Stockholm Photoblog

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a quiet mountain resort town on the Bavarian border

At this point in my travels I was currently in Austria, and needed to make my way up through Germany so I could visit my friend in Luxembourg. When I originally planned my vacation I wanted to visit Neuschwanstein, Germany’s most famous castle.

I did some research and decided to stay in a small town called Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which is right on Germany’s border with Austria and perhaps an hour away from the castle. After making arrangements I discovered restoration work is being done this year and there is lots of scaffolding that supposedly ruins the view. I decided not to go to Neuschwanstein, but Garmisch still turned out to be one of the most memorable destinations on my trip.

OK let’s get started. As with most of my days, this one began on an early morning train.

The transportation route I followed first took me from Zell am See to Innsbruck, where I switched trains for the final haul through the mountains to Garmisch. If you read my previous post you’ll remember that I took a day trip to Innsbruck, so the first two hours of my rail trip today were just a duplicate of the day before.

But that won’t stop me from posting pictures, of course 🙂
It was a very foggy morning, and the landscape was shrouded under a blanket of mist.

Here some birds were flying alongside the train.

On this next photo I added some fake blurring in photoshop for a more dramatic effect, which basically just insults the natural beauty of the Austrian countryside.

I love how these houses and the mountain they’re built on just disappear up into the clouds.

Here is a photo I took of a building when we were sitting in a train station. I just think it’s awesome how many murals you see in random places when traveling through Austria and southern Germany, compared to how many I come across in America (zero).

 

Here is another photo of a hillside disappearing into the fog, but I tried playing around with it a bit by dragging the green slider to -100. As I was editing these photos I posted them to 4chan’s /p/hotography board, and the major complaint was that my photos were too colorful and the greens were ‘radioactive’.

So occasionally I would edit a photo like this to try and appease them.

This next one was taken at a perfect moment. We were passing a field that went from solid green to solid dead grass with a straight line, and I managed to snap the shutter right in the middle.

After switching trains in Innsbruck, I got onto a smaller regional train on a railway called the Mittenwaldbahn. This was definately the most beautiful rail journey I experienced on my whole vacation, as it snakes high into the Alps when crossing the border into Germany.

Here we’re overlooking a town just outside of Innsbruck, which is just out of frame to the left.

And this next one is perhaps my favorite picture of the day, taken as our train headed into the fog on a high mountain pass.

This small shed seems to rest on the edge of the world.

The Mittenwaldbahn is only about an hour’s length between Innsbruck and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and it basically just goes up the mountains on the Austrian side and comes down the mountains on the Germany side.

At this station called Seefeld, a bunch of children (persumably on a field trip) boarded the train with their reflective vests. I was thinking to myself, oh shit oh shit don’t come into my car don’t come into my car please don’t come into my car. I was saved.

We descended further into the valley and out of the mountains, and the landscape grew more expansive and colorful.

The grass in this next shot was highly radioactive before I dragged the yellow luminance way back.

One thing about Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the surrounding countryside that really set itself apart from other places I visited was the preponderance of these small hay sheds or barns that were scattered among the fields. I’m not exactly sure what they’re for but they are definitely a defining feature of Garmisch.

Here I’m just showing the interior of my train car and the scenery through the windows.

I snapped a photo of this couple as they watched my train pass by through a railroad crossing.

As we approached the outskirts of Garmisch some small villages cropped up here and there.

I’m just trying to picture like a Ford Excursion driving down this “two lane” road. LOL

This next picture is probably the best one I took in the entire day. It’s just serene. Our train was passing through this rolling green field and there’s just the right amount of mist and those little hay sheds add intrigue to the scene and it’s just ya I really like this photo.

I started seeing locals as we got closer to town, like this bike rider.

I believe this is the third picture so far of my train curving to the left as seen from the window. I always wait for the train to go into a turn so you can see it in the photo, because I like to emphasize the fact that yes I was on this very train and yes this is what I saw out the window.

I normally just press the lens up to the glass of the window so there’s no glare, and you don’t really get the same feel when you can’t tell that I’m on a train.

We were just about to pull into the station at this point. Here is a family walking their dog as we roll past.

OK this thing is awesome. A small locomotive with a relatively fuckheug snowplow on the front that looks like it could really fuck shit up. Just imagine running into a cow at full speed!

And we finally made it to my hotel room. It was a fantastic hotel for the price; my room was only about $100 a night I think and it was at least a 4 star hotel. I highly recommend it, and it’s called Reindl’s Partenkirchener Hof. It’s within walking distance of the train station, too.

And here’s the beautiful view from my balcony. I really needed to take a break so I laid down with my computer for a half hour or so, but I made it my mission for the day to walk through town and hike up that mountain you see in the distance. Just like in Innsbruck the day before, I always make a goal of climbing up high so I can take an expansive panorama of the place I’m visiting.

I started walking towards the center of town.

There’s a nice pedestrian walking street called Chamonixstraße.

Garmisch officially had the most elaborate and prolific murals I think of any town I went to, so much so that you don’t bat an eye when you see something like this.

This mural was my favorite.

Here the road widens up a bit and would be what I consider the town square. I like how the guy on the bike is staring right at me when I took this photo.

I walked through the town center and continued in a direction that would lead me towards the mountain. Here is a nice mural and church steeple behind it.

And the Apotek. Most European countries force you to buy your prescription drugs at a state owned pharmacy, and they are called some variation of the word “Apotek” (in Swedish) or in this case Apotheke. I sort of made it a tradition to start taking pictures of the Apotek in every town I visited, to compare the architecture between different cities and countries. This sure doesn’t look like your neighborhood CVS pharmacy, I’ll tell ya that.

There is an alpine river with teal colored water that snakes through Garmisch, and here I’m crossing over it on a covered bridge.

I began walking down random residential streets, ever mindful of the ominous storm clouds hanging over the mountain I planned to climb. I love the pretty garden these people have in their front yard.

I found myself walking down a street called Am Feldkreuz, which turns out to be the perfect trail gateway for starting your hike up the mountain.

The house at the end of the block had this crazy Jesus-being-crucified statue thing that I thought was a little out of place. Although according to one of my German friends, Bavaria is like the Texas of Germany so I guess that makes sense. Still pretty nonetheless.

This following panorama shows the beginning of trail I found. At this point I didn’t know if it was wise to actually start hiking up the mountain on account of the clouds hovering above it, but I decided that since it wasn’t raining yet I would give it a shot and hope for the best. I prayed for the Jesus statue to watch over me and protect my trail from the rain (lol), and then moved on.

And up we go!

I started walking up the trail, which is well defined (and even paved in some places).

I got bored with the main path so took a slight detour through the forest for a little bit.

I thought this was cute; a little bird house randomly nailed to the side of a tree trunk.

Here is an awesome yet totally unhelpful signpost I came across. I didn’t exactly have a preset destination other than “just get up high enough to take a nice panorama”.

At this point I found myself walking more laterally and away from town rather than heading up. You can see I’ve gained some altitude, but not much and certainly not unobstructed enough to take a good photo. I tried to get that desaturated WWII kinda look when I made this next one.

I decided that the main footpath just wasn’t working out for me, so when I came upon this unmarked trail sneaking its way off into the forest I made a break for it and followed it straight up the mountain.

I mean literally, straight up the mountain. It got really steep, and I started to get tired and drenched with sweat.

As I climbed higher up the mountain I came upon this makeshift staircase that someone built out of tree logs. It was a pretty cool surprise, and it started to level off just a bit. I found later from looking at a detailed German map of the area that the mountain is called Grasberg, or at least the trail I was on leads to an area called Grasberg.

I was getting very exhausted by this point because I had stayed awake the night before to help me get on the early train, and now I’m hiking up a big hill. I was determined to get a good pano shot though, and so far hadn’t really been given a chance with all the trees. Here you can see Garmisch peaking through a little bit which gives an indication of how high I had climbed.

I finally found respite from the arduous hike as my trail started to level out and the forest became less dense. I still didn’t know if it was taking me in anyplace meaningful, but I could stop panting and catch my breath. I had been hiking for over an hour at this point.

Suddenly the trail appeared to break and through the trees I could see it was leading me right towards a building. I was hoping I didn’t end up on private property or something but I continued forward to see what I had discovered.

A motherfucking biergarten. My Jesus statue prayer really paid off I mean oh man was there not a single thing at that moment I could have possibly wished for more than to have A) the forest cut down so I could finally take my panorama, and B) be able to sit and drink while doing it.

I really liked the woodwork here on the side of the building and how rustic it feels.

It turns out the biergarten I had stumbled upon is called St. Martin am Grasberg, which doesn’t have it’s own web page but that you can google to see where it is. On a side note, I love my wide angle for making pictures like this possible.

Without a doubt, if you find yourself in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and want to enjoy a breathtaking view while sipping a few cold ones, St. Martin am Grasberg is the place to be!

I sat down by the railing and ordered some lunch. I had some sausages and what looks from the picture to be like potatoes of some sort. If you’re in Bavaria, sausage is pretty much offered everywhere or at least anywhere a tourist might go. How authentic it is as a ‘traditional Bavarian dish’ I cannot tell you.

And here is the resulting panorama I had expended so much effort to make. I went under the restaurant’s deck so as to not be obstructed by the tables and fence. The viewing angle is probably like 150° or something so when it stitched together I look a little narrow, but besides that I think I did pretty well. All in all there are 60 photos that make up this next one.

At this point I was drunk, and decided that the best way down the mountain was to just run straight down it. And that’s exactly what I did. Not on a trail either mind you like when I hiked up, I basically just started from the restaurant and hauled ass down the mountain.

I really don’t know how I didn’t slip and fall but thank god I didn’t because it would have been all over and I would have crushed my camera (which I strapped to my hand so I could take shitty snapshots like these ↴ as I ran down).

I came into a clearing at one point and found what I imagine to be a tree fort used by hunters. Kind of interesting to find a tree house in the middle of nowhere though.

Here I did stop running to take this beautiful shot of a green field with those scattered barns I saw so much of on the train.

I wasn’t entirely sure where this was in relation to my hotel or the center of town, because I couldn’t see either as I made my way down the hill. But I decided to take a closer investigation, so made it a mission to find the field once I got to the bottom.

By some miracle, my clearcut forest running landed me back at the exact same trailhead I used when I began my hike up hours ago.

I walked through town on an alternate path mindful of the field I wanted to visit. Here is a very tall picture of a church tower (tall because it’s made from two vertical shots stitched end to end).

And here’s a mini water truck or something that I found very amusing. I don’t know the name for this type of vehicle so I’d love for someone to leave a comment if they do. It would frankly be hilarious to find someone driving this little motorized tricycle downtown anywhere in America though, that’s for sure.

I find myself eager to photograph gas station signs when I come across them in foreign countries, just for the lol factor of their gas prices. We think we have high gas prices here in California, and there was a “crisis” a few months ago that led the governor to take action.

I can always take solace in knowing that at this Agip gas station in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the gas still costs $7.67/gallon at the time of writing. 😀

I walked back across that river, but this time went crazy with the “split toning” feature in ACR. Every once in a while I get bored while editing and go into hipster mode with post processing. The water still looked turquoise in real life though, don’t forget.

And here we are. Finally made it to the edge of the field. What I like about this next pano is it’s framed by the trees.

And here’s another panorama I made after walking into the field a bit.

And another unapologetic try at giving my photo a “feel”.

 

After indulging myself with the greenery in the field, I headed straight for the direction I predicted my hotel would be in. I came across an epic sight: GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN FIRETRUCK AT YOUR SERVICE BEEP BEEP!

I bumped into the river again and decided to follow it into town, since I remembered it passing by my hotel when I checked in earlier. Unlike in Innsbruck and Salzburg where their rivers are brown and disgusting, Garmisch has alpine water which looks clear and refreshing.

This next photo shows a panorama of a stone arched bridge spanning across it.

And from the other side, we see that it’s in fact a a bridge for the trains.

Well, that does it for my first day in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I just got a new job, so my posting might be a bit slower from now on. It takes me maybe five full-time days worth of effort to make every single post here, just for reference.

The end!