next few months!