Triole, Germany - Zugspitze

April 9, 2015

We left Bavaria, Germany this morning at 8:30am to make our way to the Triole (border between Germany and Austria). We had 50km to travel with an expected 2 hour drive. Today's excursion would once again be up a mountain with more captivating scenery. 

When we arrived to the Zugspitze mountain we boarded a cog wheel train which would bring us up to approximately 5,000 feet. The train would take more than 40 mins to arrive to its destination and prove to be a more fascinating experience than expected. At times the incline on the train was so drastic that standing on the train was extremely difficult. The technology on board the train was also quite impressive! 

At 5,000 feet we found a beautiful view of the mountains, and although we had spent the last two days in what I called the "snow desert" Zugspitze offer a whole new beauty. The snow was extremely soft and untravelled, every step I took I would find myself sinking into the snow waist-deep. Although there was very little "trekking" on this mountain, the amount of effort and energy required far exceeded that of the previous ones. 

As we continued our trek we came upon a small igloo village built into the side of the Zugspitze glacier. 

On the inside a bar built of snow would greet us, lit with changing colored lights. There were tables with hand made stools covered in animal fur where we sat and had a beverage! 

As we continued through the corridors of the igloo sculptures were built/carved into the snow walls, which would later lead to doors.  

IGLOO CORRIDORS - HOTEL ROOMS ? 

Soon a long corridor would appear with many doors, which turned out to be igloo rooms, where guest could spend the night and use them as shelter. Inside a bed was formed of snow, covered with animal skin blankets. Above the bed were beautiful carvings sculpted into the igloo walls.  

Here were a few of the wall carvings which I thought were done exceptionally well. The animal skins on the bed were quite warm and the "igloo room" temperature was quite nice and cozy. 

The igloo walls had these beautiful glowing/reflective stones which were embedded along the base of all igloo walls. When the sun would set and the igloo became dark, these stones would shine a beautiful neon blue light throughout the igloo,  providing enough light to see.

Once we finished up with our igloo fun we began our trek to the top of Mount. Zugspitze! Unfortunately, we could not get our hands on snowshoes so the journey up the mountain was a tad more taxing than anticipated. When we finally reached the top, the view awaiting us would be jaw dropping!

   

Our end point was marked with a golden cross found at exactly 9,718 feet above sea-level, the highest peak in Germany! We could not stand on the exact peak where the cross stood due to the snow that still remained. This peak is unaccessible until sometime in May. However, from where we stood we could see more than 400 mountain peaks that spread across Germany, Switzerland and Austria. 

We made our descent back to our vehicle, packed up once again and made our way for Munich, Germany. We arrived at 5:00pm this afternoon in heavy construction traffic, arrived safely to our hotel and now we are finally relaxing! Tomorrow we take a break from the country side and hit the city of Munich to explore and meet up with some German friends! 

Hope you enjoyed todays blog, and thanks for being awesome and following along!

- San