We found out today that yesterday’s rip-off campsite was only a mild one.
This afternoon we visited Zugspitze. We can literally see Zugspitze from our living room, so this was something that had been on my list for a while. In better days in the past I would probably have enjoyed hiking and climbing it, as it’s covered in via ferratas. These days, lugging two kids around every place we go, we choose the easy option, a gondola from the Austrian side. (A bit like a tin of sardines, which I never found comfortable, and these days even less.)
Once up we enjoyed the stunning views. I love mountains. The kids hated the bright sun, and their sunglasses, oh, and the gales of fresh mountain wind. It wasn’t a huge success.
We hiked to the Bavarian side, obviously claimed by a blue white Freistaat Bayern signpost.
On the Bavarian side, there’s a train going up to 2960m or so, partly tunneling through the mountain. A small exhibition showed the process of construction. I love this stuff. It’s stunning what they came up with in the 1910’s and -20’s. You have to imagine this was done without excavators and helicopters. This is brutal work built by hard-ass people.This stuff has existed for almost a century. These days, companies seem to barely know how to build a house, let alone tunneling mountain railways, towering gondola stations, or other impressive structures like castles and forts. (No one builds forts these days – why did we stop building forts?)
When we came back to the parking lot, we found out that the camper park next to it – belonging to a luxury resort – cost about 38 eu per adult, and 28 per child, and on top of that they added a vehicle charge of 40 or so euros. People have gone insane here. We obviously left, but first enjoyed the last rays of sun and the magnificent views on our 5 eu day parking ticket.
Now we camp at Isarhorn, about half an hour away. Here we are parked just next to the impressive Karwendel mountain, and pay 20 euros for extraordinary spots, along the Isar. That’s more like it…
Robin Heinen 