The third part of my adventure in Germany was a day trip from Munich to Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany.
I began the day just before 6am putting on many thermal layers and then looking like a bit of a fool catching the U-Bahn to the München Hauptbahnhof. From München you catch a train for about an hour and a half to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where you switch to the Bayerische Zugspitzbahn (cogwheel/rack railway) to get to the mountain.
Halfway along the railway you can switch to the Eibsee Cable Car that takes you directly to the top of Zugspitze. This is what I did as it was the fastest and most spectacular way to get to the top of the mountain.
The viewing platform on the top of the mountain reminded me of a evil lair from the James Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – it turns out it was filmed on a different nearby mountain. After spending some time taking photos on the top… and saying wow a number of times, I caught a different cable car down from the summit to the ski area in the glacier below.
The ski area at Zugspitze is not that big and is not that difficult. Having said that, I still found portions of it challenging at times, and in my overconfidence managed to crash head first into the snow, leaving quite a hole behind.
I also had a second tumble where I ended up on my back sliding down a slope unable to stop – lots of fun. The other things to note about Zugspitze was the completely natural snow – absolutely no snow guns, and the lack of people helping you on and off chairlifts and T-bars.
At the end of the day I caught the cog wheel train back down the mountain from the top of the ski area. This took you on a 45 minute journey through tunnels in the middle of the mountain.
Finally, I arrived back in Munich just before 8pm and quickly got changed to join my friend’s birthday party.
