Last week our second month of parental leave started and we thought: Let’s go somewhere! Our first small trip takes us to Mittenwald (it is close to Garmisch-Partenkirchen) for a few days. It’s crazy how many Americans stay here, too. If you think, why come during summertime, it’s only good in winter, I can recommend you to also give it a try during the summer. It really is so beautiful here. The place we’re staying at here reminded us of Zion Nationalpark in the US – we are surrounded by mountains on every side.
On Monday night, in accordance with our tradition, we visited the local brewery. Our expectations were not disappointed: It was kid friendly (not always the rule in Germany), superb food (finally a German restaurant that actually manages to cook a steak medium-rare) and equally superb beer. We are in Bavaria after all 😉
Yesterday morning we drove to the ski jump hill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. From there we took the Eckbauer cable car to the top of the Eckbauer mountain. It is a rather old cable car as only two persons can fit in one of the gondolas. So I got into one with Noam and the child carrier while Mike took another one with Nate (who we had on the leash again, just to be safe).
Once we all had arrived safely at the top we only had a few meters to go until we reached a hiking lodge where we enjoyed our hard-earned lunch.
Then the descent started. 1640 ft over 4.1 miles. We felt sorry for everyone who had chosen to start their trip at the bottom – we were glad to have started at the top. We were also (once again) quite glad to have our trekking poles. It wasn’t only very steep, the path was also full of rocks, roots and partly very slippery. In between Nate got the chance to walk a little bit on his own, but shortly before the gorge his energy was spent and he fell asleep in the child carrier.
That’s why he almost missed the most exciting bit of our hike, the actual Partnach gorge. The noise of the rushing river and the water dripping from the walls did wake him up again. And we have to say: Rarely have we seen something so breathtaking: The water shooting through the gorge, a slippery, narrow pathway through the rock on one side and water dripping from every surface.
The only problem with slippery narrow paths is that it can be quite difficult to maneuver and/or take photos when there’s people coming from both directions (you can walk through the gorge from top to bottom like we did and vice versa) especially with a child carrier on your back… But it was a unique and very impressive spectacle of nature nonetheless. A special highlight was waiting at the end of our hike: After a quick break with coffee and Kaiserschmarren (Sweet shredded pancakes with raisins and apple sauce) we took a horse-drawn carriage back to the parking lot. Nate loved every minute of it and he even got to pet the horses at the end.
