Germany Garmisch-Partenkirchen 9 May 2025 Last Saturday, my friends from Stuttgart and other cities and I set off to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a town surrounded by the mountain ranges of the Bavarian Alps. Near the town is Germany's highest point, Mount Zugspitze, and so we thought it would be interesting to see both the town itself and the natural landscapes there. The trip turned out to be wonderful, I would even say full of adventures, but I'll tell you everything in order. We woke up at around four in the morning to have time for breakfast and prepare for the journey. The first train, Straßenbahn U13 to Bad Cannstatt, departed at 5:46, and upon arrival at the station, we met another one of our companions. Whilst waiting for the train to Aalen, we got to know a local resident who struck up a conversation with us. Experience shows that such conversations allow one to improve one's German most quickly. Although I'm still somewhere between A2 and B1, I understood everything, or rather almost everything, she was talking about and could keep the conversation going. In particular, she complained to us about the influx of Syrians and wished for their speedy return to their homeland. At 10:12, we arrived at München-Pasing station. Our expedition was led by my friend Maksim, and unfortunately, I couldn't convince him that we should not disembark at this station, as recommended by the Deutsche Bahn app, but instead travel one more stop to München Hbf and secure seats on our train in advance. I was afraid that the train would already be packed at Hbf, and my fears were justified: when the train arrived at our station where we were waiting, there were no seats available. That is, none at all: we ran along all the carriages, and all the vestibules were overcrowded; it was impossible to squeeze in. I grumbled a bit that, well, they should have listened to me, but then I cheered up our troupe: what adventure would be complete without unexpected twists? In the end, we found a train that went to München Hbf, travelled there, and then boarded a train similar to the full one we couldn't squeeze into. By one o'clock, we were already in Garmisch- Partenkirchen, and our adventure continued. We needed to find a bus that would take us to the stop near the entrance to the Partnachklamm gorge. Here too, there was a mishap: we missed our stop and realised it at the moment when we had already left the town. We had to get off at the next stop somewhere in the middle of nowhere and make our way back on foot. By the way, we weren't the only ones in this situation: another group of tourists who also missed the stop joined us. The Partnachklamm gorge turned out to be wonderful, but they say the most beautiful views open up there in winter. Yes, after looking at the photographs, I was impressed, but it was wonderful in spring too. After we left the gorge and went further, we discovered a mountain stream with a very shallow bottom, so I and one of the members of our expedition decided to take off our shoes and walk on the riverbed. It was so great! The water was ice-cold. It was so great that after we crossed to the other side, we decided to repeat our journey back. An amazing experience, would do it again and again. I really love such things. Then we continued our ascent of the Bavarian Alps. I often ran far ahead to capture the views with my camera, and the photographs turned out to be truly captivating. By the way, you can write to me at my email if you want me to share them. I would be happy to do so. In total, we ended up walking 15-20 kilometres or even more, enjoying breathtaking and magnificent places. Upon returning to the town, we still had time to wander the streets and see many houses decorated with frescoes in the Lüftlmalerei technique, which translates from German as "air painting". Returning to Stuttgart, we were also in for another small adventure, sponsored as usual by Deutsche Bahn. The train was brought to a different platform, and we weren't notified of this: we discovered it too late, and I missed pressing the door opening button by just a couple of seconds before the driver locked them and the train departed. No matter, but now my photo archive includes a picture of the train we missed, adorned with the colours of the sunset. We had to travel by other trains with lots of transfers, but isn't that fun? Along the way, I managed to process all the photos I had taken during the trip. We returned to Stuttgart at one in the morning, and having slept well (if one can put it that way, of course; sleep after such an adventure was not very sound), at ten o'clock I set off on a nine-hour journey home, to my Wolfen-Nord, to Jeßnitz station. Nothing interesting happened here: of course, almost all trains were slightly late, but I had long transfers, so I managed to catch all of them. It was a wonderful adventure. I love such outings, and I hope that something similar will happen again soon. Copyright (c) 2025 contact@renecoignard.com Powered by Weblog v1.18.9