We were off to Munich, where we were meeting up with Will’s brother and his family, his mother, and daughter. What should have been a 3 1/2 hour road trip on the infamous autobahn took closer to 5 hours. Welcome to road construction season in Germany. So, the unlimited speeds, yeah, we really didn’t get to experience those except for very short intervals.
The whole clan managed to meet up at the hotel. Margaret’s German friend arranged reservations for all of us at one of the local beer gardens, the Augustiner Bräustuben. Dinner was great and they have a playground at the beer garden to keep the kids entertained. My youngest nephew, not quite 2, did a face plant in the playground and ended up with cuts on his cheek and a black eye. Hopefully, the rest of the group will remain unscathed for the rest of our trip.
We left Munich and headed for the Garmisch area and the trail head for our hike in the Alps.
The family split up as we dropped of Will’s mom and daughter in the nearby town of Ettal for some shopping and the beer garden at the monastery. The little guy and Margaret had a nice room at the hotel by the base of the trail. The rest of us went hiking Hell Valley Gorge (Höllentalklamm) and for our overnight in one of the Alpine huts. It was mainly an uphill climb, but really beautiful. We walked through the gorge and it was nice to get a little wet and cool off. Made it to the “hut” which was renovated in 2015. They call them huts, but these do not resemble what you would be envision. The place was huge with a full service restaurant and bar. We ended up with a room to ourselves that has bunks for 8. The meal was great and they were able to provide a gluten free option. The view off the deck was incredible of the surrounding valley and the Zugspitze. The Zugspitze is the highest point in Germany.
The next morning it was back down for all of us, but Carlos. He was continuing the climb up to the Zugspitze. That climb involves clipping to cables and going from rung to rung in some places. A little too technical for our liking. Once we were back at the trail head, I headed with Margaret and the boys to catch the tram up to the Zugspitze. We were able to check out the 360° views and greet Carlos as he finished his climb.
