Above the Clouds in Deutschland

Day zwei (2) of my week-long trip to Germany

(if you are just starting here, read about my day eins (1) experience first)

We woke up in Bavaria at 6am and drove into Austria. From there we could access the base of the tallest mountain in Germany, Zugspitze (its the tallest because the peak is in Germany). The climb was pretty exhausting and got pretty sketchy about 1/4th of the way up and around half way there started to be a metal rope to help us. Some of my favorite photos that I took are when we climbed above the clouds.

Half way up there is a hut you can stop at and get food and warmth. We got this soup called Knoedel which was made with a big ball of bread in the middle. Since the mountain was freezing cold, this was amazing.

However, at this hut we spoke with other climbers and learned that the second half of the hike was pretty treacherous and you should only do it if you have a harness, a clip, and a helmet. We were super bummed about this because we were so close but decided that our lives were more important than our desire to hike to the top. So instead we hiked back down and then purchased gondola tickets to the top. I took a video showing the view from the gondola on the way down for you guys to see.

Going to the top of the mountain was definitely worth it (see the pictures below).

What I found to be especially cool was that there were two big buildings at the top of the mountain, one on the Austrian side and one on the German side. Each had its own gondola which connected down into its own country, but the two buildings were connected by a bridge and you could just stroll between the countries at the top of the mountain.

From the German building I hiked out to the peak where a giant cross marks the tallest point.

After climbing the mountain we hopped back in the car and drove further into Austria. Along the way we passed a lake called Fernsteinsee which was gorgeous (feel free to follow the link to see).

On day 3 we hiked up to Lünersee, the largest natural Alpine Lake in Austria (bonus points if within this post you figured out the german word for ‘Lake’ is).

But really, Austrian lakes are gorgeous. Their water is super blue.

Then, just for fun, we drove out to a corner where Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland all meet. This way I could check off 2 more countries off my list.

After this we headed back to Frankfurt.