The Bavarian Dream

After constant rain in June and July, a much awaited August finally graced us with some rays of sunshine. With clear skies and comfortable temperatures, summer days are perfect to explore Europe. So our first summer trip of the year took us to Bavaria, which is known for its beautiful hiking trails and crystal clear Alpine lakes.

Europe has so many attractive cultural and historical sites that I often forget to appreciate its natural gems. When we visited Bavaria for a day last year, we had spent all of our time attending the Oktoberfest and exploring Munich and I knew that we had missed experiencing the real beauty of Bavaria. This time we wanted to live the true Bavarian dream, so we skipped the cities and decided to live in a small town near the Austrian border, Garmisch Partenkirchen.

We began our trip with a beautiful hike along the mountain stream, the Partnach. The view of the stream rushing along the mountains took me back to my family trips to Sikkim (India), where we fell in love with the beautiful Teesta river.

We followed the stream and found ourselves in the Partnachklamm, which is a deep gorge formed by the Partnach. And wow, this was a unique and mesmerizing experience. Imagine hiking through caves and rocks with a constant sound of flowing waters underneath the surface! Every bend got us face to face with a beautiful waterfall, and I hoped this narrow little gorge would never end! The rushing waters kept the temperatures cool on a very hot summer day, and the hike turned out to be more refreshing than I could have imagined.

Our next destination was straight out of my dream. While looking for travel ideas in Germany, I remember having stumbled upon Eibsee a couple of years ago. Since then, this has been one of the places I had marked as “places I want to visit before I leave Europe”. And finally I was there, and it was as beautiful as social media had portrayed it. Eibsee is an Alpine lake and many travel blogs call it “one of the most beautiful lakes in the Bavarian Alps”. The crystal clear turquoise waters were nothing short of a dream, but what was even more special was that a cogwheel train took us straight to this beauty.

The hiking trails along the lake were beautiful, and the cool water was refreshing on a hot summer day. We had the most cliché afternoon a tourist could have: eating ice cream by the lake, having photo sessions, renting a pedal boat and exploring the hiking trails around the lake! We explored what seemed like a lot of the lake, but only after we got its aerial view from the cable car did we realise how huge the lake actually was. It turns out that we had not even covered a fraction of it on foot or by boat!

The cable car from Eibsee holds the world record for the longest freespan in a cable car, and it took us straight to the top of Germany to the Zugspitze! The Zugspitze lies almost 3000 metres above sea level and is Germany’s highest mountain. After having an elaborate lunch in the highest restaurant in Germany (priorities), we were ready to explore the summit. The summit can be accessed from two countries so we spent the afternoon with one foot in Germany and the other in Austria :P

Left to Right: Highest point in Germany, the Austrian side of Zugspitze

The summit offered a beautiful panaromic view of hundreds of mountains in the Northern Alps and the Eibsee. While the foot of the mountain had sweltering heat, the summit had fresh sunshine and cool breeze. The mountain views reminded me of our family trips to Ladakh (India), and it felt like I was back in the Himalayas (sans the biting cold)! We explored some glaciers and then took a beautiful cogwheel train back to Garmisch.

We went on this trip with my friends, and made beautiful memories along the way. We thoroughly enjoyed our first time living in a youth hostel, and will forever cherish the evenings we spent chatting and playing cards. I often try to visit the hidden gems of Europe in an attempt to take “the road less traveled by”. But this trip was the complete opposite! In following the crowds and visiting many of the popular spectacles of nature, we finally got to experience the “Bavarian dream”.