Garmisch – Partenkirchen : Bavaria at its best !!!

Garmisch – Partenkirchen : Bavaria at its best !!!

Garmisch, Partenkirchen, Zugspitze, Partnachklamm

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a small, charmful Bavarian town at the base of the Alps. Surrounding snow clad mountains, gurgling river flowing through the tiny rocks, clean weather, narrow roads, cobbled streets, a fusion of ancient and modernity, panoramic and breathtaking views and the list goes on. I am sure the winter sport lovers will envy the people residing here. Each day spent, each mile walked, each street explored and each view witnessed gives us an insight into a totally new perspective about this small town. And now after having travelled to Switzerland too, I feel, this town is no different from any of the villages or towns of Switzerland, be in its charm, beauty or serenity.

We visited Garmisch in the spring of year 2018 – a weekend trip from Stuttgart. I would highly recommend this place to all.

It was around the time when nature had already begun to lay the carpet of greenery around and invite the summer. It is also around the time when there are intermittent downpours to preserve the beauty of nature.

Before getting into our itinerary, an interesting background about this town – Garmisch Partenkirchen:

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a small district town, which earlier happened to be two different towns, Garmisch and Partenkirchen. It lies in the Bavarian region of Germany, bordering Austria and Switzerland. Also, It is close to and happens to be one of the starting points to the highest peak in Germany – Zugspitze.

It is a popular venue for winter sports and ski lovers. The Winter Olympics of 1936 was held here.

Partenkirchen used to be a part of the trade route of Romans and even to the present day, few of its streets carry Roman signatures and styles. Garmisch on the other hand is a typical German town. Interestingly, these two bordering towns were united by Hitler in the anticipation of the Winter Olympics of 1936. Well, today it is a single township and more commonly referred to as Garmisch to the utter dismay of the older Partenkirchen inhabitants. Well, I would love to refer to it as Garmisch-Partenkirchen or as Ga-Pa, as both of these, though a single town now, is totally different from each other. While one can see a sample of Germany in Garmisch along with a touch of modernity, Partenkirchen reflects an ancient Roman town.

To start with, this was our plan for the weekend :

Garmisch – Partenkirchen, Partnachklamm and Zugspitze.

Day 1 : Travel from Stuttgart to Garmisch. Check in to the hotel. Roam around the towns of Garmisch and Partenkirchen. Visit the beautiful gorge – Partnachklamm.

Day 2 : Start for Zugspitze early in the morning from Garmisch. There are three different modes to reach Zugspitze. We also wanted to cover Eibsee and the small village of Grainau on the way.

Day 1 : Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Garmisch being 4 hours by train from Stuttgart, we started early in the morning so that we get enough time to spend there.

Even though we travelled by the faster ICE trains, it took us 4 hours to reach Garmisch, due to lack of direct trains. But we enjoyed the journey. We had to change trains at Augsburg and Weilheim before we could reach Garmisch. The train passed through various small towns, valleys, fields and lakes that made our journey enjoyable.

Enroute, we passed by a beautiful village – Utting, which is a nice place for a good nature walk. If you have enough time in your trip or are travelling by your own vehicle, you may consider to stop over at this place for some time and proceed.

The train from Weilheim passes through a small town of Uffing by the side of a beautiful lake called Staffelsee. This lake is considered to be one of the warmest lakes in Germany. On the day of our travel, we could see lot of visitors arriving here for sun soaking and for some relaxing time by the lake side. We loved the view as we passed through the train. But yet again, if you have the luxury of time, you can certainly consider stopping here for a couple of hours before proceeding.

From the beautiful town of Eschenlohe, we were able to catch beautiful glimpses of the Alps.

The journey was long, but the nature kept us occupied with its colours, beauty and variety. We finally arrived at our destination and opted to first check-in into our apartment, situated at about a kilometer from Garmisch bahnhof – Golden Gapa. We booked it through [booking.com].

I would suggest people planning to travel to Garmisch to make the bookings in advance and find a suitable apartment / rooms at affordable price.

We quickly freshened ourselves up and proceeded back to the bahnhof. We initially thought of renting cycles to go around, but as we had travelled on a public holiday, all the rental shops were closed. Later in the day though we felt that it happened for good.

Thanks to Google maps, we walked around Garmisch town, through narrow lanes, besides beautiful houses and small streams, amidst fresh air, to reach the bahnhof (it seemed as though Google knew exactly how to engage the tourists around the town, by suggesting interesting, long and unique routes between places – a perfect recipe from the Tourism department!!!)

We quickly grabbed some food from the Bakery in Bahnhof.

The public transport connectivity isn’t all that great within.

It would a good idea to rent a car or drive to Garmisch to go around.

Well, this is how we started our day in the town:

Ski Stadion:

From the bahnhof, we took Bus 1 going to Ski Stadion. Per person, the journey lasting about 10 mins, costed around 2.2 Euros.

The bus ride too was interesting. As we passed through the narrow streets of Partenkirchen, we could feel that it is so different from Garmisch, though within the same town.

We alighted at Ski Stadion and went around the stadium. It once hosted the Winter Olympics. There were lot of sports and other activities happening there. Those interested can certainly take part in the sport activities. In winter, I am sure there will be more on offer as this happens to be the Winter sport destination.

 

Having spent some time and clicking few pictures, we walked towards our next destination: Partnachklamm.

Partnachklamm:

The more I say about this place is less!!! When we planned to visit this place, I certainly had some visuals appearing in front of my eyes. But, when I actually visited it, it was just beyond my imagination. Spectacular, mind blowing would be under statements!!! Certainly, one of Germany’s natural wonders, which must be visited for sure.

From the Ski Stadion, one has an option to take a horse ride, trek or cycle through the beautiful valley. There is a 30-minute walk and one can simply walk along the directions and sign boards starting from the Ski Stadion.We were glad that we decided to walk. Each sight was picturesque and beyond words to describe. Fields on one side with cattles grazing, gustling streamlets, old traditional houses in between and the alps at a distance. Wow. Before we realised, we reached the gorge. As they say, when your travel is packed with beauty and excitement, it becomes shorter!!!

The entry tickets to the gorge costs 5 Euros per head for adults and for kids between 6 and 16 years of age costs 2 Euros. It is open in Summer from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M and in winter from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.

You may visit the official website for more: www.partnachklamm.eu

The gorge is at about 1 kilometer distance. It was a good trek, a great experience and yes, we were awestruck looking at the beauty and creation of nature. Initially, we clicked numerous pictures until we decided to park our cameras aside and just enjoy being there !

The gorge, which acts as a natural pathway for the Partnach river, in the olden days was used for the transportation of timber from the Reintal valley to Partenkirschen until 1912 when it was developed for tourism. It runs for 700 meters and a series of tunnels have been carved for the visitors to walk along the flowing river.

Walking along the gorge, just a few meters above the river along the pathway through numerous rocks, passing through numerous tunnels and finally coming out to a bright sunny outlook looking at the water falling from a great height, while sprinkling some on us that cannot be escaped ! The melted glacier flowing through the rocks is a sight worth catching.

Well, after an easy half an hour trail, we reach the other side of the valley, which is so serene!!! Spare some time there and relax. Our daughter loved her trek through the tunnels and her play with the tiny rocks and the flowing river on the other end of the gorge. Well, those having time and energy can consider walking further to the Königshaus am Schachen, which is easily about 4 hours of walk from there and happens to be quite beautiful where the King Ludwig II built a small cottage. And if you are still ambitious and have enough time, you can walk further up the trail to reach the top of Germany – Zugspitze.

Well, we relaxed in the open valley for some time and headed back to Partnachklamm tracing our path backwards. Our daughter wanted a horse ride and we obliged. Well, for an experience, yes, it is worth it, but otherwise, I would suggest one to walk back as it is not much of a walk, if you can!!!

We came back to the Ski Stadion and took a bus to the town of Partenkirchen.

Historic Partenkirchen :

On our way back in Bus 1 (or Bus 2) in the direction of Garmisch, we alighted at Ludwigstrasse and started walking through the historic streets of this beautiful town. It was cloudy and thundering already, though we still had the entire evening with us. It was drizzling but we walked around, looking at the beautiful buildings and hotels, with colourful painted walls, lovely balconies showcasing colourful flowers. One of its kind, certainly. It rained heavily in the evening and we took a bus back to the Garmisch main town.

In the main town we found a good Greek Restaurant named El Greco, pretty close to the main station, which was one of the countable few restaurants open that evening. The food was good. I don’t exactly remember the name of the dish, but it was a starter, with augberin as the base and cheese along with few other veggies as toppings. I loved it a lot and back home, inspired by this, baked the Eggplant Pizza !!!

We then came back to our apartment and called it for the day.

Day 2 : Zugspitze, Eibsee, Village Grainau

We woke up early in the morning and quickly packed our bags. The nearby Edeka store was open and we quickly grabbed some fruits, veggies, milk to serve our breakfast.

We walked towards the Garmisch main station. Our entire walk from our apartment to the main station was so beautiful. Surrounded by Alps on all the sides, with fresh streets and colourful flowers blooming in every balcony. Wow.

In the main station, we purchased tickets for Zugspitze  56 Euros Per person (Round trip), Kids travel for free until 6 years of age.

• You may want to check this out, for the tickets to Zugspitze :

https://zugspitze.de/en/summer/preise/zugspitze

There are different ways in which you can reach the top and come back.

We wanted to try out all forms. So we decided with this:

Cogwheel Train / Zugspitzbahn to Zugspitzplatt

Glacierbahn from Zugspitzplatt to Zugspitze

Seilbahn from Zugspitze to Eibsee (Way back) (This is nothing but the cable car)

Cogwheel train again from Eibsee to Village Grainau (Way back)

Cogwheel train from Village Grainau to Garmisch (Way back)

I loved their logo, which simply traces the paths of the different modes of transportation back and forth the peak – Zugspitze.

Note :

• It is very important to plan well and stick on to the plan if you intend to do everything in a day. By the way, no, it is neither impossible nor strenuous. Infact, one just needs a day to cover all these leisurely, as we did. We never hurried anywhere.
• When you take the tickets, make sure to get the train timetable. It will be of great help when you need to plan. Keep an eye on the last connections from each point, if you are getting late.

Into the details now.

We took the Cogwheel train from Garmisch main station to Zugspitzplatt at 11.15 A.M. (We had just missed a previous train then. The earlier you can, the better it is.)

It was a beautiful journey all through the way.  It is better experienced than explained in words here.

With a changeover in the village Grainau (which we decided to visit on our way back) we reached the Zugspitzplatt at 12.30 P.M. Until Grainau, train took us through green patches of fields and beautiful villages and houses. At Grainau, we actually boarded a Cogwheel train and we began to scale up hill. The nature was beautiful on either sides of the train leaving us “confused” (in my daughter’s own words) as to which direction to view.

 

We spent a lot of time at Zugspitzplatt. There were lot of winter sports and we enjoyed sledging all the time that we were there. It was our daughter’s first sledging experience.

From there, we took the Glacierbahn to Zugspitze summit at 1.30 P.M. Reached the summit at 1.30 P.M. With this, one actually gets the feel of scaling up the Alps.

We walked around for a while. It was a great experience being there. And yes, it was my husband’s birthday. Nothing like celebrating the special day at Germany’s highest peak – icing on the cake indeed!!!

There is another way to get to Zugspitze. On the Austrian side, from Tirol. The Austrian entrance to Zugspitze is cheaper than the German entrance too. We had looked into it before we planned for this trip. But keeping the overall schedule in mind, we had then decided for the German side of the peak this time. Thankfully, it was all worth it.

Well, we started back from the summit by Seilbahn (Cable Car) to Eibsee at 2.15 P.M.

We reached Eibsee at 2.30 P.M. A net of 15 minutes of the Cable car ride with breath-taking view was totally price worthy.

We walked around for a while, and then rented a pedal boat for 30 minutes (Costed us about 9.50 Euros for the same).

I would recommend each and every one who visit Eibsee to take a boat ride too. I cannot describe here the view that one gets to visualise from there. The Alps stood high and the clear blue sea reflected each and every detail of it, much clearer than any high end, high resolution professional camera. It was an amazing experience. Yes, our daughter was a little scared with the boat though. But, it was a short one and we all were so mesmerised by the beauty of nature that she too soon forgot her fears!!!

Back in the banks, we grabbed ice cream (summer you see) and walked around the lake for a while.

Later on, we walked towards the train station to catch the next train to Village Grainau at 4.30 P.M.

Village Grainau is a small, calm, one of its kind village at the foot of the Alps. Slightly below in level to the Eibsee, this village has its own unique charm with an old church, a unique cemetery adjacent to the church and the Alpine houses lining up the streets. Everything seems to so perfectly fit in there. I was convinced that I can now easily skip Switzerland, as I got the experience which I had longed for, of being in any of the Swiss villages !!! Inspired thanks to numerous Bollywood movies !!! (Well, this thought of mine was before I visited Switzerland. Even after having finally visited Switzerland last year, I confirm and stick to my thoughts. This place is no different to Switzerland in its charm and beauty)

We walked around for an hour and took the next train to Garmisch at 5.30 P.M.

Our next connecting train to Stuttgart, via Munich was at 7.05 P.M.

So, until then, we walked around the streets of the beautiful small town of Garmisch.

It was a weekend well spent !!! I would highly recommend this to everyone !

Note : 

• Accommodations on weekends/public holidays/ peak season time are expensive. So make sure you make the bookings ahead of time
• On public holidays, almost all shops, rentals etc. are closed. Do plan your stay accordingly