While I was in Stuttgart, Germany on work, I was told about this heavenly and amazing place called Zugspitze. At first, this place neither sounded interesting nor worth visiting. But after feasting my eyes on pics from fellow travellers, I made up my mind that I would certainly tread onto here.
Spitze in German means, The Tip or The Peak. Don’t ask me what does Zug means. I hardly know any German. Garmisch Partenkirchen (quite a mouthful, ain’t it) is the place to arrive at first. It is easily accessible from Munich, Stuttgart etc. Upon nearing Garmisch one can get a beautiful view of the snow clad mountains. Its like someone splattered the entire range with pure white and later decided to spray some greens onto it. This initial view itslef gears you up and excites you no end.
Landing at Garmisch is only the beginning of the journey. From here, as soon as you exit the station you see directions pointing towards Zugspitze. The trains till Garmisch is run by Die Bahn, fondly called DB in Deutschland. From Garmisch to Zugspitze, the transport is run by another company.
At Garmisch you have two choices. Take a cog-wheel train to the peak, or stop midway and take a cable car to the top. We decided to take the cog-wheel train for the uphill and a cable car for the downhill ride. Don’t miss either of them. The tickets cost us Euros 39 each. After shelling out the bucks, we boarded this cute-looking tiny train resembling a toy train. Once the train starts its journey up the scenes are truly amazing. If you are a photo enthusiast, then make sure you either get a very good window seat or you have the first row or the last row in the cabin. The entire path was lined up with snow and there’s even a small village around the tracks. The entire setting is 1152x864 wallpaper perfect.
The journey uphill takes about an hour’s time. The train stops at a place called Eibsee. You can get down here and take a cable car up or visit the huge and enchanting lake here and continue. At Eibsee you see a bigger, better and beautiful view of the mountains. I couldn’t wait to reach the peak. The train started off from Eibsee after a short stopover of 5 minutes. As it climbed up again, we were spellbounded by a beautiful view of a lake. From above, it looked like a waterbody with a greenish tinge, in a valley surroudnded by trees. This view is of the beautiful Eibsee Lake. Soak it all in, and shoot photos with glee. After a few more minutes, the train enters a tunnel and suddenly the air is very chill. This adds more to the excitement.
After an hour the train reaches Zugspitzeplatz. Having never seen snow before (except in expensively shot Hindi Movie songs), I had a wide kid-like-grin on my face. I was almost a kid again. A brief snow-war started off among our group of 10 people. The entire area was white, absolutely white. It was so white that the sunlight followed all laws of physics of being reflected and refracted was quite harsh on the eyes. We rolled around here, shot plenty of pics and enjoyed for a while. If you are a ski or a snowboard freak, then dive in right here. But wait, I still see some top spot above. What could it be. Yes, it turned out to be The Peak. From the platz, it was a cable ride to the peak.
The ticket purchased down under is valid for all these rides. As the cable car rises up, you begin to wonder and get awestruck about the marvel of the place. In a matter of seconds you rise several hundred feet up, finally to land at almost 3000mts above the sea level . The view from here is exhilarating. Words are not enough to describe what you can see here on a clear day. Spending a hour or two or more here feels grossly insufficient. Time simply flies by.
The downhill ride via the cable car as even more fun. We landed at the beautiful and the serene Eibsee lake. A peddle boat ride (carrying four) costs Euros 8 for an hour. Dont miss it, if the weather is fine. This has an almost soothing and a relaxing effect, except for the guys peddling up front :-)). From Eibsee, you get back to Garmisch to finish off an wonderful journey.
Some points to consider before the travel
1). Check the website https://zugspitze.de for details on reaching there, prices, ski rentals, weather etc.
2). Check the weather. If its gonna be cold, then out with your warmest of clothes. It was four below zero when we had been there, but it was pretty tolerable inside a cozy jacket.
3). Prices to the top vary from a season low of Euros 26 to as high as Euros 45.
4). If you are carrying a return travel ticket from DB, then show it at the ticket counter. You shall get discounted price for the ride. We were swindled here, as we saw the info booklet only at the peak.
5). The restaurants up at the peak, have the prices touching the peak too.